When I was young and was slavishly slogging it out in the graduate school lab, I had a lot of time in my hand between experiments. I would sit there in the half-darkened lab huddled over a PC and try to reach out to the world. That is how I got hooked to the Usenet.
Do you remember Usenet?
What I found very profitable was to post silly articles on various topics on many newsgroups and then fight over the content with others who also, like me, were huddled over their computers in their labs.
In those days, if you were on the Internet, you were most likely a student or a scientist.
If I was too lazy to write, then I would pick on someone else's writing. Then somehow or the other, dog them into a fight. A pseudo-academic fight. Inevitably, along with clever points and counter-points, inevitable name-calling would ensue. We took pride in the clever ways we could drip condescension on each other and insult each other. Can you cite your sources was a good way to shut most people up.
Of course, in those days if you were on soc.culture.indian you would not have missed me along with Vijay Fafat, Balaji Kannan, Prem! ... We baited the Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists and other narrow-minded dweebs with witty assaults and condescending retorts.
Those days are far behind me. I am no longer twenty-two looking for a silly fight over who has more references to cite.
Something reminded me today of those days.
