07-23-2003, 03:36 AM
I grew up with Shawn Fanning on the Cape. He went to high school the town over from me and we knew my little sister's group of friends during the summer. Had buddies who went to college with him. I was part of the initial beta test of his program. Which was always called Napster.
I tried it. Hated it. Said it would never work because it took too long to download songs (I was on a 28.8 modem at the time and it took over an hour to download a song). He asked me a bunch of "what if we do this..." "but if we start with students and LAN access...". Sent me an email asking for some advice (since he knew I went to business school and was working in technology) I totally blew him off. I thought it was just a stupid idea.
I didn't think about it again for about a year. Probably early '99, I heard a story about Napster, and I couldn't believe it.
I tried it. Hated it. Said it would never work because it took too long to download songs (I was on a 28.8 modem at the time and it took over an hour to download a song). He asked me a bunch of "what if we do this..." "but if we start with students and LAN access...". Sent me an email asking for some advice (since he knew I went to business school and was working in technology) I totally blew him off. I thought it was just a stupid idea.
I didn't think about it again for about a year. Probably early '99, I heard a story about Napster, and I couldn't believe it.