Share HN: When I first talked with PG

October .... 1996. I was working as tech correspondent at The Economist and had managed to push the story of ecommerce being exciting not because of Amazon but because these guys at Viaweb were helping you set up stores yourself. So I am on the phone to PG going over this and that late one night--because of timezones. And I'm asking all these questions, trying to figure out how to get it across in five hundred words in The Economist. Really excited about revealing this cool company in The Economist. Next day, I am writing up the story and my assistant flags me down, interrupts again, and again 'It's urgent'. Turns out my dad is really ill (he's been fine ever since). Leave the story half written on my Atex terminal, off to the hospital, with a promise I'll call in to finish it, don't get back to my desk for a month and story never runs. ViaWeb and PG a success nonetheless :)

I found it interesting, for one. Teaches something about narrowly missed opportunities and their long-run effects.

well hardly every since. the thing that prompted it was a HN post on how to get in touch with PG; and I have really strong memories of the Viaweb story, mostly around my dad's heart attack. Check here: http://bit.ly/5e0XxJ

Bear in mind, this was in the days well before blogging when getting any story out involved fighting for column cm with other journalist, and a (necessarily) sceptical business editor. I know, it seems antiquated now!

And I am not sure I said it was news. And yes, you may get semantic about this being news.ycombinator, but i'll leave you to do the detailed analysis of what qualifies since you have the media studies degree.