She Did the Best She Could

I grew up in the 50's and 60's, a time when we were in a space race with the Soviet Union.

All the astronauts were men.  The people in the control room were men.

Little did I know about the female "computers", who, starting as early as 1939, helped to put airplanes in the air and, eventually, the United States into space.  No one talked about them.  No one taught us about them in school, even in the science oriented high school I attended in New York City in the late 1960's.

No, NASA's face was totally male. 

I did not pursue a science career (I was never able to conquer mathematics) but the space program always remained dear to me.

Some of these computers, not machines, but humans who did their calculations by hand, were women of color.  They rode to work in segregated buses, consigned to the back.  They worked in segregated rooms.  Some had to go to the bathroom in a different building than they worked in.

In those days, a "computer" was a human.  Machine computers were primitive, and not trusted for many calculations.

Eventually, a book called "Hidden Figures" told some of the stories of three female computers of color..  Among them was a woman by the name of Katherine Johnson, who did the calculations for some of the first Mercury missions and Apollo 11, the first manned mission to land on the moon, among many other accomplishments.  She retired in 1986.

In an interview several years ago, she humbly said "I did the best I could".

Fast forward to 2017, when spouse and I traveled to Columbia, South Carolina to view the total eclipse of the sun.  

At the museum where we saw the eclipse, there was a NASA trailer and a long line to get in.  We saw their display and, at the end, were invited to the Langley, Virginia NASA facility where Katherine Johnson and others had worked, for an open house that October.  They only hold the open houses every five years, and this one was special - their 100th anniversary.   Health permitting (Ms. Johnson was in a wheelchair by then), Katherine Johnson was planning to attend.

But my elderly mother in law's health was starting to fail, and we could not make the trip.

Yesterday, we lost Katherine Johnson, aged 101.
May she rest in peace.

Back in the Day #WordlessWednesday

While we are on the topic of the 1969 moon landing, the part of New York State I live in had a role in creating some of the technology used by NASA (such as the flight simulator the Apollo 11 astronauts trained on).  If I have time tomorrow, I will blog about that simulator.

Recently, I visited an organization called TechWorks near downtown Binghamton, New York, which is a combination museum and educational center.   Because today is a Wordless Wednesday, I will just show you some vintage computer equipment from the early 1960's.  This may have been equipment similar to that used in early space programs.

IBM 1440 computer. This ran some $90,000 (in 1962 dollars!) and up and wasn't too powerful by today's standards.

Something powered by vacumn tubes (top of item), which predate transistors and the modern technology of today.

Just imagine, humankind went to the moon using equipment not too far advanced from these items.  Now, we hold more power in the palm of our hands, but we make other choices.

The moon awaits.  Will we choose it again one day?  Wil this anniversary respark interest?

Join Esha and Natasha for #WordlessWednesday.

The Suddenly Unknown Address

Sunday night, I was (unexpectedly) online, ordering various computer parts.  My desktop had been giving me trouble for several months.  My son had done some temporary short term fixes, but, Saturday morning, I turned my computer on - and, several minutes later, the computer turned itself off.

Long story short, my computer, which dates from the big "Windows XP Support is Ending" era, died.  Son thinks it's the motherboard.  Because of its age, it isn't worth fixing.

So, there I was, ordering parts son would use to build me a new computer.

To my great surprise, two of the sites said the postal service could not validate my address.  That was news to me. I've lived at my current address for longer than some of my blog readers have been alive.  I do not live out in the country.  I am puzzled.

I found shippers such as UPS have "address validators" and, at least according to UPS, I exist.  That's reassuring- I think.  So, maybe I can face this upcoming April challenge with a new computer, if my address is indeed valid.

But why would my address become invalid?  That still is making me wonder.

There's one additional challenge,once I get my new computer - learning Windows 10, which I have never used.

It will keep my mind young, at least.

Are you participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge?

When We We All Win

There is a small part of Sunday's Super Bowl that won my heart.

"When everyone plays, we all win".

I learned about disabilities (indirectly) early in life.  My father suffered a traumatic brain injury during his service in World War II.  He was discharged, left to find his own way as best he could in a world that was hostile to those with disabilities.  He did make his way, but help would have made his life a lot easier.

