Hello Reader.
My name is Rob Reid. I've been intrigued by computers since 1982. I had 2 Texas Instruments TI 99/4As back then. I even got the Expansion Box so I could put Memory Expansion cards into it. I was one of the few people I knew with a 48K system. I programmed in TI Basic and TI 99/4A assembler. I always wanted to write video games and had started a few projects but life always conspired against me. Video games had an amazing allure for me and they drew me into the computer world. I got one of the first 128K Apple Macintosh's in the summer of '84. I programmed that in C, C++, Forth, Pascal and Assembler. That was a really great year. I got it along with a dot matrix printer for $6000.00. What a bargain! Just imagine the system you could buy for that today. I'd spend it at http://www.alienware.com. I manged to contribute one piece of software to the Mac Community, ClickSaveAs.... I left the Apple world in 1997 when the rest of the personal computer industry had matured to my liking and when Apple's quality control in hardware and software seemed to be at an all time low. I hope to get into the MacOS again soon. I really wanted one of those G4 Cubes. Man they are awesome. They really ought to bring those back.

Today I manage an internet based consultantcy at: http://www.reidtechnologies.ca.

Technology certainly has a lot of potential for improving our lives. But Aug. 14 4:11 PM EST (The 2003 Black Out) shows the vulnerabilities of a modern society.

There isn't much room for error anymore. Technology just has to work. Cities just can't work without it. They say that every person living today could have an acre and a half of land for themselves. You could grow all the food you needed and be completely self sufficient. Life would be a constant management of micro farm tasks though. Cities liberate some of us to pursue technology faster with less time spent providing the necessities of life. We just have to live with the risks. Live in the 'burbs if you can.

Here is a useful link for you:
http://www.alexa.com. This search engine provides useful info about the internet leveraging Google info.
Consider:
http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?ts_mode=global&lang=none
The top 500 most visited sites in the world. There is a lot of useful material for research there to answer the question of "What are people doing with their time on the internet?"
It's also how I found Blogger.com.
Have a good night Dear Reader.  ¶ 11:25 PM