I've been working with computers a long time. The first computers I worked on were not even in the same room. They were miles away over a telephone line and were accessed using a modem (a device that transmits digital information across telephone lines).
However, I've been facinated by the time they can save us doing repetitive tasks, their ability to crunch numbers, and their ability to facilitate communication world wide.
I was involved in a precursor to the Internet, which was a non-commercial communications network called Fidonet (not related to the cell service provider). It was a co-operative network build of bulletin board sysops running public systems on their home computers, and individuals running node software. Through it we had email and file exchange services world wide built on a system of co-operation and cost sharing. It was quite an interesting social phenomena.
Now I'm active on the Internet, using electronic mail (email), the Usernet newsgroups, and various mailing lists on a daily basis, as well as using the Internet virtually every day as my personal reference library.
I've worked a lot with new computer users, as I have a talent for making computer concepts clear to people. I taught night school at our local University-College for nine years, and have taught computer classes for various other organisations.
I am a concerned by the kind of control the Microsoft has over the direction of development in the desktop computer field due to the popularity of Windows. I am watching with interest the development of the Linux community and the growing, diverse, energetic area of open source program development. I believe the world-wide co-operation it inspires is perhaps important in a much broader application than just computing.
I run a one-person company that offers computer service. It is called Five Fingers Computer Services, and is named after a small group of islands called the Five Fingers Islands which are near my seaside home . Follow the link to my page about Five Fingers Computer Services