My autistic brother in law was also born into that same world of the 40's and 50's, and, through people I've met because of him, I've learned that what many with disabilities are looking for is simply the same chances that everyone is supposed to have in our country.  They want friends.  They want to participate in the activities of their peers, including playing of games. They want a job that pays enough for them to live independently.

Of course, a game controller can't bring these children a total level playing field in life.  But it's a start.

In today's world, the life of those with disabilities can still be harsh.  So anything that "levels the playing field"should be applauded.

I wish the best to the children and their families featured in this video.

Computers - #AtoZChallenge

I originally wrote this post in May 2009 and repeated it in October of 2011.


Many people I know can not remember a time without computers.  Even me, and I'm in my 60's. But, in my youth, I saw computers only during the reporting of national elections (it was a big deal), but there were also the mysterious "do not bend, spindle or mutilate" punch cards that were enclosed with our phone bills.

Computers were huge, incredibly expensive, and owned only by universities, the military, and corporations, as far as I know.  Unlike, say, typewriters.  Remember them?

There is still a typewriter (another moment of nostalgia, shall we?) in a room near where our department at work is located.  I wonder if it is the last one the company I work for owns.  Back in 2011, finding it lead to a discussion with other baby boomers (in the presence of a co-worker in his 20's) about manual typewriters, carbon paper, those erasers with a brush on the end we used to erase errors on carbon paper, and Liquid Paper (which still exists).  Then, we got on the subject of long distance phone service and how expensive it was. (I think he was a little puzzled  by the concept of "long distance".) 

I got to thinking about my son, who is just slightly younger than this former co-worker.  An innocent question my son asked in his teens led to this post, which I've modified slightly.  Sometimes I think his generation and mine were born on different planets.

I remember other computer things, too: mainframe computers, keypunch machines (I used them in college, imagine that!), writing simple programs (I took a semester of both Fortran and Cobol, didn't pursue programming, but I enjoyed what I did do in college courses), monitors with a green and white screen.  I was even on CompuServe for a while in the late 90's.  Strangely, I never participated in the pre-Internet online world, and sometimes I wonder why.

Who ever would have thought....

Now, my post from 2009:

So How Did The Baby Boomers Get online in 1958?

First, I am not trying to mock my teenage son. But it shows how, in some ways, the mindset of the present generation is so much different from those of us born only 35 or 40 years earlier.

My son knows about what the computers of the 1950's looked like. People of my generation remember the UNIVAC.  My son has studied it.

Do you remember the famous "hoax" picture of the 1954 RAND prototype of the first home computer? Maybe that was what son was thinking about when he asked his question.

One evening he asked me "how did you get online when you were growing up? Did you have one of those huge computers in your bedroom?" I thought he was kidding me.

He wasn't.

Although he intellectually knew there was no "internet" as he knows it back in the 1950's or 1960's, he had to believe that there was something out there that I used, something very clunky, using technology full of vacuum tubes.

He couldn't believe I grew up in an era without home computers. 

Interestingly, son is also interested in "old technology". For example, he is looking for a good Betamax player (and has several Betamax tapes). He just couldn't make that intellectual leap of "no computer, no Internet".

Let's think about this a minute. I bought my first home computer (a bit later than other people, I admit) in late 1996 and went online in January of 1997. So my son was in kindergarten at the time.  That computer connected through a 14,400 baud modem,  and used Mosaic as its browser.  (How dated can you be?)

From his viewpoint, there was a computer in his life "forever".

This leads to another question.  When did the Internet start? The answer is complicated. This link has quite the discussion and the answer is..."it depends".

But no, we didn't have either the Internet or home computers in 1958.  Just typewriters, carbon paper and long distance.

Join me each day (except Sundays) this month, when my theme is "traveling through time and space."

Echo and the Future

Last night, I found myself pondering the purchase of an Amazon Echo Dot. I know someone whose daughter has one, and here I am pondering the purchase of one.  I could sure use a digital assistant always connected to the Internet, and ready to make my every wish come true, couldn't I?

Now that few of us could imagine a life without the Internet, it can be informative to look back and see the types of predictions that were made in the 1980's and 1990's about online life (yes, there was online life before the Internet).

