The computer inflitrates everybody's life. It helps us make decisions with instant information in any form you want it. Ain't it a great modern marvel. You can watch e-Bay bids as they happen. You can check your credit score any time. You can transfer money instantly! The computer can be a great decision-making tool! Too bad they didn't have computers years ago.
But they did! The year was 1870. John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil ran a telegraph wire to his home in Cleveland. His oil fields were in Pennsylvania. When he came home for lunch in Cleveland, he would check his personal "teletype" machine for updates on gushers and dry holes. He would then telegraph his brother in New York to adjust the price of oil for the European markets and his brother would pass on price adjustments via Atlantic Cable to Europe. John D. Rockefeller had learned to do morse code so that he could send and receive his own telegraph transactions by himself. Isn't that the same as sending and receiving e-mail? By golly, the instruments may have been "crude" (to use a pun), but "John D." had the equivalent of his own computer helping him make decisions. Say it ain't so. 1870! People making quick decisions using the power of electronic information.
In the business world (and personal world), the speed of information transmission has improved. Wal-Mart has learned to follow inventory every moment of everyday. I am reminded of a Wal-Mart store in Chicago that was low on Panasonic TV's. They checked their computers and found that there was a truckload of TV's enroute to California. The GPS system located the truck in New Mexico at mile marker number 262 on Highway 66. The decision was made to turn the truck around and move the TV's to Chicago where they were needed the most. The time of arrival was calculated for Chicago and customers were told what time they could drop by and pick up their TV's. I know why Wal-Mart makes money!. They manage their business very, very well using computers to transmit information..
So Grasshoppers, as you send your next e-mail or post your next e-Bay offering, don't be so smug. John D. Rockefeller figured out how to use current information to become the richest person in the world. Now that you are "armed" with the knowledge that instant data is very valuable, go forth and make yourself filthy rich!
Love,
Dad