Letter from Boston My Homepage By MASAKO YAMADA	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
私のホームページ 家でも大学でもコンピューターを使いこなしている雅子さんは、世界中に張り巡らされたインターネットの情報網をあちこち見てまわるのが大好きです。このコラムの文と写真も、毎週、雅子さんから電子メールを通じて編集部に送られてきます。そんなコンピューター通の雅子さんでも、自分のホームページはまだ作っていませんでした…。

I consider myself fairly in tune with recent computer developments ― I've been an avid e-mail writer since my days at Wellesley; I've written essays for a Macintosh magazine; and I'm pursuing studies in a computer-related field ― but until this winter, I never had a personal homepage on the Internet. I've always liked surfing the World Wide Web, but I had the mistaken thought that creating a Web page was a lot of work.

However, it turned out to be very simple. My officemate, Francis, set up a simple Web page for me in a matter of minutes.

Since then I've spent many hours working on my Web page. Some people like to personalize their pages with tons of photos, sound bites, animation, and artsy designs. Other people take a "no-nonsense" approach and simply post information about their areas of interest or job experience. I've taken the middle road: I have a few fancy frills on my page, but I've spent a lot more time writing prose that I think reflects who I am.

I suppose many ST readers have never even heard of "personal homepages." In many respects, Japan is at the forefront of the high-tech industry, but many computer-related services that I now take for granted are not yet common in Japan. For instance, some of my Japanese high school friends still do not have e-mail addresses.

Indeed, it doesn't seem so long ago that I faxed my typed articles to the ST. Now, not only do I send the text via modem, I also send the pictures through the phone line. The ST also has its own Internet homepage.

On a more personal level, it seems that much of the mail I get from readers these days is in the form of e-mail as opposed to snail mail. The first e-mail messages that came from my readers tended to be from people in high-tech fields. Now, however, computers seem to be entering normal households, and I'm getting e-mail from teenage girls, full-time housewives, and middle-aged men.

Incidentally, I have two computers in my room, one in my office, and three in my home in New Jersey. I spend a lot of time at computers. That, however, doesn't mean I'm always doing high-powered analytical work. A far-too-large chunk of my computer time is used on activities like accessing the Web pages of movie stars, searching for information on old classmates, or deciding on the ideal title for my homepage.

To some, computers might seem to be steely dust-catchers that emit strange sounds and break down at the most crucial moments, but they can also help convey the thoughts and feelings of living, breathing human beings who find it hard to communicate in any other way.

As a method of communication, homepages are a little different from e-mail, since readers can view them without contacting or even knowing the owner of the page. The owners might also never know who reads their pages, either, because once the pages are on the Web, they are public and anybody can read them.

I've developed my homepage in hopes that it will be seen by lots of people, so here is my homepage address (http://physics.bu.edu/~mymy/ ). I've put a lot of thought into my Web page. Like my own moods, however, the actual content is constantly changing. I can rewrite a sentence at whim (Because it's cloudy? Because I had a good meal and feel full? Because I did well on an exam? Because I had an argument with a friend?) and the result of these little changes can be viewed almost instantly by almost anybody who has a computer, from almost anyplace that has a phone connection.

Shukan ST: Jan. 24, 1997

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