A Little Chat about This and That

By | February 23, 2023
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A Little Chat about This and That

Over a quarter of a century ago, Darcy and I dipped our toes into the nascent waters of the Internet. They were pretty shallow then. There was not a lot going on yet. No big gazillion-dollar ships were sailing on it – just a bunch of people like Darcy and me in our little rowboat – well…more like a dinghy 

I was in my 40s then and Darcy was in her 30s. When we’d talk about “The Internet” with our friends they’d all look at us as if we were two steps from the looney bin. I can remember those days so clearly. One of my best friends called me “Captain Internet” and didn’t mean it favorably.

Neither of us could wait to get home from work and explore the Internet and pursue a nebulous dream – unfocused but as real as any dream could ever be. I would get home from work in the afternoon and browse the internet until the wee hours of the morning even though I had to get up for work at 4:30 AM. I was living on two or three hours of sleep… and loving it.

My youngest son was in high school and in a rock band that played a few small local gigs. People were just discovering websites like Yahoo, Amazon (the online bookstore), and sites like DaveCentral and Tucows where you could download programs for your computer. Everything was free. Google wasn’t even born yet. Amazon was a bookstore with a dream.

Without the slightest idea of how to create a website, I told my son that I, Captain Internet, would build a website for his band. That was easier said than done. Darcy and I met in a chatroom that I stumbled upon. I used to go there to argue with her. She was one of the founders of that chatroom called Michigan^Tavern (she’ll laugh at that – inside joke) and to me, she was the website guru – because she had a website and I wanted to make one. My attempts at creating a website failed. I was a wannabe web know-it-all who knew very little. Darcy was the website-building guru. And even though I antagonized her and never admitted I was wrong and that I knew nothing about building websites, she, for whatever reason befriended me and offered to build a website for my son’s band. And she did it. She had (and still has) the patience of a saint. She showed me how to use tables to organize web pages. Until then, a table was something I sat down at to eat lunch or dinner. She never took credit for creating that site, my son thought I was the guru!

We became friends and the rest is, as the cliche goes, is history.

Back then, everything was free -there was no trialware or software you had to pay for. Well, except for Norton AntiVirus and later McAfee AntiVirus that you could buy at a Walmart on CD. I used to download every free program I could – need it or not. And once in a while, I’d discover something really useful – like RoboForm – the only password manager available back then.  It took me two full years to convince Darcy to use a password manager and now she’s a big advocate of password managers, as am I

Netscape Navigator was the Google Chrome of the day.  Internet Explorer was horrible until Microsoft finally fixed it. After that Netscape faded away and Internet Explorer was used by 98% of people. Yahoo was the big search engine of the day but it was horrible – rarely could you find what you were looking for. I can remember telling Darcy about DogPile and AltaVista (off-the-way search engines of that era). I was the king of web searches… that’s what Darcy called me – and I was so proud. I went from a know-it-all know-nothing to a web search king in less than a year!

We bought a web domain (Thundercloud.net) and in 1998 built our first website “Thundercloud & Eightball’s Christmas Graphics, which you can still see here. Why Thundercloud? Well, when I was in my teens and early twenties I played in a rock band and dressed up like a Native American and called myself “Chief Thundercloud” for a stage act we did at that time as part of the B.W. Krook Experience…and I will not dig deeper into that!

Why “Cloudeight”? Well, Darcy’s nickname was “Eightball” because she loves to play pool. Actually, I think she was a pool shark at one time – which she denies. And when you take the Thunder out of Thundercloud, and the pool “ball” out of Eightball and put them together you get Cloudeight, which we thought was only a small step away from Cloud Nine.

And then came the fateful day when Darcy sent me an email with music and a scrolling background. We started Cloudeight Stationery and our stationery site became #1 and we were listed in the top 100 websites at the time. 

Most of you reading this are reading this because at one time you subscribed to our Cloudeight Stationery newsletter… and we so appreciate that you’ve been on the ride along with us – over all the hills and down in all the valleys.

When Windows 7 did away with Outlook Express/Windows Mail, it drove a dagger deep into the heart of our stationery and our stationery site. To survive we had to use our skills differently – helping people. And helping people is what we’ve done (or tried to do) since the decline of our stationery site. Darcy came up with the idea for Cloudeight Direct Computer Care. We can help people all over the world with our service. 

And recently we’ve started providing free extensive computer help via email. We’ve helped hundreds of people by creating personalized answers to their computer problems and computer questions – compute with personalized pictorial tutorials when necessary.  And a few of these answers and tutorials end up in our newsletters and/or our Cloudeight InfoAve website.

The internet has changed in ways we never imagined back in 1998. The only way to access the internet then was using a computer.  Now more people access the web using smartphones and tablets than using computers. Android is the world’s most popular operating system. When we started 90% of those who accessed the internet used Windows computers. A quarter of a century later the landscape looks like this: 43% use Android, 29% use Windows, 17% use iOS, and the remaining 11% use Linux and other operating systems.

While many Windows help sites have turned their focus to Android and iOS, we continue to stay focused on Windows. It’s what we know. And do you know that over a billion people still use Windows?  Yes. We do keep up with the times. I have an Android smartphone and an Android tablet. Darcy has an iPhone and an iPad. But we both use Windows much of the time and still maintain our love/hate relationship with Microsoft 🙂

Finally, we want you to know that we consider all of you our friends. All of you who’ve been on this quarter-century ride with us thanks so much. Your friendship, your support, and the financial gifts you give us are the only reasons why we’re still here for you. We love helping you and we will continue helping you as long as we can.

