there's a word for this

[kredburn@echip.com (K Redburn)]

So this is what a high school reunion is like. Except I never went to
one because I pretty much didn't like the people from my high school,
and was so glad to be out of that evironment I never wanted to go back. 
But here was this time and activity where I participated with others in
what was a really a coming of age adventure for most of us.  We all have
pieces of each others past here. Many people who got there start off of
Project Delta never became a part of it.  My friend Steve Stutheit, who
went to Concord high before me, told me many stories of the things that
went on a Delta, although he never was a part of it himself.  The same
is true of another friend, David Newman.  I heard about the Looped paper
tape crash, and the tab backspace delete crash.  They were things of
legend (no way!)  For these two, project delta was the start of their
careers, and major influences in their lives.  Yet, they are not
mentioned here, and I am sure there are many many others.  

It is hard for me to imagine what today could bring young people
together the way that Delta did.  It was our fraternity. As soon as I
started using a computer I knew it was to be my life.  Had it not been
for them I would have been doomed to amature radio. We were all there at
the beginning of what is today known a personal computing.  We each,
wanted to own that machine.  It wasn't a tool to get a job done,
something to process numbers (no spread sheets yet, remember!) or to
type papers on.  It was a god.  Dues ex machina. (is that right?) Never
had latin.  We are the accolytes who worshiped bits.  Through our
programs we communed with the great being that blessed or crushed us.
Basic was our Mantra, to compile divine.

My son is 12, and I wonder, what can I do for him so that he will have
this kind of experience in his life?  He's much like me, not atheletic,
geeky, picked on by other kids (yes, I am still picked on by other
kids!) smarter than me, and a loner, prone to crying.  But computers are
no longer magical. His playstation is just another form of
entertainment, as are my pc and Mac systems. Soon too, computers will
become invisible. Discreet systems will go the way of the monolithic
systems until the Internet is the computer.  What then?

Waxing philosopical again.

Kendall