I still have a full set of Windows 3.11 on 3.5’ floppies. It was a wonderful time. With a bit of 10 BASE2 coax cable, BNC T-connectors, network interface cards (NICs), and a couple of 50 ohm terminators we could get computers to talk to one another. How could we forget the fun we had getting the interrupts set properly on the bus cards. And when it was all done, our first foray into network gaming, Duke Nukem, roared to life. Of course I figured out early how to use the mouse instead of the keyboard. The kids never knew what hit ‘em.
Now we struggle with time zones, and customers on the other side of the world. Our ability to respond instantly is unimpeded by the distance. We can change direction on a diode, adjusting, fixing, and enhancing the experience, resulting in instant customer gratification without looking them in the eye. Is this a more wonderful time? Will tomorrow be as wonderful?
We expose our souls to the world. Nothing is official until it’s FB official. As the next generation comes of age, they have at their fingertips no limit to the information and history that has been laid before them. We watch in curiosity as they grasp it. Coaxing them along the way as they reject, same as we did, their parent’s accomplishments in search of their own. They can do it better, and will. Someday they will find their original NES, and remember a more wonderful time.
My hope is to experience it all first as the participant, and now as the spectator. Recently, another generation has made the scene. Ah, the mistakes of the parents, repeated by the children. Soaking it all in, hesitant to step in to prevent mistakes. The learning process resurrects itself, never changing as new students learn the secrets of life. It IS a wonderful time.
