An Essay on Computer Communications

Communications. I could barely spell the word, much less comprehend its meaning. Yet when Mrs. Rubin made the announcement about the new club she was starting at the junior high school, it triggered something in
my mind.
Two weeks later, during the last month of my eighth grade year, I figured it out. I was rummaging through the basement, and I ran across the little blue box that my dad had brought home from work a year earlier. Could this be a modem?
I asked Mrs. Rubin about it the next day at school, and when she verified my expectations, I became the first member of Teleport 2000, the only organization in the city dedicated to introducing students to the information highway.
This was when 2400-baud was considered state-of-the-art, and telecommunications was still distant from everyday life. But as I incessantly logged onto Cleveland Freenet that summer, sending e-mail and posting usenet news messages until my fingers bled, I began to notice the little things. Electronic mail addresses started popping up on business cards.
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