The Internet
Computers and the Internet became such an important part of my life, that I decided, like music, to devote an entire chapter to this subject alone.
Unlike the students of today, we didn’t have computers in our schools. We didn’t even have them in our high schools. I kinda learned how to type on an IBM Selectric.
In the early 70s if you wanted a home computer, you had to build it. The first pre-built computer I owned was a Timex and it was a piece of crap. It wasn’t much good for anything other than playing chess on your TV, but it taught me some coding.
I actually went to school for computer technology, but never went into the field. Yes, I once knew how to fix computers…now? That was quite a while ago.
I once wrote a history of the internet. When I first got on what we now know as the internet, it was all text based. The network was designed for academics to communicate. So, guess what folks? In the early days of the net, I got to communicate with some of the smartest people in the world. They were the only people using the network. It was all intellectuals. You had none of the bullshit you have now.
I’ve met some people that, in one way or another, have made a lot of money off the internet. I did OK in the cable contracting business for a minute, but nowhere near what some of these people subsequently accomplished in the cable industry, in the computer industry and on the internet.
Like a lot of mass media, I’ve come to ignore much of what is now on the internet. I’ve seen the change and it is no longer the animal it used to be. It happened to MTV. The internet, though still good for careful research, is now nothing more than another part of the worldwide propaganda machine. The Terminator film is really quite true.
© John Bielecki 2024
