Bringing this
blog to life has caused me to reflect on technology. We've all received
those forwarded emails detailing the many changes current technology has brought our way.
Today I can’t help but personalize it a bit.
Personalizing
it means backing up to attendance at "Commercial
College" in New Westminster taking courses in:
§ comptometer - rows and rows of manual push buttons to do basic
math calculations
§ typing - manual of course - 60 words a minute was the
goal - kah-ching every time you went down a line - remember the noise in
the typing pool!
§ bookkeeping ledgers - long
paper in a hardbound book - blue lines both horizontal and vertical - had to be
done in pen
§ and as I recall we even took penmanship and spelling tests
Who can forget mimeograph - spirit duplicator - gestetner - thermofax - lots of blue ink and stinky chemicals everywhere - carbon copies - any mistakes were virtually impossible to obliterate. (FYI "gestetner" wasn't even in my built-in word processing dictionary! And does anyone ever use "word processing" in a sentence anymore?!)
I vividly
remember my first introduction to the internet. My son was going to
college, living with friends with one computer between them. He invited me
over to show me this new sensation. Clearly I recall how amazing it was
that he put in a query, pressed "enter" and a moment later the
requested information was on the screen! How did it work? Who put that
information in/on/out there?!
When I began
my library career we typed information on index cards and filed them away in
long wooden drawers. By the time I retired, we simply bought all the
bibliographic information for each book online and downloaded it directly into
a computer database ready for use by the patron. Effective but too slick - no more letters slightly out of whack, no more periods that punched right through. Interestingly, as a former librarian, when starting this effort, I didn’t
make any sort of blog-book connection until I stumbled across one called “Publishing
a Blog” (yes I was actually in a library).
I was chagrined to realize how much I have lost touch with my library roots deferring
instead to the “help” and "search" functions online. Effective but too slick. What a shame!
Today:
§ we don’t actually know how any of it works but
§ we cut 'n paste with abandon
§ print with the click of a button
§ if an internet search takes longer than a blink we complain
§ E-mail… smartphones…
§ I’m looking forward to having a Dick Tracy type watch
§ In the meantime, I’ll just go read an ebook on my tablet… while I download a video...
Thinking of the iterations of technology that have cycled past boggles
the mind
In short, blogging is mind boggling!
Who wudda thunk!
2 comments:
As I read and comment on a device the size of a thin paperback, watching my choice of 250 channels on my flat screen tv, (which I can rewind if I miss anything), I also am reflecting on 25 years of internet. Remember the assurance of a paperless society? Not there yet...
Do you remember when I was working on my office admin diploma that I was learning Wordperfect for DOS? The kids here at work blink at me like I'm speaking a foreign language when I talk about programs on DOS. And it still blows me away that I can surf the web on my tablet, while never getting out of bed. Or better yet, surf the web while in the bathtub... not that I'd ever take a tablet into the tub...often... lol
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