For the last several years I have been writing occasional essays, most of which are related to the online world or computing. Some are just about life. Many of these have appeared in slightly different form in WindoWatch Magazine.

• About the current article:

Catching Up

After a two year hiatus the Modemjunkie returns. Playing catch up, he discusses a number of things that happened in the interim, with special attention to:

• The Release of Opera 6.0 (and a Trip to Oslo).
• The Decline of the Independent ISP.
• The AT&T @ Home Broadband Debacle.
• and much much more...

• To the complete current article.

The Archive:

Earlier essays are collected here in reverse chronological order. (The newest is on top.) Check back each month for the latest edition. At the bottom of the page are some additional musings on various subjects.

• A Tangled Web. Connections between contemporary music and Kabalah and other oddities. (Februrary (2000)
• Trust or Consequences Questions about the the responsibilities of online writers and their readers. (January, 2000)
• Thoughts on the End of a Century (December,1999)
• My Cup Runneth Over. Thanksgiving and first steps into broadband access.(November, 1999)
• Searching for Barry Goldstein Virtual Reality -- Real Loss. Interpersonal communication and the development of online community -- and some of the consequences. (October, 1999)
• Presents Tense A new find (Ellen's Presents), a new trend (Weblogs) and a new problem (Who owns your page anyway?) (July, 1999)
• *** Plugged in -- Unglued *** The famous missing column. Read it now. (June, 1999)
• Quitting Comdex Cold Turkey (May, 1999)
• Balance in the Brave New World - Old and new technologies working together (April, 1999)
• Still Online Still Amazed: Tales of Now and Then (February,1999)
  • A Tale of Now: Online access at the airport.
  • A Tale of Then: Fighting Holocaust Denial:
    
    • Hate and Free Speech meet online
  • Mini reviews:
    • pcAnywhere
    • A short story by E. M. Forster: "The Machine Stops"

• Virtual Vacation (January, 1999)
• I ain't Cuttin' my Blessin' A story for the season, with thanks. (December, 1998)
• Catching Up -- A look at WordPerfect 8 and more. (November, 1998)
• Because it's there --The Publication of the Starr Report (October, 1998)
• Why E- Commerce Ain't All Bad. How the Web Brought Back my Childhood, Explained a Mystery, and Made an Honest Man of My Cousin. (September, 1998)
• Installing Windows 98 -- On the Cutting Edge.(July, 1998)
• A Matter of Perspective -Two Unrelated Events On the infrastructure and Mr. Gates and more. (June, 1998)
• Spam, Spam,Spam,Spam,Spam The virtues and dangers of Spamblocking. (May, 1998)
• Catch 56 Some caveats about moving to the v.90 standard. (Note the update in the errata section at the end of the column.) (April, 1998)
• What Hath God Wrought An inquiry into infoglut. (March, 1998)
• Quest. Websites that engage and delight. (December, 1997)
• Thanksgiving Thoughts And a review of Michael Quinion's Spell Checker for Edit Boxes. (November, 1997)
• I am not a Luddite Wherein the Modemjunkie is overwhelmed by the infoglut and the pace of change. (October, 1997)
• And see the extra October supplement They are coming to take me away. More change.
• LIKSE a useful Web search and browsing tool.A reverie and a review. (September, 1997)
• I Am Counting on You Including a review of Analog - a logfile analyzing tool (July, 1997)
• Where are you now that I need you Dr. Debakey? Replacing the motherboard (June, 1997)
• Cleaning out the dead Indians - - or Down with unwanted clutter (May, 1997)
• Culture Shock Web TV?? Web TV!! (April, 1997)
• ACCESS Access access (February, 1997)
• New Years Revelations (January, 1997)
• Don't Wait for the Fat Lady Opera reviewed. (December, 1996)
• Multimedia Interactive Multitasking (October, 1996)
• Triangulation(September, 1996)
• A Summer Reverie(August,1996)
• Comdex in a Day (June, 1996)
• In Memory of Arthur (May, 1996)
• A Loss of Meaningful Distinctions & Netscape Blues (April, 1996)
• A ModemJunkie tries HTML-IN HTML!! (March, 1996)
• "To See Oursel's As Others See Us!" (February, 1996)
• "Whither are We Drifting?" (January,1996)
• "All I want for Christmas . . ." (December, 1995)
• Faster FASTER F A S T E R!! Up to 28.8 (November, 1995)
• Looking Back...A Year on the Net (October, 1995)
• Starting Place (September, 1995)
• Win 95 --A Revolutionary Approach (August, 1995)
• This may be the greatest moment in online . . . (July, 1995)
• A Breeze, A Book, and Win 95 (July, 1995)
• "The Corner Garage " (June, 1995) My Favorite Piece.
• Slowing down (I came home and didn't logon) (April, 1995)
• Getting "Stoned" and an intro to my favorite sites (March, 1995)
• Life before the InfoBahn (February, 1995)
• Learning to Walk Again --First Steps on the Net (December, 1994)
• The Pawnshop Special (I jump to Windows) (November, 1994)
• Rush Hour on the information Highway (September, 1994)
• Discipline (I Promise not to Logon today) (June,1993)
• Meeting the Faces Behind the Screen May, 1993)
• The DOS 6 Rollout (April, 1993)
• The Great PKZIP Flap (March, 1993)

Addendum

From time to time I have written pieces which don't quite fit into the format of my regular commentaries but which I wish to share:

• Visit to Israel - - An appetizer. January, 1998
• An Open Letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu (September, 1997)
• A Fire is Buring-On the Federal Shutdown (January, 1996)
• The Quick(en) way to Computer Literacy (1992)

For more about the ModemJunkie see the third article in James Coates' Tribune series "Orbiting On Line," "Finding Poetry in the Net". The whole series is an excellent introduction to the internet.

Webloggers feverishly accomplish every day what I try to do in a more leisurely way every month or two.

On November 21, 1999, In a Weblog entirely misnamed, Apathy Dan Fitch enthusiastically wrote, about the ModemJunkie:

While ostensibly not a weblog, he has an excellent linked article style that I find myself wishing I could do on cohesive updates for a particular topic.

Dan has an excellent writng style, and he has time to develop. His ecclectic site has led me to listen to music I skipped the first time around in this life.

In the November 25, 1999 edition of the excellent Camworld, Cameron Barrett writes:

Reflections of a ModemJunkie is one of the oldest tech-oriented personal web sites on the web. Lots of great stuff to read here.

Camworld needs no introduction to those who follow the Weblog scene. Constantly rated one of the top two or three Weblogs, the comment is greatly appreciated. [And the result is reflected in my referrer logs.]

I am interested in your comments, great thoughts and criticisms. Send e-mail to: [email protected] (private) or leave a note in my Guestbook (public).

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Updated 12/30/2001;

Background source as modified by Terry Sullivan