... this internet thing rocks

[Output]

so i ask you, fellow heXites, could you cope without any technology at all??

Without a doubt, the answer for me is no - I'm addicted

[Betty_Swallocks]

I remember back in about 1994 just after I'd got my first 14.4k modem and marvelling at the fact that there I was sat in my lounge in Redhill investigating the contents of a derectory on a server based in San Fransisco. I mean, come on, how cool is that?

I was a tech support guy in a dealership in Croydon (Hi TBC if you're still there) and I knew how problematic it could be getting two PCs in the same building to talk to one another so easily communicating with a computer on the other side of the world just blew me away.

I sometimes feel a little sorry for the youngsters who have grown up with this. You can't know what it was like to be totally cut off from communication as soon as you left the house and to have to go to the library to find any information you didn't personally possess in a book.

On the other hand, what excitement. When I look back and see just how far we've come in the 30 years or so that computers and the like have been available to the average person I wonder how far the next 30 years will take us.

Certainly in 1994 there would have been very few people who would have predicted that in 2008 I would be able to summon up any information I wanted anywhere I was on a tiny pocket sized device that cost my just a few pounds a month. Talk about Star Trek.

[Output]

Certainly in 1994 there would have been very few people who would have predicted that in 2008 I would be able to summon up any information I wanted anywhere I was on a tiny pocket sized device that cost my just a few pounds a month. Talk about Star Trek.

On the other hand, we're still waiting for many things that Tomorrow's World said we'd have by now.

[Lee H]

My use for the internet has evolved as software and the hardware has evolved.

Back in the dial-up days it was mainly for flirting and tarting about on the old AOL chatrooms and downloading the odd 34 Mb file and waiting for ages for it to trickle down.

Fast forwards to now. My main usage is now my love for music and downloading live mixes that bedroom DJ's and pro DJ's alike from places like themixingbowl.org as well as online gaming and communication via MSN etc to people I know who are all over the world.

Also. I don't even think I've turned the TV in the front room on for well over a month. All the things I watch now are supplied by IPTV or streaming from places like the BBC iplayer, 4OD, ITV.com and things like Joost.