Before The Net Was The Whole Earth Catalog

I remember, (which is quite a good thing really) my awe and wonderment when I saw - and greedily devoured - the Whole Earth Catalog sometime around 1970. Even though it was a whole $4, it was worth it! What a revelation. This was another kind of religious experience, a cosmic, how-to book about tools and new ideas, rantings and ravings and recipes. I even have, and was just showing a relatively young buddy the latest version, The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog circa 1994. This latest version was published just on the verge of the ubiquity of the Net and the time of millennial change. The WEC was the direct forerunner of the net. And the Wikipedia, And universal access to leading edge tools, And TED. And blogging. And, and, and... It was the inspiration of a generation.
You whippersnappers (and I have been waiting a very long time to say that) need to have a sense of your history. It's your history, and because you are reading this, technologically able to navigate cyberspace via Google, and blogs et al. Likely when you want to know something, you Google. Go look at Kevin Kelly's blog. KK was an editor of the Whole Earth Catalog and still does the same kind of stuff, albeit in a more refined way these days.
The Whole Earth Catalog is still there, online, but somehow, the digital version just isn't it/