Toast of the IoT: The 1990 Interop Internet Toaster

Previously, the world had an Internet, but it was an Internet without "things." There were no smart light switches or thermostats and no Fitbits or Wi-Fi cameras. We weren't as connected, and we certainly weren't quantified [1]. Back in 1990, only 3 million people had access to the Internet [2], and there were only 313,000 computers (not devices) on it [3]. Back in those days, to search, we used the Wide Area Information Network (WAIS), Gopher, and ARCHIE. To transfer or share files, we used File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Although the World Wide Web was invented in 1989 [4], it was not yet in common use.