Friday, August 30, 2013

Why I Love the Internet


When I was in high school, only geeks used computers. Our school had a computer which was housed in one room.

The computer pretty much filled the room. Although I walked past it a time or two, I don't think I ever entered that room, which was known to me only as 'the computer room'.

Isn't it amazing how life changes? Fast forward about 40 years and I own two computers plus a phone that's a mini-computer. I use computers daily and find that technology moves way faster than I do.

The most amazing thing about the computer is the platform many of us employ, known as the internet. Back in my high school days, nobody could have imagined all that today's technology would include.

If the high school me had known what my future would hold, I would have visited the computer room much more than a time or two.

When I type a few words into Google or any search engine on the internet, I am instantly transported to my choice of thousands of websites offering the information I need to know.

I can learn about people, places or things at the speed of light. You'd have to know that I'm a kid who grew up reading encyclopedias to understand just how awesome that is to the grown-up me.

In our house, there were several sets of encyclopedias and various other assorted reference books. My favorites were the World Book Encyclopedias.

I would pick one of the World Books and spend an hour or more paging through the book. My favorite was the book containing the letter D because it had pictures of nearly every breed of dog.

I loved dogs but we never had any furry pets. My Mom said she was allergic to them. I suspect she was allergic to the idea of adding pets to an Army family of eight kids who moved every few years.

As I looked through the pictures of the dogs, I read about each one and thought about which one I would have one day when I was in charge.

I think of today's internet as a modern version of the World Book encyclopedia. There are enough pictures to entertain and enough details to inform, all at a level that the average person can understand.

Today is a case in point. I had received a graphic from someone in an Adobe format. I knew there had to be some way to convert that file to the photo format I needed.

I typed into the search engine, "How do you convert a .pdf file into a .jpg file?" Before I'd even finished the question, up popped search results.

I chose one that sounded professional. At Online Tech Tips, a guy whose name isn't even noted offered me several free websites that would do the job for me with step-by-step instructions for each website.

There was also much more technical information for those of you who are closer to geekdom than me. I've bookmarked the page and will return to learn more tech tips from time to time.

I chose the one that sounded the easiest and landed at Zamzar.com. This website let me choose the file I wanted converted, choose what type of file I wanted it to be, enter my email address and click a button.

Within a couple of minutes, the converted file was waiting for me in my inbox. If that's not amazing, I don't know what is.

This was just the latest amazing information I've found on the internet. From information to entertainment, there's something for everyone - well, everyone except my Mom, who absolutely refuses to embrace today's technology.

Although there's plenty of crap out here in Internetland, there's also a lot of really interesting and informative stuff. What's the most interesting thing you've learned from the internet?

That's it from me for today. I will leave you to ponder that question and I'll bet more than one of you will jump online and look something up in the modern World Book.

Until then, I'll take what I can get when I can get it and do the best I can to face each day with a smile on my face, a prayer on my lips and a song in my heart.

Blogging Grandma Sandy signing off for now.

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