Published June 27, 2001
This is the final installment of the Infonet column, a broad-brush stroke of news and topics relating to the Internet and computing. These weekly articles, over the last five years, represent only the smallest glimpse of all that’s available to everyone with an Internet-connected computer and an interest to explore. Interesting subjects are abundant.
A personal note of reflection:
In 1993, inventor Tim Berners-Lee introduced the World Wide Web to the text-only Internet world. Mosaic was the Web Browser program. Connecting to the Internet from Park County was a long-distance telephone call.
A professor and three MSU-Bozeman grads formed Alpinet, bringing to Livingston its first local public dial-up connection to the Internet on May 30th, 1995. Roger Nack of American Bank helped garner attention to this curious oddity, and the trailblazers came to learn more.
The early days of Alpinet were plagued with growing pains. The closet gurus there resisted human contact and avoided answering their telephones. So it came to be that a red-headed activist (me), hot for knowledge, formed the Livingston Internet Group (LIG) to share and freely teach each other about the basics and intricacies of this wizardry. In remarkably short time, our experience, confidence and understanding grew.
Director Milla Cummins graciously allowed us to meet at the public library, and I coordinated speakers and guided topic discussion. The library’s computers were available for our use. We learned from each other about connecting to and utilizing the bountiful tools/resources the Internet has to offer. The group grew to several dozen daring men and women.
LIG participants posted questions and comments through the LIG-listserv that I moderated for clarity and on-topic content. This has worked well for over six years as the group soared to nearly 400.
In October, 1996, Publisher and Managing Editor Sharon Walker invited me to write for the Weekly. I was honored, of course, but not comfortable calling myself an expert at anything. I can organize, pose questions, understand the printed word and intuit the rest. I kiddingly define my profession as a “pixel-pusher,” making pretty pictures on a computer screen that communicates the clients’ message.
I was allowed to write about any topic. My criteria has been for the subject to be objective, positive and present a constructive set of solutions to a problem, not just fanning them. All the articles were researched and verified from the limitless content of the World Wide Web. Occasionally a reader would stop to kindly tell me, “Oh, I read your Internet article. Very interesting. But I don’t understand it.” [oh my]
My rancher/artist wife is my proof reader. She catches the last rewrite for punctuation, grammar and clarity before the formatted document file is sent via email attachment to the newspaper. If Cheryl doesn’t “get it,” then I rewrite it.
Probably my foremost favorite article was the two-part biography of Christopher Reeve, a real life hero by any description. His tragic accident resulting in paralysis may not be permanent. Present clinical research holds hope for neurological regeneration, possible within the next few years. Christopher Reeve may walk again! I believe he will.
Other significant biographies include: Vint Cerf, Father of the Internet; Claude Shannon, mathematician who defined the limits of digital circuits before there were such things; author William Gibson first coined the term Cyberspace; Reynold Johnson invented the hard drive the hard way because it benefited future development; Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce co-invented the integrated circuit chip; Jerry Yang and David Filo of Yahoo, were the first Internet billionaires. I wrote about driven company leaders like John Chambers of Cisco; Jeff Bezos of Amazon; Larry Ellison of Oracle; James Clark of Silicon Graphics; and Marc Andreessen after Netscape.
In medicine and health we tribute Sir Alec Jeffreys for inventing DNA fingerprinting in DNA Satellites; Femto-Second Lasers revolutionize eye surgery; and the mapping of the Human Genome is probably the most significant scientific accomplishment of this era.
We visited the ocean bottom: Russian Sub Sunk, none survived; Rumble in the Deep using old transatlantic cables for ocean floor earthquake sensing—to outer space: Pathfinder to Mars, first pictures on the Web from the surface of the red planet; Hubble Space Telescope, supreme success after near catastrophic design flaws; Mars Polar Lander, dead on arrival; Russian Space Mirror, flopped; International Space Station construction; Edge of Our Solar System, spacecraft Voyager and Pioneer pass beyond Pluto; and Rodd Millner’s attempted record freefall Jump from Space back to Earth.
Independent multiple sources online documented that mustard gas was used against ally forces during the Gulf War despite US government denials. In other news, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was physically moved out of harms way; Compaq purchased Digital Equipment Corp. for $9,0000M in Mega Merger; and ocean-bottom data cable was laid around the African continent, in African Connection.
Popular issues persist: Spam is Junk Email; know your equipment in Captain of Your Computer; identifying Hoaxes, Cons and Other Falsehoods; Free is Not Free if given conditionally; and Save A Copy for a safe backup of data. Also, an amusing real story of an MIT undergraduate who found hidden, under the computer console, a Magic Switch.
Fortunately, our own Livingston Montana Online web site has archived them all at <http://www.livingstonmontana.com/access/dan/>. Visit it today. No admission fee; easy parking.
Many people I wish to thank for all their assistance and kindnesses. Foremost is Dr. Nick Lawrence who has tirelessly supported LIG’s teaching efforts for five summers, an immense talent and prince of a man. Nick is presently working on advance computing projects in his home state of Texas, and we miss him.
My sincere and grateful thanks to the devoted people who helped share their knowledge with the rest of us. They include: networking specialist Randy Schumacher; Peter Rybaczyk, consultant and author of “Novell’s Internet Plumbing Handbook”; David Boreham, Engineer for E-TimeCapital, formerly of Netscape Corp.; Scott Krabler from Bozeman who wears many hats, formerly of Multiband Communications; Mike Bretch of Yellowstone Communications Systems Inc. (YCSI) who has enthusiastically helped promote and support my efforts and those of LIG; Ernie MacCracken of Ernie’s Computers who can fix just about anything; Michael McNicholas who created and maintains LivingstonMontana.com and Roeby Simons who organizes and promotes it; Milla Cummins, Director of the Livingston-Park County Public Library graciously provides the group meeting room and useful library information; Sharon Walker of Montana Edge and Park County Weekly for encouraging me to be a better writer; Bill Berg from Gardner, Founder of CoolWorks taught us “shameless self-promotion”; Gene Shea of Livingston School District, now retired; and the amazing young Blaine Fleming for whom I have very special regard and respect.
And of course, I tip my virtual hat to all of you for being part of the group from which we benefited. You know who you are. The gold star for charm, whit and personal delight goes to Joe Doyle Harper who, in his 70s, attended nearly every meeting and said on many occasions, “I learn something new every time.” God bless you one and all.
Truly this has been a fun experience. I’ve enjoyed the trip and in meeting universally wonderful, gracious, talented people through this column and the Internet group. —ttfn