Nancy wrote --

>  JM> When I was last there c. mid '90s, the internet was more of a
>  JM> curiosity than anything else.
> 
> And now look at it... <G>

  I think of the development of the Net and radio are similar in some ways.
  In the early days where you had a few users and people would send
messages asking "I live in such-a-such distant country, is anyone getting
this?" and the feeling of connectedness when one got a message from a
distant country, to the early days of wireless and people using large
sets with lots of dials and switches, headsets, scanning the waves
searching for a signal. Then exclaiming they had gotten a distant signal
and listen to some amateur speaking or playing an instrument and being
amazed at being able to do that.
  Then the '90s, and still in DOS, things got a bit better just as radio
went from a rich man hobby to a huge box on a table, still with headphones.
  Then Win 95 and suddenly the headphones were gone and a horn speakers
arrived.
  Then one improvement over another and winding up with what we have now
and everyone having one, just as everyone depended on radio by the 1940s
for news, entertainment, etc.
   Radio, and computers, have gone in a short time from a novelty to a
necessity.
   Joe
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