Theos-Talk Archives (June 1999 Message tl00067)

The power of Internet as a medium of communication and information
availability and retrieval is growing. The help one is able to get in the
cyberspace is invaluable and sometimes there is no easy substitute. My
experiences confirmed it and thought I should share with all of you.

First related to fixing my computer. My computer motherboard showed signs
of failure. Not wanting to take the risk of waiting it to fail I decided to
change the MB and go for a faster processor. Buying them was easiest part.
Once installed, there were problems. Had to go to the websites of the MB
mfr, CPU chip mfr, chipset chip mfr, Microsoft, Dejanews (for finding the
problem solutions), peripheral mfr. and finally after several visits to all
the sites above and several downloads of fixes and updates to software,
finally everything is working. But for Internet, I could not have found the
solutions and could not have gotten the needed software updates, hardware
settings etc. Many of the computer parts mfrs rely on their website to
provide information and help -- hard copy approach is going out of the
door. This trend is going to grow as everyone finds Internet gets
integrated in our day to day life and becomes indispensable like telephone,
fax, auto etc.

The second instance was when one of our well known friends due to the
ignorance of the copyright law was trying to tell me that no one could talk
about any unpublished material. I went to a discussion group which has many
copyright attorneys gave me the feedback that he was wrong and unpublished
material content can be disclosed -- otherwise newspapers can't even report
any info of public importance from unpublished material. So I wrote him
back that he was wrong about it and have not heard from him since on the
topic. (must have been a disappointment in his effort to keep unpublished
material content secret). All the info was obtained at no cost except my
time on the Internet.

Third instance was resolving an apparent problem in the auto. The diagnosis
of the problem would cost about $50.00 at the dealer. A simple solution was
found and it worked. Took 5 minutes of my time on the auto.

With the availability of theosophical materials on the cyberspace for free,
and with more people accessing Internet, I think there is a great
opportunity out there for the public to learn about theosophy at no cost to
them.

mkr