You may be wondering, what in the world is she talking about? The phenomena that I am referring to is a somewhat global inability to see past what is happening in our own lives to how things will affect others who have contact with us. Science has given us multiple examples of the laws of cause/effect. Our justice system and the media present us with graphic, public examples of cause/effect on every newscast. But, for the most part, when it comes to our jobs, our relationships and our daily lives, we seldom, if ever, stop to think about where we “fit in” in the scheme of things.

Specifically, I have been considering the impact of the web on modern society. Is it a help? Is it a hindrance? Will commercialization ruin the intent? I see a lot of people running to jump on the Internet bandwagon, but I wonder how much of it is just wasted bandwith. Personally, I think that improvements in technology make it easier for the garbage to creep in. I’ll use an example of my programming philosophy to illustrate this.

When I first began programming computers, I was using BASIC on a TRS-80 with a tape drive. The programs were slow and simple, but they got what was necessary done. Then I moved on to a 64K KayPro IV computer with CP/M, and thought the entire world had opened up to me. I was able to write an entire accounting package for small business use, complete with linked spreadsheets, automatic order update/entry across documents and more. It was rich in features and ran on less than 64K of memory. I would venture to guess that an accounting package with the same set of features would require somewhere in the neighborhood of 2-4 megs of memory to run now. Sure, a lot of it has to do with the additional graphical interface, but I also think that a lot of it has to do with the fact that there are no incentives to write clean, tight code because memory is so readily available.

Another example of this can be found in direct reference to the net. I have a friend who is a real net junkie... dedicated to staying on the bleeding edge of technology. He’s got Windows ’95, the latest beta version of Netscape, a 33.6 bps modem, all the plug-ins you could imagine, and a PentiumPro computer running at 150 Mhz. But when he came over to my house the other day, he complained because my P60 running Windows 3.1 with Win32S, Netscape 2.02 and a 14.4 bps modem loaded pages faster than his system did. The reason? His ISP (a large, national service) doesn’t support the 32-bit architecture because the browser they provide is designed to run in a 16-bit environment. After a call to their technical support department, he discovered that they don’t have plans to change in the near future either. On the other hand, my service provider, a small local company, provides 28.8 access with a better line:user ratio, and experiences faster connect times due to decreased load.

My point? People have lost sight of the big picture. It is not just your computer, your modem, your software... there are dozens, perhaps hundreds of computers/servers in between you and the information that you desire. National weather conditions, construction, the hour of day, and many other “intangibles” impact our connection to the Internet. Bleeding edge is wonderful on Madison Avenue, in the ad agencies, running presentations for multi-million dollar clients. But will that website be usable once it is subjected to “non-sterile” conditions? Unfortunately, no. There lies the reason so many of the first commercial Internet ventures have come and gone.

Well, after writing the first half of this, I picked up the September 1996 issue of NetGuide. Contained in its pages was supporting philosphy on a lot of my “pet theories.” Its articles and columns hit the nail right on the head and gave me a sense of validation after reading them. It’s not always easy to tell it like it is in the midst of media hype, and that is one reason that NetGuide is the only technical magazine I subscribe to these days. They’re not afraid to tell it like it really is, and avoid a pollyanna approach to everything touted new and cool. Check out their site and see for yourself. They make my point for me, so I can get back to other things.

Author’s note: This essay was written almost two years ago. Although it may seem dated (especially the technology references), I believe that the points I raised then are still valid. Technology has advanced, the web has continued to be hyped, but recent history still shows that the Internet is a nascent technology, making money for some, tying up vast fortunes for others with little to show for it. Only time will tell what happens.