I taught myself HTML after buying a massively thick book from Barnes and Nobles and used only Netscape Navigator 4.01, which came with something called the Netscape Composer HTML editor.

I'd just finished art school and needed to put together a portfolio website. I thought I was so clever... I made the front page contain an illustration of mine dead center on the screen of a very obese man in a jock strap. You had to click his belly to enter the site.

Anyway, that site got me a "Web designer" job at a company in Richardson, Texas, named Micografx. They were a competitor to Adobe at the time and made some pretty cool software including Picture Publisher (a very robust Windows-only photo editor). They had an entire suite of graphical tools. They also made software called Create a Card, where you could create digital postcards on your computer and email them to people.

My first job was to work on a team to convert that software from CD-ROM to 100% online. It was an incredible learning experience and launched my career into the exciting Web design world on the cusp of the dot-com boom.

I partially owe my career to Netscape Navigator 4.01, which was released in 1997.

I really miss that version of the web sometimes.