A Termite & A Crane

By the fall of 1999, just under half of the nascent World Wide Web was under the control of consumer technology giant Temujin Systems. Notoriously secretive, only those lucky enough to call themselves employees had any idea how the company operated. Fewer than that knew the late founder's ultimate goal with dictating the transition from an analog world, what remaining influence the company did not have and was poised to take.

But at the end of the millennium, without warning, Temujin shut do...