Check out these predictions from 1990-1995. 

But what seems to be missing is the realization that evil hacks into what we now call The Internet of Things could change our world in an instant.  Or that technology could take us over if we weren't careful.  Imagine a homicidal Dot.  Go to Amazon's Echo Dot page and read the comments.  Interesting.

Or, read a book called 1984.

Or just think of the possibility that hackers influenced the outcome of our recent Presidential election in the United States.  At this time, all that is certain is that all our elections need to be audited, according to some experts, although at least one state has agreed to a recount.  Electronic elections are just too vulnerable not to have safeguards. But just the fact that we are having this conversation tells us something.

The future is here, whether we like it or not.  And we'd better pay close attention.

Finally:

I originally blogged about Newspapers Circa 1981 - Cutting Edge! in January of 2010. Just think - newspapers trying to position themselves online. Little could they have known....and perhaps it is best that they didn't know.

Hey, it's the wave of the future! 

Too bad the reporter didn't have a crystal ball.  Or a link into the future.  If he did, he'd hear a lot of laid off newspaper people screaming to him "Don't do it!"


Watch the person dial into an online service (CompuServe?) using a rotary phone and then reading a paper online.  It only took two hours to download.

If the man in this clip is still around he may be wondering "What was I thinking?  I should have waited for 2016 and bought an Echo Dot!"

Did the late Steve Jobs know something the rest of us didn't?  You decide. 

But, as for that Echo Dot - I'll let you know.

Day 29 of NaBloPoMo.

Earth Day 2013

After our community 2012 Earth Day event was cancelled due to the aftermath of the flood of September 2012 that impacted portions of the Triple Cities (Binghamton area) of upstate New York, the event returned for 2013-actually two events.

After having waited on a long line the Saturday before to recycle some electronics, we realized how much of a demand there was for that kind of service. Many people do not want to see their old computers, cell phones, DVD/CD players end up in a landfill, but many communities do not offer an alternative.  And if they do, and you give the material to a recycler, are you assured that your old electronic "junk" won't end up in a third world landfill?

Universal Recycling in Binghamton, New York (and other location throughout the United States) is trying to prevent that.  The electronic material you bring in is broken down into components and the various ingredients (as described by the young man we spoke to at the Broome Community College Earth Day event on Sunday) are sold to companies that can use them.  They do everything possible to keep materials out of landfills.

We also spoke to employees of Broome County about their composting programs, and to a man who sold us a composter years ago, which we still use.  He told me that, for years, he's had a vermicomposting (worm composting) box in his office, and many of his c workers were unaware of it.  He brought it to the Earth Day event and showed me the worms, but to be honest, I am too squeamish about worms to consider it.

This time, we did not leave with tree seedlings (we have several growing in pots from previous years but have no room on our small lot to plant them) but did get a free packet of scarlet runner bean seeds, crocheting instructions for making a beach bag out of plastic grocery bags and a cloth bag for our grocery shopping.

What did you do for Earth Day?

Will the Mayans Have the Last Laugh?

Is it going to be the end of the world as we know it?  Were the Mayans right after all, give or take a couple of months with calendar changes, Daylight Savings Time, or whatever?  (No, please don't panic - at least not yet.)

Do you believe that the asteroid 2012 DA14 is going to miss the Earth on February 15?

After all, it is going to get closer to Earth than the moon, and even closer than a number of satellites.  (Even the International Space Station!) Back in the 1960's I would have said "Far out, man!"

It is going to zip by so quickly that observers in Eastern Europe, Asia and Australia will have to know exactly when and where it will be in their sky.  (They will need a telescope or binoculars.) We in North America?  It will be too dim for us.

Now, though, just imagine if the scientists and their calculations are wrong.  Don't misunderstand me.  I - should I say I am a firm believer in science?  Or, that I have faith in science?  I need a little English Language jump-start here.

I do know, however, that scientists can be wrong.  Just because computers say something is fact doesn't mean it is fact. Scientists have been known to make math errors.

I remember The Mars Metric Mistake of 1999. Oopsies! (Goodbye, Mars Climate Orbiter).  OK, this was an English/metric conversion error but it happened, and it has happened more than once.

