The Web Knows All

     There are many great developments in the past 25 years, but I believe that the one that has had the most profound effect on society is the Web. The Web and its side-effects truely have made the world a very small place.
     I remember back in the DOS 3.1 days. This long before the Internet was a household item. In fact I had not heard of the Internet yet. I had a computer and it was running from a command line like everyone's computer. On one occasion I remember having a technical problem of one kind or another. Technical problems are a part of my everyday life now. However, back then I was on my own. Today you wouldn't understand those words. At that time I had a problem. My resources to solve the problem were what I knew in my own head and a useless user's manual. I didn't have the answer in my head and the user's manual didn't have the answer. At that point the program was broken and that was that. I still remember the incredible frustration I felt. I was totally helpless. Luckily the problem was not life or death. I can't even remember the details. But something that should have worked didn't work and I had no resources to fix it.
     Today it is so very different due to the web. I was putting up a bulletin board on a web site once. I ran across a problem where a necessary feature wouldn't work. I had no ideas on how to fix the feature, but I began the search--online. I read through all the help for the bulletin board without success. I went through other avenues without finding the answer. I ended up on a PHP forum where I found people discussing similar problems with their bulletin board. After several hours of searching across two different days I finally ran into a post that held the answer.

"Open up the configuration file. On line 128 change the '1' to a '0' then restart the program."

I did this and the bulletin board was working. It was the most beautiful thing--not the bulletin board, but finding an answer to my problem. The problem was far above a non-programmer like me. In spite of this, because the Web's powerful communication ability someone out there who I have never met was able to help me solve a problem that was impossible otherwise.
     Since that time I have used the Internet, as most of you, to solve many, many problems. I believe I would not hesitate to call the Internet one of the wonders of the world.