Poof! It is there!

Ken Johnston

If 20 years ago, someone told you that you would someday be able to send information instantaneously around the world you probably would have said, “Ya right. What planet are you from?”
Now we rely so heavily on the internet and email to get information to and from all over the place in a matter of seconds.
I remember when we hooked up our first fax machine at the Record. It cost $1,500 to buy and was the second one in Rainy River. At first it just sat there and really did not do very much. Some people even said, “What a waste of money. Who will ever use that?”
Well in those days you could send a letter priority post for about $6 and it would arrive anywhere in Canada in about 2-4 days. Well when people learned they could send important documents via fax for much less cost and have them arrive in a few minutes... well it was not long and the fax machine became the medium of choice.
No longer would we wait for the mail to bring us important news releases that were often 10 days out of date by the time they arrived. Now they came the same day of their release.
Well today we send and receive those releases as the event happens. And over time even our local correspondents have learned to use the internet and email. Very few things come into the office handwritten anymore,needing to be retyped.
While we are receiving photos, the dialup internet we have, while much faster and capable than fax lines, is slow for downloading and uploading.
In a few weeks the Record will go to high speed internet and take yet another leap closer to light speed. –Until then, Ken