In other words, miscalculations are always possible.  No, it isn't time to panic or quickly build a fall out shelter.  And I'm not about to engage in conspiracy theories based on "the government" knowing something and not telling us.

So - not speaking as a scientist but as a layperson - my understanding is that this asteroid will be over the Indian Ocean when it comes closest to the Earth.  And let's say those calculations are wrong....

There are some seismically active areas (remember Krakatoa?) in this area where the Indian Ocean and the Pacific meet on the borders of Indonesia.

Now think of an asteroid turned meteor the size of (as it's been described online) a "Safeway" plowing into the Indian Ocean, possibly triggering an earthquake.  The Indian Ocean is prone to tsunamis. (Remember December 26, 2004?)  If it ends up in the Pacific, well, there is the Ring of Fire.

 And, what about all the water vapor that would be created in the instant of impact?

This asteroid will not destroy the Earth if it impacts us.  But it would cause some serious damage to some place on our planet, and could indirectly lead to thousands of deaths.

But, take comfort.

There are a couple of people well versed in science who read this blog.  I am sure they will set me straight.

But, unlike the "Mayan Apocalyse", which I never dreaded for a minute, I am going to be just a little on edge - until February 16.

Remission

I had to step back.

A combination of a big day in my life, several days of lingering illness (I'm finally starting to feel better), a birthday and "too much social media overload" made me step back for a couple of days.

I shut off the computer yesterday (except for maintaining my blog), turned my back on Facebook, and only did one brief email check.  Today, I checked email only because I was expecting some big news in relation to a longtime friend who is battling cancer, and stayed off of Facebook except for a couple of brief visits.

Guess for me, that is being unplugged.

I will return to normal but not quite yet.  Tonight I am just going to enjoy the evening and catch up with some (hard copy) reading.  I will continue to blog, but don't expect anything extensive for a couple of more days.

Aahhhhh.....

And if you are wondering why the balloons....my friend in Brooklyn knows why.  I am so thrilled because she is....in....Remission.

The big R word.

The joy is tempered because I know others who are still fighting that nasty, unfair fight.  But today, this dread disease has suffered one setback and I hope there will be more and more setbacks for The Big C.  I hope, and pray, that one day no one will ever have to fight this fight, ever again.

Dear friend, tonight I celebrate with you.

Electronic Agonizations Part 2-Can You Hear Me Now?

In the good old days.....
1. You had a black phone with a dial.  It probably hung on your wall.  You dialed, a process needing some skill.  You usually got the right number.  You rented it from the phone company. It lasted for years and years.

2. Your TV.  It was usually black and white. It had tubes.  If the tubes burned out you called the repairman (or replaced them yourself if you were talented.)  Some people even built their own TVs from Heathkits. 
They lasted for years and years.

3. Computers? Aren't those for universities and heavy duty science laboratories?  And the phone company, who sends your bill along with a Do Not Fold Spindle or Mutilate card? I bet those huge computers lasted for years and years.

In the year 2012.....

1. Phone connection works.  Phone connection doesn't work. Call cable company. They say no service problems in the area. They tell us to reboot modem. (If there was smoke pouring out of the modem it still wouldn't be their fault.)

Phone works.   Phone doesn't work.  Figure it's the phone. After all we've had it for what, 8 years? Less? Nowadays we own our own phones so we pay $80 for new wired landline phone (yes, we have a landline - although it is through the cable company) with two wireless sets.  Phone connection works.  Phone connection doesn't work. Sometimes it rings and the answering machine doesn't pick up.  Sometimes we get a fast busy signal. Other times a recording about "network problems".  Today, the phone seems to be working.  Tomorrow, who knows. Can you hear me now?  It isn't our phone. Time to call the cable company again, which is tied with root canal on the list of Things I Want to Avoid Forever.

2. TV.  Well, that's a story for another blog post.

3.  Computers?  Yes. I own three, one of which has been packed away since the flood.  It's from 2004, no sense trying to run that old relic.  It's been limping along on Linux for several years, anyway.

 Laptop - 2 1/2 years old - is now my main computer.  Now the computer case cracks, hinge breaks, hours of agonization.  Repair? Replace? Get a tablet? something else?  on and on and on.....

Thank you, all who commented and gave me advice.  The saga still is not over.

