“It’s all my fault.”

July 7, 2007 by Jerry Jinks.

I just read Jim’s “About the Editor” posting and discovered that the OHS Alumni Association Blog is all my fault. Well, I have been accused of worst things and probably will be again.

Last year the class of ‘61 held its first reunion and I put up a message board on my business website to post reunion planning updates as well as other tidbits of information as they came to mind. The response to it was pretty good and I was asked to do it again in support of this year’s get together. The only problem, of course, is that those who don’t use computers can’t access the information. But, I don’t know any way around that for those who just won’t go to the trouble to learn to use the technology. I’m a long ways from being a technology guru but I’ve been using computers since before there was an Internet and frankly I don’t have a lot of patience with those who tell me that they can’t learn to use one. As I’ve commented to a couple of my OHS luddite classmates, “Give me 20 minutes and I’ll have you not only posting emails and searching the Internet but using techno-speak, as well.” So far, no takers.

Believe me, computers are easier to learn now than they used to be. In the mid-1980’s, my colleagues and I received a federal grant to set up a communications network among teachers in response to geographic isolation. We were working in Montana so there was plenty of geographic isolation to respond to. At that time, the entire population of Montana, the fourth largest state, was about 750,000 people. Teachers from all over the state brought their Apple II-e computers (a condition of participation was that the school had to provide them with one) to our institute where we equipped them with the Promethus modem (there’s a dinosaur for you) and plugged them into telephone jacks.

It was a real mess. There were power cords and telephone cables running all over the place. We had splitters plugged into splitters. The university physical plant and facilities guys were convinced that we would set fire to the place and the university attorney was sure someone would trip and sue the institution. We had convinced the state department of education to set up a computer to work as a server and promptly overloaded it leading to more negotiations with the state department to add more capability. The phone lines were also overloading so busy signals were the most common response to an access request. There were no experts to advise us so yours truly learned a heck of a lot including that when it comes to computers the best expert just might be some kid with a passion for the technology. I hired three of them to work with the project and it was a lot of fun watching an 18 year old being so patient with 50 year old teacher. But in spite of all of the frustrations we thought we were just this side of Star Trek. And, given the times, I guess we were.

So, thanks, Jim for blaming the OHS blog on me. It reminded me of one of the most enjoyable experiences of my career so I am happy to take the blame.

Keep on keeping on.

Jerry Jinks