Archive:Stories: Difference between revisions

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+{{cquote|I use Wikipedia every day.  If I need a quick answer or a detailed explanation, it seems there is always a Wikipedia entry on the subject.  I grew up with encyclopedias in the house - my father's 1937 World Book was almost a daily resource starting when I was seven years old.  My parents made the monthly payments for a 1961 Americana set when I was 11. It didn't have as many pictures as the World Book, but went into greater detail and filled in the history of the past 20+ years.
+Years later, shortly after my daughter was born, I began making payments on a 1977 Collier's.  I resumed my frequent use of an encyclopedia and showed her and her younger sister how use it to find answers to almost any question and to help them in school.  At that time, I was a parts manager who used an IBM 370 terminal (with a 300 baud modem!) to manage my auto parts inventory - it was a vast improvement over the old card system and using the phone to track down an urgently needed part.  Although Microsoft and Apple were very young companies at that time, I remember thinking then that someday everyone would have some kind of small computer to make their work easier.  A few years later, we had a Commodore 64, followed by a Macintosh Plus, and still later, a clone 286, which led to many other DOS and Windows computers over the years.  My daughters use computers daily in their work and think nothing of it, even though I am still somewhat amazed by the progress made in personal computers over the past 30+ years.
+I wish I could give a bigger donation, but being retired means I have to be selective in deciding what worthy causes I can support.  Wikipedia is one of those causes and I hope you can keep it free of commercials, just like my old 1937 World Book!}}
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 {{cquote|Wikipedia is my home page. When a question hits me, I just open my access to internet and get to Wikipedia for an answer. And I'm always satisfied with the service it gives me, whenever I need answers, doing a research or simply surfing on it. The best about all of this is that it's FREE to the public! I don't want to start paying for collective Knowledge!