I've been at it for ages

I had thought that I was new to 'new technology' stuff. I thought all of this blogging, messaging, social networking sites stuff, was a new part of my life.

But I was wrong.

I had forgotten that way back in the late eighties I was using the University network JANET.

I was talking to a friend who reminded me of late night chat sessions all those years ago. And I was the only person in a room of dumb terminals.

I don't remember too much about how JANET worked but I never had official instruction on it. It was something one learned from those in the know. I think you could search for others on the network and send real time messages to others who were online, often those in the same room.

I also remember when I started work at Ford there was an e-mail system that worked for sending internal e-mails only. I remember being shown, unofficially, how to use this to send e-mails externally.

I also had the internet at home in '95 and I have vague memories of an avatar in some strange virtual world at about the same time.

And I also remember, before they removed the facility, learning how to send anonymous messages to colleagues computers that would appear as systems messages. This was great fun. "Your computer has been infected by the worm blaster virus and you must close all windows and shut down immediately." I apologise now to Dave Jones who had about 50 windows open when I 'got' him.

So this isn't new to me, it's just the next step.