Thank you all so very much for all you do for us and for coming along with us on our continuing journey.

And that’s our little chat about this and that for today…

 

11 thoughts on “A Little Chat about This and That

  1. Roz Klaiman

    I found you guys when you started Thundercloud as I too was an early internet “explorer. Now, I am an old lady but still a devoted fan who reads your newsletters and continues to learn. All the best to you both,

    Reply
  2. Nora

    Without you guys I for one would have given up “learning” a long time ago. I started using a computer in 2000 when I was 61. I’d be up all hours of the night trying to figure it out. My daughter and a few others helped but a lot of it was new to them too. I self taught and boy did I make mistakes. One day I discovered Cloudeight . The computer was fun but I had a love/hate relationship with it. All the terms and technology associated with it both delighted and scared me. Cloudeight helped me through those long days and nights. My computer was like a magnet. Every time I passed the room it was in I had to go and “log in”. Many a pot dried out on the stove those days as I was so hooked. It was like an obsession. Nothing else mattered. I bet you can relate. My favourite thing to do was download your stationery and even add music! Wow! I so miss doing that and sending friends colourful Outlook Express emails for no other reason than to use your stationary. I even won your contest one year “Name That Tune”. I’m glad you guys “hung in”. Don’t ever go away! And a big Thank You”.

    Reply
  3. Sandy E

    Oh boy, great post. When I first started, the internet hooked up with a bunch of screeching and scrawling noise threw the phone line. I would stay up all hours of the night, downloading your stationery and trying all sorts of things on a computer. I been through several computers since then and they all worked for me because of your help. I still use the big computer. My smartphone scares me. I know I can come here and if anything goes wrong, “YOU ARE HERE ” to help. I can’t Thank You enough for all these years you and Darcy have been here. Like Nora said, “Don’t ever go away”

    Reply
  4. Marjorie Anderson

    I too am one of those old ladies who discovered Cloudeight way back then and have benefitted with much help through the years. This past Dec. my computer “died.” Having an external drive all was transferred to the Cloud and my I pad. So I am doing most of what I did before. So a reminder, use that external drive!.

    Reply
  5. Marguerite Cain-Norris

    I found you way back then, with your stationery, screen savers, (I still use your screen savers on my windows 10) lol and other things and I have stayed with you too. I have learned so much and continue to learn more. (even in my continuing senior years). You have been my home page for a very, very long time. I have been thru a few pc’s myself and if I or my son or my friends needed help you have been there for us all. So grateful for both of you. You are the best of the best! Thank you, Margie

    Reply
  6. Sheila Brown

    Whew, I thought ‘A little Chat’ was a Dear John letter. I too, am a long ago subscriber. I still have to refer to you website for help. I do not post questions because there are those have the same issues with their computers as I do. I can find answers through their questions and answers from you.
    Thank you for being here and hope you can stay for another 25 years.

    Reply
  7. Jeanne

    I found you two wonderful people way back when you began with your lovely e-mail stationery. For years I have told others about your website and that I would trust you like my own Mother but you know how people are with “Oh yeah, I’ll just bet”.
    Anyway that didn’t phase me at all and as so many others, I continued to follow you and of course, learned so much from you both. When my husband passed away in 2011 I kind of got off the beaten track and nothing much interested me anymore like it did before that. My neighbor was surprised when she was here trying to help me with something, said I had gone backwards with my computer knowledge instead of the other way, it seems my brain has aged at times more than my body. The thing is I know if I have issues and I do with Windows 11 especially, I know I can turn to Cloudeight for answers. I may not be around as much as before but I will always be thankful to you both for all that you have done for myself and all of the members here.

    Thank you, we love you!

    Reply
  8. Jean

    I began with you way back also. I feel like Nora and Sandy. “Don’t ever go away”. I’d be lost. So glad you came up with the idea of helping people because we sure need it.
    Thanks for all you’ve done for me and for others. Hope you will be with us for many years to come.

    Reply
  9. judy warden

    Great post, oh for those days. Like Roz and Jeanne I found you early in your stationery and also like the others, I’ve told others how much you two can be trusted. Stay around for another 25 years then write another post about the ancient day of the Internet.
    Judy W

    Reply
  10. Ruby Mailander

    | have been with you from your beginning, now I’m old, 82, I have learned so much from you both, I sure enjoyed reading this post , I loved the memories, I feel like you’re family , Thank you so much for being such kind helpers
    From Ruby

    Reply
  11. G H Williams

    Hello, Oh my goodness, I started with you when I bought my first computer ( a Laptop ) of all things to start with …lol….Windows ME I could get it started, then ever few minutes the screen turned bright blue , I paid almost $ 2,500,00 for that machine , nows it’s blue screen , I had ” NO IDEA WHY ” , so I found you , your stationary , l loved them all …the one with the animated Bird flapping its wings with a yellow , ( what looked like a sunset ) all animated . etc so many years ago!

    There are no telling how many friends I’ve share my monthly newsletter over the many years I’ve been with you . these go all over our world ..”.Cloudeight-infoave-newsletters ”

    Thank you both for all you’ve done over so many years. !!!

    I now want to download and purchase your installing . ” OUTLOOK on my Windows 10 …”
    Georgia

    Reply

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