Computers.  How they have changed our lives.

I recall being informed when I started college that I was going to have to take a few courses in computer languages (versions of COBOL and FORTRAN).  I thought that was pretty useless.  After all, I was (literally) the first person to use an HP-35 calculator (patent to be applied for) and not be stuck with a slide rule.  (OK.  Brooklyn Poly made me learn how to use a slide rule, anyway.)

And, then when I went to grad school, I had a PDP-8 (Digital Equipment) computer right in my lab.  Along with a Wang programmable calculator.  And, connection to other institutions via DARPA-Net.

I was even required to teach courses in computer languages.  (Sorry, kids, I learned it the night before I taught it.)  But, I became highly proficient in BASIC.  So much so that I actually networked my company back in 1981, by connecting the five of the first commercially successful microcomputers (the Osborne) and an NEC Spinwriter (computer printer).    And, set up our own accounting system using BASIC and the Osbornes (complete with payroll, tax reporting, and inventory management).

And, I had the opportunity to meet a slew of the computer pioneers.  (It was a very small club back then.)  Including Jim (James V.) Kimsey who was drafted by Steve Case to help him start a dial-up connect service.  (I think they met at the first version of ComDex, a great computer show that has since disappeared off the horizon.)

The firm was then called Control Video- and it proffered video games to Commodore II users.  (The University of Virginia had such machines, along with TRS-80s from Radio Shack).  And, by 1982, Case was the Executive Vice President and Kimsey was the CEO.

And, while Case had the idea, it was Kimsey who provided the “gravitas” and the connections to meet with and obtain venture capital for the concept.  As it grew, the company name changed to Quantum Computer Services and the online service was called Q-Link (which went live on 1 November 1985).   And, it ventured further away from Commodore to Apple, sticking with Apple software.  Until 1989, when they figured out that the big market was the PC World.

Don’t shake your head.  You know the company.  It became America Online soon enough.  Sending us floppy disks with which we could sign up- and later on flashy CD’s with the startup software.

Dial-up eventually grew from 12K modems all the way to 52.    (Our firm actually coupled two modems together to obtain the unheard of connection speed of 100 K or so.  Now, we complain if we are not getting 5 GB service!)

As AOL got more successful, Kimsey found himself wanted for corporate board service.  Jim even tried to bring baseball to DC in the early 1990’s (long before the Nationals were on the horizon)- hoping to build the field on the site of the former Twin Bridges Marriott (across from the Pentagon at the foot of the 14^th Street Bridge).

But, Jim- who was a DC native (born on 15 September 1939)- graduated from West Point (US Military Academy), and fought as a Ranger in the Vietnam War.  He succumbed to cancer and died last month.

One of the pioneers of the internet world.  Even though AOL blundered badly in its merger with Time Warner.  It did make Jim a very wealthy man, though.

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