How times have changed

Again apologies to anyone that was looking for this earlier today, but it was yet another busy day of clean-up and errand running around my home.

The clean-up efforts helped to inspire this article as I went through a file cabinet drawer (or most of one) full of old paperwork.  A lot of old paperwork.  Very old paperwork.  Paperwork from the mid-90's if not earlier.  Several copies of same.

Why there were that many copies of some of this paperwork I'll never understand.  I know I printed multiple copies of some of the records, but I don't think I ever created that many copies.  I may have, but it was so long ago that I just don't recall.  Sadly, that those records were still around is embarassing because they should have been destroyed (or could have been, I should say) years ago.

Some of the materials were newer and some of those materials are what really inspire me here.  Materials that contained (not my own) a lot of material that would be termed PII in government circles.  PII = Personally Identifiable Information (or something close to that definition).  Materials that pair up a name with other identifying information such as addresses, phone numbers and the like.  Like say old school guides that told parents and students who everyone in their school was along with who all of the parents were and how to contact them.  Ooooh, fun stuff.  The type of stuff that there'd be absolutely no chance of seeing a compilation of in today's modern world.  In this modern era everyone (myself especially) does whatever they can to help protect their privacy, except for, well, publishing a ton of information on Facebook, or say here at JU.  Information that can be tracked back to individuals.

Yeah, there are people that will freak over having their information published in some circles but then will turn around and be completely free with the information in other places.  Regardless of that, I have to say I was amused somewhat by the amount of personal information that I found in the stacks here.  It reminded me again of how much things have changed over time.  I remember looking for grades for classes that I took in college on sheets of green-bar paper that showed nothing more than social security numbers in one column and grades in another.  If someone had copies of those old postings they'd have a virtual smorgasbord of identies that they might be able to take advantage of, or at least they'd have the knowledge that they had a bunch of viable social security numbers that were real.  Ahh, definitely not the kind of thing that happens any more.

The other thing that amused me, probably even more than the personal information that I found, was finding some old phone bills.  My wife had kept a bunch to keep as justification for work/employment expenses back when she was selling Avon and such.  Looking at those bills I was stunned to think of what we paid for phone service in any given month.  I know that phone service used to be expensive, and that we used to have multiple phone lines and/or pay a fee for a number that was not directly offered in our neighborhood (one that gave us local calling to the area we both worked in, rather than limiting the calling area to one where we had little or no friends or co-workers to contact).  Looking at those bills I could see where we used to pay (for local and long distance) well above what I'm now paying for Triple Play service (with a bunch of extras) from Verizon.

I know at the point that I could get VOIP service to combine with hi-speed internet via cable I jumped all over it.  Back then (sheesh, that I write this as "back then" when it was about 5 years back) I was looking at the savings I'd get by paying $25 a month to Vonage combined with $59 a month (give or take) to Comcast and was loving every minute of it.  Bills for Verizon (POTS service) plus the long distance components of same were well above that combined total and of course we had that POTS (plain old telephone service) line along with Comcast service so switching to Vonage was a savings of anywhere from $50 - $100 a month, if not more.  Again, you can see how much times have changed.

Oh well, that's enough for now.  Looking at the clock, this may show up on Monday, though I started it on Sunday.  The fun of living on the East coast and being up late.