What the Internet does really, really well is what it's really good at.

[amerikat]

20. I have two stories to tell about the internet and its usefullness in everyday life.

First story. The moment I knew he internet changed everything.

I'm always trying to invent a better mouse trap so to speak. It's just the way I am.
Time is 1993/1994. I was working on a project and needed to know what the heat
resistant material used on the space shuttle for reentry was made of.

All the good libraries were off limits to the general public for various reasons. Princeton University Firestone library
became usable only to university members and alumni. Our state library had become only for state workers.
The local county and township libraries had nothing that was up to date.

I was frustrated to say the least. My girlfriend worked at a major phara firm running mail accounts. She said I will post
your question on the internet usenet forums. She sat behind a 21" monitor backed up with a T3 line.

We discussed it and decided to post in the science/space and science/ceramics usenet groups.

I didn't know what to expect. She posted my question in both forums and within a couple of days
I had responses from all over the world. Singapore, Australia, Europe, US and others.
I had responses from students, professors, scientist and laymen. All answered my question.
Some offered more, like, My current professor worked on that project for Nasa, I can ask him anything you need
to know. Or I'm with the Rutgers University School of Ceramic Engineering would be happy to help.

Over the next few days I had all the info I needed to do my experiments.

At that point I knew the internet would change forever the way we got information.
I was never able to make my idea work but I knew I would use this form of knowledge gathering
in place of the traditional methods.


Case number two. My Toyota 4Runner was starting to require regular infusion of power steering fluid. No
pools of fluid on the driveway. The local garage tried twice to find the leak and failed.

I put dye into the reservoir and checked for leak with a UV light. I could see the fluorescent dye in the
reservoir but no telltale signs of the leak. I finally googled something like "Where is my transmission fluid going, Toyota"
Eureka. Turns out Toyota products have a vacuum valve hooked up the the power steering pump. $150 for the valve and none were in stock. Option...remove the valve....put a plug in the hole and plug the vacuum lines. Worked like a charm.
Still running that configuration with no problems and no more fluid be used up either.

Two success stories. There are many more. I love the internet. most useful thing EVAH!