Tall Tales | Online | wavemag.com.np

"… and there was the time when Internet and email services were stalled for almost a week," the latest addition to my collection of IT tales. At a time when an 80 GB Hard Disk, 256 MB RAM and a P4 processor are considered entry level fare, my tales of 20 MB Hard Disks, 640 KB RAM and 8086 processors would delight many but, will my tale of a week without Internet connection receive the same interest as my other tales?

Many of us have seen history in the making – we've witnessed the Personal Computer (PC) move on from a hallowed gadget, found only at a few select institutions, to one of day-to-day use, like any other household appliance. In between came WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), GUI (Graphical User Interface, Windows, Pentium Processor, USB (Universal Serial Bus) and so on and PC ownership and usage changed accordingly.

One significant step towards the demystification of the PC was the PC stepping out from its air-conditioned domain - PCs could now survive in the ordinary household environment. The move from DOS to Windows was a quantum leap. Though the initial Windows avatar was just an interface that sat between the user and DOS, the learning curve went from a gentle slope to a steep curve, and before long, many could paint on the PC or play Solitaire at least. DOS soon got reduced to an option, Command Prompt, and MS Office made sure that Wordstar, Lotus 123 and dBASE disappeared into oblivion.

The PC was now firmly ensconced in the office environment, and the faithful typewriter went for a hike. The Internet was slowly spreading its reach and email was fast making inroads as a cheap and effective means of communication. The household was yet to see the PC invasion but with prices tumbling down and functionality getting wider each day, it was bound to happen sooner or later. As the household was getting ready to usher in the PC as a permanent fixture, the business world was getting ready to face the Y2K bug. A new millennium was about to dawn, while it promised a new age for human kind, it also boded large scale computer breakdowns – in a major oversight, some software writers had not made adequate provisions for storing year data. In COBOL, an industrial strength business language, for example, just the last two digits of any year was stored. The change in the millennium meant a change in the first two digits as well, unleashing, as many predicted, havoc in the business community.

The Y2K bug was bad publicity for computers but the innovations continued on – CD Drives, processors with MMX (MultiMedia eXtensions), www, etc. Email services were now available and soon full-fledged Internet services as well. PC prices fell further and even before most realised when, many households had a computer at home. This versatile machine could crunch numbers but also allowed one to watch movies, listen to music, send and receive faxes and emails and surf the Internet. The millennium dawned and like many predictions, the Y2K scare ended up being an anti-climax.

Post Y2K, it has been great going. Prices have come down further, PCs are more powerful and faster and the Internet has become a way of life. We have broadband now, as providers promise, resourcing intensive online content like video and audio will be a reality soon.

Then came the week- long stalling of Internet services. Did it make an impact? Yes, in some ways but no in most other ways. Initially when the rumor spread of Internet services being stalled for as much as three months, many feared about their online email accounts expiring. A week later, Internet services resumed and their fears proved unfounded. Without email, communication became a problem but life still went on.

The business community was hit in many ways – the ISPs directly and others by way of their cheapest and fastest mode of communication disrupted, email. Adding to the situation was the stalling of telephone services, which made communication virtually impossible. Activities were paralysed to some extent but apart from a few sectors like travel, banking and call centers, most businesses did not have their activities disrupted due to the lack of Internet services. It may seem positive at a first glance but it actually portrays a negative image of business in Nepal. 'Online' seems applicable to Nepali businesses only in terms of web presence, in the form of a website, or in communications, in the form of email. The synergy of the Internet with business functions is an unexplored frontier. The business community in Nepal is yet to tap the strengths of the Internet; it is at best using the Internet for communicating or as a means of information rather than as a means of doing business.

Businesses and individuals alike, those that relied on the Internet as a means of information and content were the hardest hit. We saw 'white' in our media, print, radio and TV, for obvious reasons, but many ran bereft of content because of the source running dry, temporarily. The Internet has made 'cut, paste and rewrite' a simple but effective way of churning out content – with services stalled, many found no alternative but to put on hold their operations. Cut and paste apart, the Internet serves many of us as an invaluable resource for information. Being used to having Google just a few clicks away, the 'white' appeared even in our normal life without Internet services.

When the United States could live out many days of power failure, it was only likely we would live through without the Internet for a week. The PC has become an integral part of our lives, at least for the urban minority and the Internet a habit. We are moving ahead with the rest of the world but are we?