OK, so I went online looking for instructions for my old bike computer and our new house's garage door opener. With a bit of google-fu, I found both. And then it hit me... when I was a kid, this would have been science fiction. I remember reading novels that featured a global datanet, by whatever name, and thinking, "Man, wouldn't it be cool if such a thing existed?" Then I heard about the Internet. "What?! You mean it really does exist?" I thought, and had to go check it out.

This was 1990, mind you, so I had to sneak into the local university's computer lab and learn this weird-ass operating system called Unix; like DOS, only more cryptic. Then I could read Usenet News and play on MUDs and MUSHes-- all in text of course. I was instantly and totally addicted, never mind that it was a pale shadow of the stuff I'd read about.

Well, now it's sixteen years later. Now the Internet is more than many SF authors dared to dream about in 1990. I can check my email on my cellphone, and log into my bank and transfer money, and download stories and text and video, chat with pretty much anyone, and look up instructions for out-of-date equipment... and most of the new students currently streaming past the office window have always taken this for granted. When I got on the Net for the first time, most of them were still trying to figure out how to put one foot in front of the other without falling on their butts.

This makes me officially old, I suppose. At least in the eyes of these kids. Still don't feel it, though.

----Ron

[link of the moment    | Beloit college class of 2010 mindset list - In case you want to feel old too. ]
[book of the moment  | LDAP System Administration, by Gerald Carter - work, work, work. But I guess this is the sort of job I always said I wanted, so why am I complaining?]
[quote of the moment| "Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened." - John Lennon (who would have been 66 in four days.)]
[mood of the moment |bemused]
[music of the moment |Sigur Rós - Myrkur]