In the 1980s, people who wanted to know about computers had to put themselves out of the way. Some companies had them, some people were allowed to touch them, but for the majority, Star Trek was as close as one would come.

A lot of people, young as well as old, learned about computers. Maybe they knew somebody or maybe they knew somebody who knew somebody, who had a computer. Maybe they went where computers were sold and found somebody to talk to. But they learned. Maybe the deeper in pocket could buy one and learn hands on. Maybe those who didn't have it had to hang out at the store, maybe getting into the backroom and watching a demi-techie fool around.

In the '90s, more people wanted to learn. Maybe their school had a computer, maybe they had them at the workplace.

Kids who could never afford a pair of Nikes, much less a computer found where companies dumped them. Many companies dump, have dumped and will dump, perfectly good computers. The boss/manager/supervisor doesn't know squat about computers, (even if they tell you they are 'systems managers' or "I.T. specialists) and are easy meat for fast-talking sales-jerks.

Between January and July 1995, '486' machines were dumped onto markets in Jamaica. Perfectly good machines, but unable to run Windows '95, which had it's official launch in August.

The resellers knew this; hey, trust me, people in Jamaica were doing Beta testing for Windows '95 in 1994 and knew when the official launch would take place.

TRAILERS OF GARBAGE

Everyone knew that a '486' could not run Windows '95, so trailers of garbage were carted out of American warehouses and sold in Jamaica.

Computers still under warranty were obsolete, and because the boss/manager/supervisor believed they would die horrible deaths unless they bought '95, a wholesale dumping of '486' computers took place after August '95.

A lot of poor kids got computers this way and some became geeks because they had to depend on themselves to fix them.

Kids learned how to take a motherboard from this one and fit it into that one or tweak a BIOS to get it to handle a larger hard drive.

When the Internet was free, these were the first in line to get accounts. When the Internet was no longer free, these folks learned to hack.

They learned how to hack into ISPs and capture passwords and were on the Internet more often than anyone else.

The very rich weren't much interested in the Internet. Those who could afford state of the art computers and unlimited Internet couldn't be bothered. Those who couldn't afford the telephone charges learned how to get on 'differently.

Necessity is the mother of invention, hence Jamaica, as other third and fourth world countries, produced a battalion of supreme hackers.

Today, computers, connection and usage are still basically the preserve of the wealthy. Instead of getting cheaper, the price has risen, meaning less people can buy a computer, less can pay for Internet services, yet, those who want it, will get it, one way or another.

The divide is not a clear line between rich and poor. It is between those who want to know and those who don't. That is the digital divide.

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20030625/business/business7.html