Life without fiber-optics

Do you remember life before computers?

When I went to college a computer was a HUGE piece of equipment that needed a room all to itself to live in. I'm not really sure how it worked but when we registered for classes we stood in a line to pick punch cards that had the class of choice information on it. You would then turn in the batch of cards you selected and from this get your classes assigned. I also had a class in computers but now have no idea what it taught me.

Now the world is run by computers that are tiny. We take it for granted until there is no internet. No internet? Well all of Cook County survived most of a day without communication from the outside world. A fiber-optics cable was cut in Duluth - I bet that worker said - Of Shit! We did not have long distance phone, 911, cell phones or internet. Kelly was totally lost - she has had internet most of her life and a cell phone with plenty of minutes so has never thought about the cost of a long distance call. She survived, barely.

JP