[Series] School PC Blunder Theater: Daily Life at a Help Desk in the Early Heisei Era - Part 2: When We Thought the Internet Started with Yahoo

At the time, as an IT infrastructure SE, I worked alongside vendor engineers to build servers and networks, and while managing and operating those systems, I also worked on-site as a help desk.

In this series, I use 4-panel comics based on true stories to depict how the people I met at those schools, who knew little about PCs or the internet, gradually became accustomed to IT.

The last episode was about a staff member who asked the help desk how to lower the stage curtain. "PCs are just like electrical appliances, right?"—that phrase is the origin of this series.

This time, it's a story from a heartwarming and endearing era about the world outside the network, the internet, and how machines work.

Short Story

1. The internet has disappeared

"My PC's internet has disappeared."

A teacher said this over the phone in a serious voice.

Disappeared... the internet... is that even possible?

I headed to the site just in case. When I checked the PC, the browser launched, and various pages opened normally.

"It's connected."

"But... the usual one isn't appearing. Look, when I open this, Yahoo is supposed to appear immediately, but it's not coming up, so it's not connected, right?"

...I see.

The browser's homepage setting had simply been changed. When I set it back to Yahoo, the teacher's face lit up.

"Oh, the internet is back!"

The internet hadn't gone anywhere.

At the time, many PCs were set to open the Yahoo! JAPAN top page when the browser was launched. (*1) In other words, for many people, "launching the browser" = "opening the internet" = "Yahoo appearing" were often talked about as one and the same.

When that was disrupted, it looked like the internet had vanished.

It certainly does look that way, doesn't it? And as an aside, those very people were often able to open things like Yahoo Weather's pinpoint forecast and explain them in great detail. (I didn't even know such things existed until they taught me 💦)

2. If you can see your favorite site, you'll surely remember it

Around the same time, there was an older teacher who would ask the same questions over and over.

Since they would ask the same thing every time while saying, "Did I ask this before?", I tried suggesting that they take notes.

"If you take notes, you'll be able to look back at them yourself next time."

Then, the teacher said with a look like they had just thought of a great idea.

"......I think I'd remember if I could look at sites I like."

"......Excuse me?"

"If I'm interested, it'll stick in my head, right? That's why I want to look at sites I like."

That might indeed be true. However, school PCs have browsing restrictions.

"Well, let's start with the notes first."

"I see...... well then, how about both notes and the sites I like?"

"......Let's just stick to the notes."

3. The paper I sent by fax came back

One day, a student came to me for advice, saying, "I can't send a fax." When I went to the site to check, it was sending just fine. A transmission complete message was also displayed.

"It's sending fine."

"But the paper keeps coming back here."

......Ah.

A fax does not mean the paper itself flies off to the recipient. It is a system where the content written on the paper is printed at the recipient's end via a telephone line. (*2) The original document returns to your hand after transmission.

When I explained that carefully, the student finally had a look of "So that's how it is."

However, there was something that bothered me.

"How many times did you try?"

"......Many times."

Looking at the transmission history, dozens of sent records were lined up.

......This meant that the recipient had received dozens of copies of the same document since the morning.

As for the subsequent conversation between the student and the recipient..., I will refrain from writing about it.

*1 Terminology notes from that time

• Yahoo! JAPAN: A Japanese portal site that launched its service in 1996. It was multifunctional, offering search, news, email, shopping, and more, and for many people at the time, it was the "gateway to the Internet." It was often set as the browser's homepage, and the perception that "the Internet = Yahoo" became widespread.

• Browser homepage settings: The page that is displayed first when you launch a browser. Nowadays, Google or the browser's start screen is common, but at the time, it was mainstream to have it set to Yahoo! JAPAN.

• FAX (facsimile): A machine that scans the contents of a paper document, sends it over a telephone line, and prints it at the destination. It is a mechanism where the original document itself does not move but is "sent as image data," but because that movement was invisible at the time, it was easily misunderstood.

Because the mechanism is invisible, what you see is everything.

[Image: Illustration]

The Internet, fax machines, and computer operations. What they all have in common is that "you cannot see what is happening inside."

All the user can see is the screen display and the paper in their hand. That is precisely why they have no choice but to imagine how it works based on what they can see.

The same thing is happening with today's AI and IT.

"I pressed the button, but nothing changed."
"I asked the AI, but it gave me an irrelevant answer."
Interpretations of invisible mechanisms lead to discrepancies in operation.

The idea from back then that "there is no Internet because there is no Yahoo" is laughable, but we might be doing the same thing somewhere today.

How do we convey the mechanisms of things that are invisible? That is an essential question in IT education, and it still continues today.

Next Episode Preview

Next time, it's the story of someone who read an update notification email and thought, "They sent a secret email just to me."

An update is not a date (lol)