Not that there is a lack of gray hair at IDT. For many positions, there is just no substitute for experience, and recently we have even hired some retirees. Although this part of our staff may be older chronologically, in terms of their attitude they are just as energetic and spirited as the recent college graduates, sometimes even more so. Partially that’s because these are the only kind of people we hire. More than that, I believe working in such a youthful environment just brings out the spirited kid in everyone, the same kid that corporate culture usually works so hard to suppress. I know IDT has had that effect on me. I feel more adventurous, driven, and playful now than I did five years ago. I haven’t changed my diet, so I can only conclude that it must be from working with these kids. Many times at work I actually feel more like I’m a head counselor at a day camp than the head of a legitimate business. I don’t fight the feeling; I just try to keep the campers’ spirits high.

But back to Max. In his first few weeks at IDT, Max was turning out to be a fine addition to our engineering department. He was obsessed, however, by one thing. From his very first day at work, he kept asking me, “Where’s my Internet connection?”

“What’s the Internet?” I asked him.

Thus began the next phase in my continuing education. Max explained to me that the Internet was originally a computer network set up by the federal government to link important national defense institutions. Its great advantage was that because data flowed across it in a “packetized” format, if any piece of the network were to be knocked out by an enemy attack, the rest of the network would continue to function and effectively replace the section that had been knocked out.

Before Internet technology was developed, if a computer user wished to send a message to another user via a modem, he had to establish a direct telephone link between the two computers. If this link were to be knocked out, no communication would be possible. It was also extremely inefficient, because no other data could travel these wires other than that from the two participating users. If a third party were added to the lines, total confusion would result.

The Internet approached communication in a completely different way. On the Net, each message that I want to send to a particular individual is broken down to its component parts. Thus, the message “I need you,” would be broken down into eight parts, as follows, I/N/E/E/D/Y/O/U. The first part, I, is assigned the number 1, and the last part, U, is assigned the number 8. Each part is then given the address of the recipient to whom it is being sent. If I wanted to send a message to Max, as an example, the order number of the message, and Max’s name, together with the actual content being sent, would constitute the package. Thus, the first packet would be I number 1 to Max. The final packet would be U number 8 to Max. With this new system, you need only a single wire to hook together hundreds of computer users. As thousands of messages flow by Max’s computer, his computer, in effect, puts out a paddle to receive. Only those messages that are labeled “Max” would adhere to his paddle. The computer then arranges the packets in sequential order, as they were sent. A million people can share one fiber-optic cable, and every space on the line can be filled with messages, and still nobody gets anyone else’s stuff. That’s what makes the Internet so unique, and so efficient. Now, what actually happens is that the packet is also coded to include the name of the sender and the time the packet is being sent. You can therefore receive messages from dozens of senders, and your computer will read each of them separately. This, in a nutshell, is how E-mail works.