My laptop is sitting in the local computer guru's house.  He should call tomorrow with an estimate.  If the price doesn't justify it he will tell me to go to the local Wal-Mart and get a new laptop for $298.  He calls them "throwaways".  He explained to us that certain things, like printers, he won't even fix because you can buy one for less.  Well, if I get a cheap laptop I could get a iPad to accompany my iPhone, or maybe even the Google Tablet (Nexus 7). Then I could have something really portable with a battery whose life isn't measured in minutes.

I don't want to think about throwaways.  I don't want an electronic agonization.  I want the good old days.
Well, maybe not, but why must life be so complicated?  Makes me want to Bend, Fold, Spindle and Mutilate something.

Do you remember Fold, Spindle and Mutilate?

Electronic Agonization Part 1

How dependent we are on our little gadgets.

Saturday, after trying to limp along a laptop with a cracked case (caused, according to my son, by a loose screw!) the hinge broke.  I knew this was going to happen, but was still not totally prepared for it.

So I am going to ask you, my reader, for some help. (No contest, no prizes, just the satisfaction of helping a fellow blogger). 

I need a portable device I can comfortably blog and email on. It has to have a screen big enough for the eyes of a 60ish nearsided person.  It needs to have some keyboard device that an excellent touch typist can comfortably use.  It's as simple as that.
 
This is what I've done so far:

Brought to where I bought it (a computer store). Find they are now closed on weekends.

Took to Staples.  Quoted $349.  No way.

Now what?  I am going to check with the computer store above later today-actually my long-suffering spouse will, while I am at work.  I also have the phone number of someone who repairs computers and did work for my guest photographer.  But I fear the price will not be right.  I am lucky right now - I can blog and email on an old desktop.  But I already miss my laptop terribly.

When the crack in the case first appeared to be fatal, a neighbor let me test-drive his new Google Tablet (officially called an Asus Nexus 7).  He showed me the on/off switch, and how to charge it, and left me to check it out.  Trusting man, him. (yes, I did return it.)

I'll report on the Nexus 7 later.  (I also got the chance to test-drive an iPad last week).

In addition to my main needs above, this device needs to be able to:
1.  take pictures off my camera (yes, I have an iPhone but I still use my camera. A lot.) for my blog, and general emailing purposes;
2.  Email (yes, I still use email), Twitter, and (sigh) Facebook.
3.  I would like to be able to read Word documents.  I use Excel, but not that much, and I am not that good at it.  But I do use Excel sometimes to keep track of financial stuff.
4. Good battery life. I've already lived with my present laptop's 2 hour battery life.  I need better than that.
5.  Weight.  Yes, lighter would be nicer.
6.  Last  (but not least) price.  I'm afraid if I get a tablet, the "add-on"s will add up to as much as a new laptop.  (but would I be happy with a $500 laptop?  Maybe.  I don't game, except for FarmVille.)

There's the part of me that rebels against even starting this exercise.  My almost 60 year old mind, dragged kicking and screaming is shouting "leave me alone!  Can't you just curl up with a good book?"

No, I can't, and, come to think of it, a tablet would also make a good eReader, as long as I didn't have to read in the sun.

So, I am asking you, my readers, to help me make this decision.  What should replace my PC laptop?

Tablet?
PC laptop? (what I use now)
Mac taptop? (probably not but it is in the back of  my mind.)

The Thank You BBQ-Or, Adventures in Long Distance Caregiving

Yesterday was a day I wished was not necessary, but it was a happy occasion nevertheless.

My mother in law is now 83 years old.  Earlier this year she had a dizzy spell in her house and fell.  She sprained her ankle and bruised herself up badly.  The recovery was going to take a while.

We live 150 miles away.

What happened next?  Panic time. Mom was going to have limited mobility and a long recovery time.  We'd have to cook for her, help clean for her, take care of shopping and transportation needs - from 150 miles away.

 But then, to the rescue...

There were several sets of guardian angels in my mother in law's life, and yesterday we all converged on my mother in law's house for a BBQ we had promised as a thank you.


