Satire: Reasons why Puerto Rico sucks

[FULANODETAL]

Nelson said:

In the early 80s, computers in Puerto Ricos classrooms did not exist. In 1994 access to the Internet was a long distance dial-up phone call from most of the island.

Bro- in the early 80s - the computers like early Apples and Radio Shack TRS80s [which were accessible to those who had money] were not in US classrooms; except in the more affluent classrooms; they were not very useful. Puerto Rico was not in a unique situation. Even today in 2005, my own school district [a working to middle class district] is only now getting computers in every classroom. Remember, and I assume you know, that the early computers had minimal memory capacity and were not very useful except for tinkerers and for game playing. I remember my friend's father bought an early apple in the 70s and it seemed more like a large paper weight than anything else. In the early 80s there had not much change in personal PCs.

I think there was a major turn in the industry when IBM pcs and Macintoshes were introduced. Finally, they were useful and had enough memory to become very useful and the move for educational institutions to purchase large quantities of computers began in earnest.

In 1994 dialup was the primary way to access websites which were still in it's infancy and it was fairly expensive. Setting up LANs was definitely expensive. In 1994 my guess would be that less than 10 million people were accessing the internet. 11 years later worldwide access levels are certainly in the hundreds of millions. I have used broadband in a car and it is pretty awesome. Nowadays if you asked many computer users what is the Binary system or what is a CPU, they may not even know because of the incredible changes that have eased personal use of computers. Now computers, LANs, and access lines [t1s, broadband, etc] are more affordable but still not cheap so it would not surprise me to go to "poor" districts in New Hampshire, Ohio, Florida or Puerto Rico and still not find many computers.

[NelsonN]

Originally Posted by JaneMas

Now how did you edit that after the 3 day deadline?

What three-day deadline? It's my BLOG.

Originally Posted by JaneMas

I've read article protesting the garbage on tv, but no one demands better shows. As long as they watch it..it will continue.

You mean with 90% of the population loving the garbage? Fat chance.

Originally Posted by JaneMas

As for the pc world Fulano has just spoken. He's right in the 80's pc was in it's infancy.

I guess you guys need a history lesson from someone who was there in the early days. I will reply to hist reply, soon.

[NelsonN]

Originally Posted by FULANODETAL

Bro- in the early 80s - the computers like early Apples and Radio Shack TRS80s [which were accessible to those who had money] were not in US classrooms; except in the more affluent classrooms; they were not very useful.

Not only are you wrong, but I was there to experience it.

In 1977, Apple Computers was incorporated and the Apple II computer model was released. The first West Coast Computer Faire was held in San Francisco the same year, and attendees saw the public debut of the Apple II (available for $1298).


So by the early 80s Apple IIs were already in my school and it was not an affluent school, it was a junior public high school, Stoddart Fleischer. And they were very useful. I finally got a 130XE computer in 1984 and it kicked ass.

Originally Posted by FULANODETAL

Nelson said:
Puerto Rico was not in a unique situation. Even today in 2005, my own school district [a working to middle class district] is only now getting computers in every classroom.

Well, that's egregious if that's the case. I used to stay an hour after school to attend computer class. We only had one computer class. With about 20 computers. Sometimes two had to share a computer. But they were there and accessible.

Originally Posted by FULANODETAL

Remember, and I assume you know, that the early computers had minimal memory capacity and were not very useful except for tinkerers and for game playing.

Not only were they useful for the purpose, introduction to computers. But they could print. We learned many things with these computers from using a word-processor to programming, and a bunch of other things. Sir, they were very useful. Back then a word processing software didn't need 300 megs of hard-drive space, it could fit on a 150 Kbytes, single-sided, floppy disk.

Originally Posted by FULANODETAL

In 1994 dialup was the primary way to access websites which were still in it's infancy and it was fairly expensive.

I started hanging around computer bulletin board systems in 1984 using a 300 baud modem and by 1986, a Haye's compatible 1200 baud modem. BBSes were not expensive (they were free to access) and neither was a phone service (unless you were dialing a BBS that was in another state). Granted you had to contend with busy signals on occasion but that was very minor with so many BBSes around. From June 1996 to July 1998, I ran a BBS (using the Wildcat! Interactive Net Server) with Internet service from my apartment in Philadelphia with a 64k ISDN line using an ISDN WebRamp router--I was paying $75 a month for it. Yes, in 1996! I even had one dedicated customer, I charged them $75 a month (a local Chinese newspaper.)

Originally Posted by FULANODETAL

Setting up LANs was definitely expensive.

I am sure they were, also universities were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month just to spread Usenet messages.

Originally Posted by FULANODETAL

In 1994 my guess would be that less than 10 million people were accessing the internet. 11 years later worldwide access levels are certainly in the hundreds of millions.

That figure could be right and they were doing it mainly thru bulletin board systems (BBSes).

[FULANODETAL]

Nelson - $1298 in 1977 dollars today would be about $3500- I am telling you that in the 1970s and early 1980s most school districts throughout the US were either spending minimally on computers, except for perhaps, computer classes. The costs, although significantly lower that in the past, were still very prohibitive, especially for working class or "poor"school districts.

