Making Money On-Line
During the 90's I worked for a computer repair company in a small town in the Wheat-belt of South Australia. It was just before the introduction of Windows '95. The Internet was still used primarily for education and BBS with only a handful of actual "Web Pages"
When you wanted to go to a site, you needed a whole list of addresses in the IP format: 203.109.221.19. for example, which would connect you to a BBS server (Bulletin Board Service) and from there you could scroll through lists of text files that you could then open and download. The main framework in Australia was AARnet (Australian Academic Research Network) which linked all the Universities and Colleges so that information could be shared and used freely by students and teachers. This was built on the AARPAnet, that started in the early '80s which was the Aussie version of the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) that was created during the Cold War in USA) Ah.. memories...
Anyhow, the main OS people were using was Windows 3.11, DR Dos, OS/2, or Apple OS. Just about everything was text based or really pixelated icons and clunky formatted text screens. Quite an ugly period in the early days. A computer would cost thousands of dollars with a mono screen and everything had to be loaded on floppy disks. I can remember carrying around a large aluminium case with about 300 floppy disks in it to repair or reload computers. It looked pretty impressive to open up my case and start pulling out little disks to start repairing a PC, till you compare those 300 disks that totalled about 420Mb. Just over half a CD...
With the advent of Windows '95, also came the introduction of the CD-ROM. You could buy the new windows which went from about 19 disks to 90 disks, or get it on a CD-ROM. But a 4xCD Drive was still over $250 and RAM was worth about $100 per Mb so for the most of it, PC's were mainly limited to businesses and the wealthy.
Within a few years, there were more manufacturers riding on the tail of Bill Gates' success and the industry began to boom. By the turn of the 21st century, about 60% of all homes in Australia had a PC. Windows '98 was the must-have operating system and Netscape, Firefox and IE4 were the browsers you needed. Most Internet connections were made via a 28.8K modem and web-content worldwide had boomed to 30, 40 or 50 times the size it was in 5 years. Suddenly, everyone realised that there was money to be made on the internet and this pushed it's growth even harder.
Dodgy dealings didn't last too long and were soon kicked out of town, not before taking a few scalps. E-commerce sites were growing, auction sites sprung up on every server, viruses ran rampant and people working in the repair industry (like myself) did very well out of it.
It took another 5 years or so before things started to settle down, but there were still a lot of dodgy dealers that just wanted to rip others off. These people often don't last long, and will soon be named and shamed.
Even today there are unscrupulous people who just want to exploit the vulnerable and scam them for whatever they can get. I believe in honesty and transparency. Mulder from the 90's series X-Files, had a poster above his desk that said "The Truth Will Set You Free" which is actually a quote by Jesus, from John 8:32. And the meaning of the truth is Nothing Hidden. So if you see an article about an offer that is "too good to be true," ask yourself if it looks like they are hiding something, because they probably are.
Don't get caught, rely on your "Spider Senses" and maintain your integrity and be truthful.
SΛVΛNT
Recent Comments
6
Very interesting and educational Savant! You are correct about the meaning of truth, Nothing Hidden! That's why I like WA. Nothing Hidden! Again, Awesome blog!
Nice little trip down memory lane here Geoff.
Solid copy & well humored.
Great posting in all.
cheers,
d
The definition of the truth is "nothing hidden".. I like that!