Two sets of nieces and nephews, and a single niece, sprung into action to help my mother in law out.  These weren't local people either.  They lived closer than we do, but they still had to drive a bit.  One of the duos sometimes came out more than once a week.  They all had experience with caregiving for their elderly parents (in all cases, since deceased).  They did many things, too many things to mention, to help her recovery and make her everyday life easier.  I learned a lot from the experience.  I know we are going to have many more adventures in our care giving journey.  I know this is only the beginning. 

All of these relatives, and you know who you are, thank you.  You will always have a special place in my heart.


One of the nieces, during this whole process, gave me almost nightly updates on Facebook.  We kept in touch with my mother in law, of course, and visited when we could, and other siblings helped out also.  But we both work, and anyone who has done long distance caregiving knows how difficult it can be.  I know it is only going to get worse.  We've been lucky so far.

In our case, the fact that my mother in law lives with her developmentally disabled son just added to the complications.  That's worth a blog post all by itself.

Thankfully, my mother in law is a lot better now. But time marches on and she is very frustrated at what the aging process has done to her.

Today, the weather cooperated.  My spouse (the family cook) grilled hamburgers, white hots (a type of bockwurst popular in our part of upstate NY), pork tenderloin spiedies (spiedies are another specialty food of our area), and grilled vegetables.  Everyone else brought a covered dish or a dessert.  Two people brought their I-Pads and owning one is very tantalizing.  One of the men brought a remote control helicopter, called a Parrot, which is controlled through an I-Pad.  If I'm up to it, I'll post some pictures of the adventures of the Parrot later this week.

One of the couples brought their daughter, who will graduate high school on June 15. What a smart, well poised cousin my husband has.  This is a young woman who is going to go places.  She pitched right in and did more than her share of the cleanup.

After dinner, my mother in law brought her wedding photo album out for some family memories.

There is a lot of sadness in watching my mother in law age.  She's always been a hard worker, and it is so hard for her to sit down and let other people do the work. She kept herself in shape when younger, but time takes its toll on everyone.  A stroke several years ago didn't help her, either.

She managed to exhaust herself because she kept insisting on helping us out.  Still, I know she enjoyed herself very much today, and that is all that really mattered.

And now....we can keep worrying.  Worrying about when the next fall will be.

Watson's Secret

How many of you watched the IBM super-computer Watson battle all time Jeopardy champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter on Jeopardy tonight?  It was amazing....and scary.

Online, I saw the comment that 'Watson cleaned Jenning's clock."  That person was closer to the truth than he or she may have known.  Or did the person know....the true secret of Watson?

Terminator series fans may have thought of Skynet....science fiction fans may have been reminded of HAL...but I bet not too many of you thought of Harlow Bundy.

Who he?

Let's turn back the, er, clock to the late 1880's when a man with the last name of Bundy developed a time recording device (the forerunner of our modern day time clock) and he and his brother ended up founding the Bundy Manufacturing Company here in the Triple Cities to manufacture the invention.

One of the brothers built a mansion on Main Street in Binghamton, which today is a museum (and well worth the visit.)  As for the Bundy Manufacturing Company, it moved to nearby Endicott in 1906 and eventually became....IBM, through a series of mergers.

So why is the computer playing on Jeopardy called Watson and not Bundy?

Because, in 1914, one Thomas Watson joined the Computer Tabulating Recording Company, which had been formed through a merger of the Bundy Manufacturing Company and several other entities.  In a long story which others can tell much better than I can, Thomas Watson renamed the company when he took control in 1924 and became the person known as the father of IBM.  Thomas Watson is still revered in the Triple Cities today.  The Endicott complex of IBM buildings stands, although much of it is no longer occupied by IBM.

When I came here in the 1980's, people aspired to work for IBM.  Today, it is way shrunken.  What remains?  A few thousand employees and a street named after Thomas Watson, ....Watson Boulevard. (which, when it enters Johnson City, changes its name to Harry L. Drive - named, of course, after one of the Johnson family that Johnson City was named after. And of course, readers of this blog know what happened to THEIR company, Endicott-Johnson.)

In the meantime, IBM has moved on...and $30 million dollars later, its computer named Watson is playing Jeopardy while we humans watch in a combination of pride....and horrified fascination.

Watson even had to pass the same test human contestants must pass to get on the show.

