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Behold! Packet switching!
Between 1961-1965, at least three computer theorists in the U.S. and Great Britain simultaneously propose a new technique of sending messages across a network. The method -- called "packet switching" -- allows information to be sent in "packets" rather than in the "linear" format of previous telephone information transfer. -
Here come the PCs
In 1977, three versions of personal computers were offered to the public, one of which was Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs' Apple II. Image from Wikipedia. -
Hookin' up
In 1979, CompuServe offers the first dial-up service to connect PCs. -
Working on a "word processor"
In the fall of 1980, I worked on BYU's campus newspaper "The Daily Universe" as a copy editor. Working in the newsroom was my first opportunity to write and edit on a "word processor." Image from Wikipedia. -
No more typewriters!
Some time after I graduated from college in 1981, I purchased my first personal computer, a Gateway -- recognized by its black and white cow hide design on the box it was shipped in. What an exciting moment! No more typing and trying to correct my mistakes made on an Olivetti "glorified" typewriter. Image from Wikipedia. -
Coining "cyberspace"
Author William Gibson coins the term "cyberspace" in his novel Neuromancer. The word becomes synonymous with the public's (meaning "my") nebulous view of all the information floating and traveling out there on what is now the Internet. Image from Wikipedia. -
And away we go!
My experience with computer systems expands to include working as a travel agent. What I can't remember now is if we used American Airlines' reservation system Sabre, or United Airlines' Apollo system, both of which were connected to central systems that allowed worldwide travel reservations to be made. -
The World Wide Web
In October of 1990, Tim Berners-Lee writes the technology that would be the groundwork for the World-Wide Web. Image from Wikipedia. -
Language learning
I take my first computer class at then-West Virginia State College. The class is titled "Math 106 -- Survey of Computers and Programs." That the class falls under the category of math is unfortunate for me, since math is not a language I understand. It is, in fact, like studying a foreign language. I don't remember most of it; the terms DOS system and BASIC are vaguely familiar. Image from Wikipedia. -
And so it goes . . .
For a child who watched "The Jetsons" and dreamed of its promised technology, somehow I find myself a living anachronism. I've struggled trying to get my "new" computer to use Internet Explorer instead of Edge and trying to download Shockwave Player because it wouldn't on my "old" go-to computer OR on Edge. I find myself with a learning curve so great that I don't know if I'll survive this course. But if I don't I'll just get left behind. Image from Barefootchorister blog.
