Some things are ahead of their times
Bookworm on Sep 04 2011 at 8:27 am | Filed under: Silly Stuff
Do you remember your first serious Internet moments, back in the early 1990s? Someone was explaining these primitive experiences to a few imaginative youngsters, and we got this, the original, unaired 24 pilot:
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HYSTERICAL!!! I seem to remember my first, an AOL2.7. After hearing in 1994 that if you did not know how to use the new WWW, in 10 years you would be thought of as a person who had to make an X for their signature and was illiterate. This spurred me to get out the Mac Powerbook 180 string out 15 feet of phone line and dial up AOL with the wonderful 14K speed. I was amazed there was actually someone on the other end and having given no thought to what would be expected of me was asked what my sign on name would be. Having no answer he asked my name and said why don’t you be Bher****** which I still have today, along with several others. It must have been a riot on the other end talking mostly to people who had no idea what they were doing. No telling what some people were named. similar to name scrambles when people came to America and could not speak English and reminded me of a joke someone in the past has sent me.
A tourist was browsing SF Chinatown and noticed a interesting shop –Moishe Rosenberg, Asian Artifacts and Gifts, Welcome. The man entered and after selecting a few items was paying a Chinese gentleman and the conversation went as this:
Tourist: I was intrigued by the name of your shop, is Mr. Rosenberg here?
Owner: My name Moishe Rosenberg.
Tourist: I would have expected a Jewish gentleman. How did you get your name?
Owner: Twenty year ago I come America. Woman ask man in front of me what his name. He answer Moishe Rosenberg. After he through I step up to table and she say “what my name? I say Sam Ding. She write Moishe Rosenberg on my papers, I decide just be Moishe Rosenberg, too much trouble to change with government.”
Back when 56k was the standard I could only get 28.8 and the lag was horrible.
Not convinced personal computers and the Internet were nothing more than the latsest fad, I waited til 2004 to get connected. Seven years later, I’m still not convinced.
Indigo Red, glad you left the ranks of the Luddites!
I went on line the first time about 1995 give or take an elephant with AOL. At the time I didn’t own a computer but I was working with a group of people who were trying to invent an online jukebox and we had in our group an engineer who was savvy with the whole computer and internet thing and another person who had the vision of how the internet would eventually become an important part of everyday life. At the time we couldn’t raise capital because investors were sceptical of the internet. I must admit I was too.
Allow me to digress. I was in junior high school circa 1963 and in a current events publication we received there was a story set in the year 2000. The story was about a 13 year old boy who was video conferencing with a librarian on his own computer about books he needed to read for a project. The reason this story is so vivid in my mind is the librarian admitted she was 50 as she was born in 1950. I was born in 1950 thus I realized I would be 50 in the year 2000. The idea of video conferencing on a personal computer was so futuristic in 1963 it was hard to believe.
Fast forward to the year 2000. I am 50 and sitting in my home on the computer talking to people from all over the world via the internet. Although I didn’t have the capability to do video conferencing at the time but it did exist. 2011 I am teaching people how to utilize social media. Marketing and advertising is what I do for a living since 1976. So if you think the internet is inconsequential I recommend you click here to see this. The facts and figures are compelling.
Today I get most of my news from Twitter, Facebook, and internet connections. I follow all the major publications that link me to their news. I know what is going on around the world before the nightly or morning TV news report. With a smart phone I can be in touch virtually and conduct business with anyone in the world.
Since I gave you a time line of my life you can tell I am no spring chicken. The internet is very powerful, It is so powerful that governemnts are trying to regulate it so they can control the flow of information. Google is in bed with the President (net neutrality) as is GE (green energy) Not because they necessarily believe in him but so as not to allow upstarts to cut into their business. To paraphrase Sarah Palin we must be aware of crony capitalism and it exists on both sides of the isle which is why Sarah has been bashed so hard. It isn’t just the left who is afraid of her the elitists on the right are frightened by her too.
bizcor,
Great comment (#5)! I couldn’t agree more about the dangers of crony capitalism. I’ve always considered it more akin to mercantilism as practiced in Europe a few hundred years ago: The granting of favors to the powerfully connected. Some try to claim that crony capitalism is a phenomenon purely on the “right”. But Obama is by far the worst crony capitalist of any president in recent times. He is all about power and the granting of favors to the favored. And there are plenty of businesses willing to sell their souls to occupy such favored positions – especially to the detriment of their competitors.
obama forced Republican car dealerships to close and made them give their client lists to their Democrat competitors. But you don’t hear the main sewer media reporting that as fact, now do you.
A wonderful thing the internet. It teaches you how to smile, too.
HOW TO START EACH DAY WITH A SMILE….
1. Open a new file in your computer.
2. Name it ‘Barack Obama’.
3. Send it to the Recycle Bin.
4. Empty the Recycle Bin.
5. Your PC will ask you: ‘Do you really want to get rid of ‘Barack Obama?’
6. Firmly Click ‘Yes.’ 7.
Feel better?
GOOD – Tomorrow we’ll do Nancy Pelosi!