It is a good thing that your school district had computers, you obviously were inspired by the technology and pursue it. Your knowledge of computers is evident. I believe that your school was probably exceptional. This being said, at least in the early 80s, I would argue that computers were barely making a presence in the average schools, and were not financially accessible except for middle class and upper higher school districts, with countless exceptions of course. Now, obviously, we cannot know for sure the exact level of computers in classrooms over a certain period unless a massive survey were done.

I am not suggesting that early computers were useless, but in comparison to today, the applications were minimal, and again, were not very accessible to the masses.

Again from 1996 to 1998 you were paying $75 a month for a router service and you had a customer that paid you $75. Good deal, but the average non- geek would probably not find the cost of equipment in the mid 90s with an expensive router service very attractive. Schools in the mid 90s were coming around but slowly.

In 2005 you can get a decent computer for $500 or less and a $10 or $15 dial up ISP, and the packages are bundled together payable in monthly installments. Cost effectiveness and usefulness of the internet is what is motivating school districts to come on board in the present.

I would be curious as to what other experiences people had with this topic.

[NelsonN]

Originally Posted by FULANODETAL

Nelson - $1298 in 1977 dollars today would be about $3500- I am telling you that in the 1970s and early 1980s most school

I am telling you that by the early 80s personal computers had already come down in price. I bought my Atari 130XE computer with 128 KBytes of memory (not the common 64 KBytes) for $150.00 in 1984. And with the high volume purchases school districts make, I doubt they were paying retail rate per each unit.

Originally Posted by FULANODETAL

Again from 1996 to 1998 you were paying $75 a month for a router service and you had a customer that paid you $75. Good deal, but the average non- geek would probably not find the cost of equipment in the mid 90s with an expensive router service very attractive. Schools in the mid 90s were coming around but slowly.

Had you read that paragraph correctly you would have understood as stated that I was paying $75 for an ISDN service in 1996. I didn't say that the average person had ISDN service or needed it. In those days it was dial-up, which could easily handle the text based BBSes and Internet of the day quite easily. Especially since people were more into e-mail and Usenet. There was no need for broadband unless you were running a service as I was. And broadband didn't really start to take off until around 1998.

[FULANODETAL]

I believe you about the prices going down- I don't doubt your figure on the specific computer you mentioned. However, I was responding to your point about computers not being in Puerto Rican classrooms in the 80s by telling you that this was no different than what was going on in the states.

The other general point was that the cost-prohibitiveness of computers, LANs, and ISP services, together with the limited application usefulness, in the past [which obviously has changed dramatically] lead to a very limited and incremental introduction of these services in the schools. Only in the last 10 years or so have you really seen a greater percentage of schools invest the resources needed for hardward and computer services.

[NelsonN]

Originally Posted by FULANODETAL

I believe you about the prices going down- I don't doubt your figure on the specific computer you mentioned. However, I was responding to your point about computers not being in Puerto Rican classrooms in the 80s by telling you that this was no different than what was going on in the states.

Of course it was a big difference. I had computers in my school, and I know for a fact that at the same time we had them, so did other schools because my cousins attended a lot of them. We didn't all live in the same school district. In Puerto Rico, in Rincon, even in 1995 you could not find a computer in a classroom, I guarantee it! Maybe San Juan was different in that sense. Maybe your district was just not open minded enough. I am sure that must have been the case, but not in all cases.

I am talking about the past and how had I stayed in Puerto Rico I would never have known what a computer was. Computers got me interested in more than just the science, it also opened my mind to other possibilities, I learned more after I dropped out of school than I had learned when I was there.

Originally Posted by FULANODETAL

The other general point was that the cost-prohibitiveness of computers, LANs, and ISP services, together with the limited application usefulness, in the past [which obviously has changed dramatically] lead to a very limited and incremental introduction of these services in the schools. Only in the last 10 years or so have you really seen a greater percentage of schools invest the resources needed for hardward and computer services.

Again, this point of your does not make sense, computers in schools in the 80s were not about getting classrooms connected to the Internet, it was about getting the younger generation introduced to computers. A young girl out of high-school could easily land a job as a secretary if she knew what a computer was and could do. Word processing in the office in the 80s was a big thing in Philadelphia, and I am sure it was too in every other state. Puerto Rico was still using pencils and typewriters. I started working in a Restaurant when I was 17-years-old (1986), they were using an Atari 800XL for word-processing, spreadsheet, and maintaining a customer mailing list using a database. There was a lot you could with computers in the 80s. What are you talking about?

Checkout this small review of the products from The 1984 Summer Consumer Electronics Show -- and this is just the Atari, Apple and IBM had truckloads more applications. [Nevermind the 1450XLD computer that is mentioned, it never materialized or the prices, they were always a lot lower when it came time to buy.]

If you want to talk about today's needs then talk to me in that context, don't lump the past in with the present.