Posted: Oct 11, 07 10:46am

Back in my younger days, I was a print and BBS Board columnist called The Guerrilla Computor. I also was a character calledMicro Mike for a time... would starting something like the following qualify as a blog?

The Guerrilla Computor Page

My Favorite Peripherals

(c) 1996 by author

Fast becoming my favorite peripheral in the computing world is: my Internet Connection.

"Wait!" I hear you say, "Peripherals are items that are attached to our computer, like a monitor, keyboard, mouse or printer." You are absolutely right - and so am I. My internet connection is probably the greatest tool for interpersonal communications I have discovered.

Given this premise, then, that a peripheral exists only to enhance computor/computer/personal communication, my internet connection is in fact a peripheral. Once I access the internet, I can communicate effectively with millions of people at the press of a keyboard button or the click of my mouse. I don't need a printer for this, because I've got the potential of millions of computer screens seeing what I've written.

Between the computor and the CPU's machinations exists a symbiotic relationship of communication. We wouldn't be able to interact with the computer - and ultimately with each other - unless we had devices that allow us to input or output information. We use the keyboard to tell the computer what we want to say. The monitor shows us what we've written, drawn or graphically put together. The mouse allows me to manipulate items or objects on my screen. Then, to communicate, I print a sheet of paper to show others what I've done. This is the purpose for a peripheral.

This is not to say there aren't problems inherent in making this peripheral work. Just like knowing I have to make allowances for the manner a printer communicates with my operating system, so do I need to properly configure my internet connection (see Micro Mike, this issue). Each Netscape, Microsoft Network, Mosaic or Linux software connection has unique protocols that must be familiaarized with to become adept at communicating with another person. Once I become familiar with this protocol, however, the world -- and my communication with it -- is mine.

A few mouse clicks and keyboard commands I edit, seeing it on my monitor, and I can talk to my Congressperson, ask a company technical information on behalf of a client, or just add to my store of knowledge. Two or three hours of cruising the internet, and I find myself exposed to more raw information than my great-grandparents were exposed to in their entire lifetimes.

Right now, at this very moment, is enough information to provide the entire world's population many times over the equivalent of a PhD degree in any discipline a person would want. And the amount of information available is doubling every nine months now, as more and more people post their experience, knowledge and insight on the 'Net. The potential for personal and professional growth through this relatively new-found peripheral is not only awesome, it is mind-boggling.

Me being who I am, I want to savor every bite of this peripherally available informational cornucopia, byte by nibbled byte. But I don't have the time... [bummer!]... Here's why: there are now over one million website home pages on just the graphically available WWW sites. [Graphical pages account for less than 1/8 of the internet sites, as of 11/95 - source: HotWired magazine).

If I spent only one minute per home page full time, eight hours a day, trying to see what knowledge I could glean from graphical sites, I'd spend five years and nine months just cruising initial home pages. This would not allow me any time to go to any subsidiary pages, and the information contained there. Considering my own URL consists of seventy pages by itself, so far, we can see the complexity involved in just this one peripheral access. This is only 12.5% of the net - to

day. I'd spend over 45 years viewing ALL sites -- and this predicated on just one minute per initial page, with no more internet pages being added-- ever.

Small wonder I consider this peripheral attachment to my computer one I will never master.

What I have just written about, covers only printed text viewable on the 'Net, as of today. As it happens, we can now hear the latest CD, listen to a radio station, even talk to each other via the 'Net. Once the Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML) becomes more of a standard, we'll be able to watch our favorite video on the internet. By century's end, we'll probably have video-conferencing typical in home and business communications; all of this as simple as plugging in and powering up our Mac or IBM-compatible PCs.

And, it is happening even as I write and you read this. Companies like Apple, IBM, Motorola, Sun, Gateway 2000, and the veritable Microsoft, are throwing their weight and financial resources into making this peripheral a reality. Today's communications companies see the handwriting on the wall, and are fighting the Voice Over the Net (VON) technology. Not because it's such a threat today, but because when it explodes, AT&T, MCI, and others want their piece of the technology pie.

Despite the suit limiting VON technology, however, AT&T and MCI are already offering 'Net access as part of our long distance carrier phone bills. I personally don't see them doing it as well as a qualified ISP, though. As it happens, AT&T's proprietary 'Net access software doesn't work with the millions of AT&T Globalyst brand of PCs. But that will change. (After all, what is a software release without a few bugs, eh?)

As a guerrilla computor, I can just envision what consulting and using PCs will entail when that day comes. We'll have to be conversant not only with the latest bells and whistles in business and home software applications, we'll need to know where and how this voice, motion, video, and communications peripheral can make our lives simpler.

Folks like me, though, have to watch out we don't make the simple more complex.

At times I have a tendency to pole vault over ant hills; this extra effort made, just so I can say I made it. Multiply this predilection on my part with software programmers who share the same character defect, and we won't have a simpler life. We'll have a simple machine adding a degree of complex communications anxiety none of us need.

Then again, I run across this utopial stumbling block today, when all I want to do is hook up my fancy-schmancy 32 bit full-duplex sound card -- and it insists on occupying the same IRQ and DMA channels my modem needs. So I end up hearing silence in full stereo while my modem access loops into perpetuity with no dial tone detected... Back to work for my communications peripheral utopia.... Happy Computing!

moi, back when I had more hair, before pulling it out over computers