Computer Communications
Communications. I could barely spell the word, much less comprehend its meaning.
Yet when Mrs. Rubin made the announcement about the new club she was starting at
the junior high school, it triggered something in my mind.
Two weeks later, during the last month of my eighth grade year, I figured it out.
I was rummaging through the basement, and I ran across the little blue box that
my dad had brought home from work a year earlier. Could this be a modem?
I asked Mrs. Rubin about it the next day at school, and when she verified my
expectations, I became the first member of Teleport 2000, the only organization
in the city dedicated to introducing students to the information highway.
This was when 2400-baud was considered state-of-the-art, and telecommunications
was still distant from everyday life. But as I incessantly logged onto Cleveland
Freenet that summer, sending e-mail and posting usenet news messages until my
fingers bled, I began to notice the little things. Electronic mail addresses
started popping up on business cards. Those otherwise-incomprehensible computer
magazines that my dad brought home from work ran monthly stories on
communications-program this, and Internet-system that. Cleveland Freenet's
Freeport software began appearing on systems all over the world, in places as
far away as Finland and Germany - with free telnet access!
I didn't live life as a normal twelve-year-old kid that summer. I sat in front
of the monitor twenty-four hours a day, eating my meals from a plate set next to
the keyboard, stopping only to sleep. When I went back to school in the fall, I
was elected the first president of Teleport 2000, partially because I was the
only student in-the school with a freenet account, but mostly because my
enthusiasm for this new, exciting world was contagious.
Today, as the business world is becoming more aware of the advantages of
telecommunications, and the younger generation is becoming more aware of the... [continues]
Communications. I could barely spell the word, much less comprehend its meaning.
Yet when Mrs. Rubin made the announcement about the new club she was starting at
the junior high school, it triggered something in my mind.
Two weeks later, during the last month of my eighth grade year, I figured it out.
I was rummaging through the basement, and I ran across the little blue box that
my dad had brought home from work a year earlier. Could this be a modem?
I asked Mrs. Rubin about it the next day at school, and when she verified my
expectations, I became the first member of Teleport 2000, the only organization
in the city dedicated to introducing students to the information highway.
This was when 2400-baud was considered state-of-the-art, and telecommunications
was still distant from everyday life. But as I incessantly logged onto Cleveland
Freenet that summer, sending e-mail and posting usenet news messages until my
fingers bled, I began to notice the little things. Electronic mail addresses
started popping up on business cards. Those otherwise-incomprehensible computer
magazines that my dad brought home from work ran monthly stories on
communications-program this, and Internet-system that. Cleveland Freenet's
Freeport software began appearing on systems all over the world, in places as
far away as Finland and Germany - with free telnet access!
I didn't live life as a normal twelve-year-old kid that summer. I sat in front
of the monitor twenty-four hours a day, eating my meals from a plate set next to
the keyboard, stopping only to sleep. When I went back to school in the fall, I
was elected the first president of Teleport 2000, partially because I was the
only student in-the school with a freenet account, but mostly because my
enthusiasm for this new, exciting world was contagious.
Today, as the business world is becoming more aware of the advantages of
telecommunications, and the younger generation is becoming more aware of the... [continues]
Cite This Essay
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(1999, 10). Computer Communications. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 10, 1999, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Computer-Communications-660.html
- MLA
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"Computer Communications" StudyMode.com. 10 1999. 10 1999 <http://www.studymode.com/essays/Computer-Communications-660.html>.
- CHICAGO
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"Computer Communications." StudyMode.com. 10, 1999. Accessed 10, 1999. http://www.studymode.com/essays/Computer-Communications-660.html.
