Better Late Than Never

I never have been the "first on my block" to find out about or to do anything. And being naturally independent and rebellious, I seldom was one for jumping onto anybody's bandwagon, if for no other reason than to avoid being called a "Johnny-come-lately".

But there are certain fads and trends that I simply have been unable to side-step, foremost among them during my lifetime has been the personal computer and the Internet.

When I began my journalism career, I wrote news stories on an old-fashioned Royal typewriter. When my newspaper employer entered the electronic age and installed IBM Selectric typewriters, I purchased my old Royal for $25.00. I still have it (almost 40 years later), and it is still in good working condition. I had begun my legal career before my newspaper moved to the next level of technology by installing word processing.

At the dawn of my legal career, lawyers conducted legal research among the thousands of volumes of books and treatises in a law library, which at most firms required a full-time law librarian just to keep the constant supply of supplemental material current. Now, legal research is performed online, and many more resources are available from online legal libraries than what ever could have been maintained in even the most extensive traditional law library.

In addition, our legal secretaries were required to type our pleadings, correspondence and other documents on electric typewriters, some of which were equipped with "mag-cards" for those documents with established templates requiring only that the blanks be filled in. After a couple of years, the firm where I was employed as a young associate purchased word processors, and from that point the days of carbon paper and clicking typewriters going at 120+ words per minute were numbered.

In 1985, when I first opened my own law practice, I purchased my first computer (for almost $7,000.00), to be used exclusively by my secretary for word processing purposes, because word processing was about the only function that the computer had and certainly was the only function anyone in my office knew how to access and operate.

By the late 1980s, personal computers became more affordable, and the Internet began to gain some traction. A couple of young men, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, had begun development of software programs and operating systems that ultimately would make cyberspace and computer operations available to everyone - even me.

Fast-forwarding to 2012, I can say only that the past 30 years have been a technological whirlwind. Internet advertising and marketing have moved to the forefront for nearly every service industry in the country. Social media sites are beginning to play a huge role in the marketing of goods and services. The development of IP services able to transmit voice and image, such as Skype, have brought distant friends and family closer together. Thanks to this technology, I don't have to wait months (or sometimes years) before seeing two of my grandchildren who currently are residing in Korea and who will be moving to Eastern Europe this summer.

But the technological revolution has had a darker side, as well. New crimes, scams and other fraudulent activities have found a home on the Internet. Identity theft has become a major problem, and an entirely new industry has been developed to provide protection against it.

My wife is fond of saying that I was dragged into the 20th century kicking and screaming, but not before the beginning of the 21st century. I am just now getting used to the 20th century, but I hope to see you all soon in the 21st century.

Beam me up, Scotty.