tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post2739589150305168254..comments2024-03-27T09:27:33.931+00:00Comments on Idiotic Hat: ComputeringMike C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-11819348178274431382011-03-30T09:50:23.595+01:002011-03-30T09:50:23.595+01:00All,
An interesting spectrum of comments. How lit...All,<br /><br />An interesting spectrum of comments. How little account both "history" and "literature" take of the flavour of our everyday working lives...<br /><br />At the risk of seeming over sentimental, it seems to me that organisations take far too little account of the wrench felt by IT staff when a shiny new system is brought in.<br /><br />I well remember the feeling (almost of grieving) when I had to put away one set of much-used manuals for the last time, and pick up a new set, while outside everyone was cheering the advent of the much-anticipated new system, and dancing on the grave of the old...<br /><br />One reason I've started to anticipate retirement is that I don't think I can handle yet another change of network, operating system, programming language, API, et bloody cetera...<br /><br />MikeMike C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-54530406880252621132011-03-30T07:37:49.888+01:002011-03-30T07:37:49.888+01:00Not quite as old, but similarly inclined when it c...Not quite as old, but similarly inclined when it come to computers - apart from the smartphone. I've got one, love it. But don't use it much as a phone (I'm still the once a week, set and appointment type).<br />I wish more website developers were like you: HTML only. That actually works pretty well on a smartphone: resizes, wraps text etc. It's all the fancy new stuff adding form over content that messes things up: I blame the fancier bits of XML entirely.doonsterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04558926453149764893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-4091250858766880422011-03-29T21:37:36.751+01:002011-03-29T21:37:36.751+01:00My first computer experience was as a math major a...My first computer experience was as a math major at Princeton University in about 1962. The machine was an IBM 650, which filled the room and operated on vacuum tubes; that is to say, it pre-dated the use of transistors! The engineers across the street had a transistorized GE model which was about a zillion times as powerful as our dinosaur. My DSLR has more power than that IBM machine did.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03769065576187088866noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-37765720605593335272011-03-29T03:50:51.433+01:002011-03-29T03:50:51.433+01:00In the 1960s, I recall, it was reckoned that no on...In the 1960s, I recall, it was reckoned that no one was capable of learning anything new after the age of 35, so the coming age of computers would see anyone in their late 30s doomed … <br /><br />The first computers I used in journalism, in the mid-1980s, were dumb-terminal affairs, and when I became managing editor of a small magazine company in 1989 that used Macs (the old Classic, no hard drive, twin-floppy, with Microsoft Word fitting on one 1MB disc - tell young people that today …) I had to spend the first three nights reading the manual to try to know what to do the next day.Martyn Cornellhttp://zythophile.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-91644043684251989552011-03-28T22:28:36.991+01:002011-03-28T22:28:36.991+01:00I had only ever played around with a Sinclair Spec...I had only ever played around with a Sinclair Spectrum, until I joined the University in 1995. What a learning curve that was. Within 18 months, I had been recruited to the Library Web Team...just like that. <br /><br />I'm no IT expert but I am grateful for the experience and free training I received whilst an employee at Southampton. I left, equipped well enough to know that I can live without Microsoft. These days I have a Mac, and a laptop that runs with the fabulous Ubuntu.<br /><br />By the way, Mike, I've recently acquired a Sansui AU-317II hi-fi amplifier. there's no phono socket for a CD player... it was made in 1974!Martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13494219959077922220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-60551928040127648792011-03-28T20:51:36.774+01:002011-03-28T20:51:36.774+01:00Bloody computers!
I remember when I was at school...Bloody computers!<br /><br />I remember when I was at school - the school computer was the size of a small semi-detached cottage in Bedfordshire and could just about add up 2 plus 2 if the right piece of cardboard with holes punched in to it was inserted. I only ever heard of said beastie in whispers as I was never allowed to see it - I didn't get as far as the sixth form nor was I any good at maths ( a prerequisite, I believe, to enter said Aladdin's Cave).<br /><br />Nowadays, most people have more computing power in their car or their iPhone than landed Mankind on the Moon. Kids have googled the answer to a question you haven't finished asking yet by the time you've told them to put the phone away.<br /><br />Yet, somehow my home PC can switch something off inside that allows you to connect to your network so you have to spend a small fortune to get some Backroom Boy in to fix it despite everyone telling you "it's easy".<br /><br />"The Singularity" is already here.Dave Leekehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17971308602082668644noreply@blogger.com