All at sea with no internet

Feb 1 2009 by Alan Ross, Sunday Sun

ABOUT 10 years ago, the computer I had at the time decided to go to the great hard drive in the sky, from where no data returns.

It was time to replace it, if just for the word processing facilities alone, but the big question was did I want to be on the internet?

Back then, computers weren’t so much “plug and play” as “geek and modem”. You had to configure printers. With a lot of fiddly stuff. And then they still didn’t work.

Floppy disks were still floppy and DVD Roms were still in their infancy. As for internet connection, you had to add it on, and I hadn’t done.

So I decided to get a computer that was internet ready — even if I wasn’t — and it’s probably the smartest thing I ever did.

I dived into the world of ISPs, dial-up, Microsoft, Google and all the rest.

This reads so much like ancient history it could be written in hieroglyphics.

The majority of us didn’t have computer access 10 years ago, now seven out of 10 adults use one regularly.

These days, over-60s are huge users of the internet, which has revolutionised shopping and travel, to name just two of the parts of the economy that will never be the same again.

I mention this because, last week, some kind soul sawed through my phone and broadband connection while clearing ivy from what I still call a telegraph pole.

Even though the telephone company pulled all the stops out to get me back online, for the time I was off, it was as if I’d been cast adrift on a desert island. Or was hibernating in some snow covered igloo.

This week I learnt that a Canadian friend awoke to find that his computer had gone belly up. He actually does live in a snow-covered cabin in Quebec, where it is currently 30 below. Here’s hoping the repair man makes it out there soon!