Web Writing Assignment One

A modem, the silicon that connects the world

One sound marks a turning point in my computer experience and interest; the sound of a modem making a connection to the internet. Before I was connected to the internet all computers were simply entertainment for me, regardless if the computer happened to be a Nintendo or an IBM, even though pc’s had the added usefulness of word processing. The Internet changed this outlook for me, opening up a vast body of knowledge that I could read and absorb.

My first encounters with the Internet occurred at my friend Jay’s house. He was connected to America Online with his 486/66 Compaq that had a blazing fast 14.4 Kbps modem. We mainly used AOL to chat with people we didn’t know and probably would never meet in person; at this point I never realized the vast amount of information hiding just behind the user-friendly interface of AOL. His parents were very protective of us and limited our usage of this new entertaining portion of the Internet, but the seed was planted, and I too needed the Internet.

We got the Internet at my house in late 1996 on our IBM Aptiva which had a 28.8 Kbps modem and a 133 MHz Pentium processor. We didn’t use AOL to the Internet, but Harbor Communications (HCI), since my brother had roomed with the son of the owner of HCI here at ASU. Soon after we were connected to HCI my parents opted to install a second phone line for the Internet since I was tying up the main line so much, at this point I was unlimited in the amount of information I could access online.

Soon after getting the Internet, I discovered the merits of online shopping, great deals and easy comparison shopping. I was online all the time finding information relative to the hobby or sport that I had thrown myself into at the time. During my intense mountain biking phase I discovered mountainbikereview.com, which was a very informative site concerning mountain biking and the associated equipment. There was a message board and a for sale forum along with an organized system for everybody to review mountain biking equipment. I remember selling a bike my neighbor had for a good bit more than he paid for over the website and was rewarded with some parts he had for my own bike.

After I turned 16 in 1998 I started losing interest in mountain biking since I was devoting most of my time to golf and my newest obsession Jeeps. Sherrill Greene, my neighbor and grandfather-like figure, really spawned my obsession with Jeeps through his 1978 Jeep CJ-7 which he let me drive around the land surrounding our homes when I was 15. When it was time to buy my first car I knew that I wanted a Jeep. My parents were not thrilled with the idea of me driving a Jeep CJ or Wrangler around so I got a Grand Cherokee on the merits that it was a safer automobile. Soon after getting my Jeep I was on the web looking for ideas on how to make it better off-road. The site I found most informative at the time was the Grand Cherokee Unlimited section of offroad.com. At the time it was nothing more than a few reviews and the story of a Grand Cherokee build up.

A mountain bike similar to mine

My heavily modified, Jeepsunlimited-inpired Jeep

The site seemed to stagnate for a while then disappeared, only to reappear in August of 1999 as a separate entity from 4x4.com. The new site, Jeepsunlimited.com, started out with much of the same information that its predecessor had, but the new site had bulletin board, with many different forums. The site’s bulletin boards were awesome because there were enough members that almost any Jeep question could be answered in as little as a few hours. The number of members of the bulletin boards grew at an alarming rating, transferring the site from Grand Cherokee oriented to all Jeep oriented. I learned more from these bulletin boards as I browsed the forums about Jeeps then any other Jeep site I could find on the Internet. The site is now the largest Jeep community on the web and is a little less personal then it was back in 1999 and early 2000. Most of the personalities that started the site have left or simply don’t make their presence known and I feel like Hawthorne reminiscing about when just a few of us Jeep lovers could share information, ideas, and jokes around a virtual hearth while now all the people are censored and mandated to be on topic by moderators. Sure, it’s a more efficient place to find on topic information about Jeeps, but it’s a lot less fun then it was back in the early days.

The Internet has given me the ability to find information about anything I could possibly want to know about and the ability to chat with buddies all over the country. It gave a stand alone piece of computer equipment a new life as a point to access a network of ideas and creativity.

Bibliography

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September 30, 2002