I just pulled this old post off of the UMBC Linux Users Group archives. It's something I wrote right post-Columbine, but it's a cool article so I figured I'd post it just in case it disappears one day.

Every geek wrote something after that, put I'm partial to my few paragraphs.

To: umbclinux@lists.umbc.edu
Subject: Re: Colorado
From: Rob Carlson
Date: Tue, Apr 27, 1999 07:46:01 -0400 (EDT)
Organization: University of Maryland Baltimore County

I was part of the BBS culture back seven years ago. By the time I realized how different my computer talents were from a lot of the other people around me, I had my place online and the respect of those "above" me who feared the wild beast of technology, and recognized me and the kids who could control and mold it.

We traded the 31337 warez games, these "huge" 150k 256 color GIF pr0n files (1200 baud), and the Anarchist's Cookbook among ourselves, downloaded QWK packets of message boards dedicated to talking about the latest scuttlebutt from our respective local Junior High schools and had what we considered "political" discussions about politics we didn't quite understand yet. We played Trade Wars, Barren Realms Elite and BBSHack. Everyone had their own BBS, if only for a week, on their parents' phone line from midnight to 7am. The more well-off kids had their own lines and 386 computers with 9600 baud modems, and were revered. The wanna-be "hackers" were on a constant quest to reach the "DOS Shell" on the other guy's machine.

We were the library kids, the marching band and concert choir geeks, the corner lunch table with the AD&D and Spelljammer books. My mother feared D&D, and my father understood technology. The huge majority of non-geeks didn't fear or ridicule us, but looked on with a passive curiousity. This was the age of technology first entering the classroom. The teachers and students didn't know what to expect or how to handle it, but we did. We were the lab assistants and tech support even at 13 and 14 years old because logic was our game, and in the illogical world of puberty there was finally something that could be grasped, understood, and mastered. We molded the BBS and computer culture to suit us, and it did the same.

I grew up 10 minutes from Rutgers University, back when the local tech-heads still had the Basie and Waller dialups to abuse for our .edu connectivity (and traversing the Internet through way-cool Gopher clients), and they still gave out free UUCP feeds to anyone with a mailspool and a dream who wanted to join the map. The middle aged techs who got their C.S. degrees back when C.S. was a a "fringe science" were flabbergasted at the upshoot of interest, and took many a young hacker under their wings to answer their questions and give us something to look up to.

Things were different then. Everyone had some idea that computers were going to change the world, but nobody realized that they would turn the standards on their head like they did. Now computers are easy, the Internet is ubiquitous, the fringe is moving towards the mainstream and the mainstream is mighty uncomfortable.

Now the intelligent, open-minded and introverted guys and gals they ridiculed in person, media and mainstream entertainment now have so much power, but aren't restricted and guided by the preconceptions and ignorance of the mainstream. But this isn't the first time this has happened. Just think about what a tough time the noveau riche must have had back in the 1800s. They had all the benefits of being rich, but none of the "old money" customs and history, so the conservative forces of the time did everything in their power to stop the "corruption" of the upper class standards.

In case you didn't notice, we're the noveau riche of the information economy. Welcome to the new paradigm.

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