I've been involved with the Net for years, starting in the fall of 1990 at the University of Chicago. I remember the first release of Mosaic clearly; since I had Motif for my Linux box I eagerly downloaded and compiled it, and then posted a Linux binary of it for download within a few days of its release. I remember days when I started at the "What's New" page and stopped when I'd read the entire Net. I remember www.mtv.com, the first time. I remember the first round of "Internet" articles in the mainstream media, like The New York Times. I remember when the Puget Sound Computer User somehow screwed up and claimed that I'd written Mosiac :-).

As clear as anything, though, I remember the day that The Net became a part of The Normal World. I'd just walked out of the library and there it was--a shiny new UPS truck with "http://www.ups.com" on the side. Clearly, the Net Had Arrived if UPS thought it was worth it to print a URL on the side of their trucks.

Over the years, they seem to have dropped the "http://" from the front, as a kind of backhanded statement on how common web browsing has become. After all, http:// is almost completely redundant with modern browsers.

This morning, on the way to work, I saw another new, shiny UPS truck, with their newest design. With a bit of sadness, I noticed that the "www.ups.com" was gone from the side. I suppose it's fitting that UPS trucks have come to symbolize the growth of the Net to me--from shock, to familiarity, to such complete ubiquity that there's no reason to even print UPS's URL on their trucks.