How The Internet Has Influenced My Life
By: The Editor

As an early adopter to technology, my father had the foresight to see how important
computers would be in a modern world; practically raised by a Sanyo MBC 550
gray-wolf business machine computer, I learned to program BASIC around the age of 6.

Not many computer games existed then, so I had to program my own entertainment.
A friend of ours who was an engineer, had managed to program the very first paint
program, which I was fortunate enough to have a copy of. 

I became the teacher at school when one of the schools' computers crashed, showing
them how to fix different problems. It was a different ball-game back then, and plug
and play was non-existent. Everything was configured by using jumpers and IRQ
errors were the frustration of the day.

Flash forward to 1995 and my dad was the first in line to sign up for Infi.net the counties only ISP at the time. A couple of years before, we tried to raise capitol to install the first ISP but were beaten to it- shy of few months. It was exciting and frustrating times, frequent disconnects, slow connections and bad line noise was commonplace.

So in all this time, what has changed?
Many things have gotten better, slowly things became easier, and at the same time
more complicated.

No more IRQ conflicts, USB has fixed that.
No more low level format problems and different harddrive models to create confusion.
(Those that remember MFM and RLL will no what I am talking about)
No more complicated BIOS screens (well, either they are easier now, or I have learned
what all the options do ;-)
If I need drivers or have lost the driver disk, it is often faster to download them.
Most drivers are already included in the Windows OS
I can get instant information on anything I am trying to install or do
(Its all there, its just finding it...)

And in so many other ways....
My father finds his new wife- courtesy of the Internet.
My brother finds his wife through an Internet personals page.
I have bought and sold countless things over the 'Net.
It has been the most helpful tool in finding employment.

In Conclusion
Who is to say if those jobs, wives and friends would still have been found without the internet, I certainly count my blessings, which includes internet access. I would certainly miss emailing and chatting with my family, and have gotten to the point where I simply can't live without being online. The most important thing of all.... The Internet keeps me learning new things always!

The Editor is currently working as a Network Administrator for The Plantation Inn & Golf Resort, a great place to play a few rounds of golf, with some great rooms.