Tonight we got through single Jeopardy.  Tomorrow is Double Jeopardy and Final Jeopardy.  Wednesday is an entire second game.

Will Watson continue to clean up?  Or will humanity persevere and conquer?  Will Watson become the first millionaire computer?  (no, IBM will donate its earnings to charity.  But just think if they allowed the computer to keep its earnings and invest them...)

I'll be in front of the TV, watching.

Ah, Those Good Old Internet Days

A Stephen Colbert skit a couple of nights ago reminded me about a special anniversary today.

Fourteen years ago today (1996) I treated myself to a special present:  my first computer.  A smart phone today is probably more powerful.  This beauty, a black Toshiba desktop, set me back (with service contract) nearly $2,000.  Its Pentium I 133Mhz processor, 1.6 GB hard drive and 16 MB of Ram were state of the art.  It ran Windows 95.

My son still owns it. It's part of his unofficial electronics museum.


Approximately one month later, I went online for the first time, using CompuServe.  The browser was Mosaic. It used a 14,400 bps modem to access the Internet.  In those days, Internet service was dialup, and not only that, providers charged by the hour.

This is what the Yahoo site looked like in January of 1997.  This is the Weather Channel site in April of 1997.

This was the home page for eBay later that year.

It is hard to remember the Internet of early 1997.  Many sites were basically text oriented.  It took time for those pages to load.  I wasn't exactly an online pioneer, but it sure seems like it now.

I even still have my very first email stored.  It was request for information to find out how to build a potato "battery".  That's what happens when you have a science oriented son.

I was the last generation who knew more about computers than their young son.

Hearing the sound of a modem in that Colbert skit really brought back old memories.

I'm Swimming in Lake OldSchool

I have never blogged about my job before.  I'm not going to (specifically) but I had such a frustrating day today that I want to talk about workplace tensions (and differences in expectation) between babyboomers and people in their 20's and early 30's. 

Someone I know, when that person talks to friends about this difference in outlook and attitude says we babyboomers are "swimming in Lake OldSchool".

On one level I realize people in their 20's and early 30's grew up in a totally different world than people in their 50's and early 60's.  I have more in common with Greatest Generation people 15 years older than me than people even 15 years younger than me.

I grew up in a world where there was no internet, where employer and employee both expected loyalty (that one is totally gone) toward each other, where people were expected to take transfers without complaint, where women stayed home to raise their children (is this beginning to sound like Mad Men?), where a person was expected to take pride in their job.

Younger employees march to a beat of a totally different drummer.  They walk in the door and wonder why they aren't CEO in three months.  They seem so needy....needy for constant praise and reinforcement.  They want a prize for every tiny accomplishment.  There's no respect for authority. (I know, there is some type of cosmic justice about that, considering that we baby boomers were "questioning authority" in the 1960's and telling each other not to "trust anyone over 30".)  I see the young people take to office technology like ducks to water, but then stare blankly when you expect them to understand concepts that aren't technology related.  They want to be challenged, but can't seem to understand that everything can't be fun, that what they are doing is called "Work" for a reason.

Because my college major was anthropology, this normally would be fascinating to me.  However, I am trying not to drown in Lake OldSchool.  I know that my generation will be gone from the workplace in a few years (or maybe not, if Social Security disappears), and these employees are going to take over.  Yes, I know it, because at work the people of my generation are constantly reminded that we are obsolete.

It's not just me.  I did a very short websearch and found entire books have been written on this workplace tension, including tomes devoted to managers who have to work with this generation gap.  However, the prevailing attitude of these books towards baby boomers seems to be "you're on your way out, so suck it up". 

So that means that the values of baby boomers are not worthwhile?  That values of wanting to give good value to an employer willing to pay for a day's work are obsolete?  That we should not point out to young ones that they are expected to work rather than surf the net and text each other?  Since when were young people granted a right to verbally abuse older coworkers because they are young and will own the workplace one day?

I don't think this is the "generation gap" of Socrates.

I don't think it is immaturity.

It is something else, a physical change in the brain.   Think that is far fetched?

When I was young, I was a big fan of science fiction. There is a 1943 science fiction story called "Mimsy Were the Borogoves."  I think about that story a lot lately, although I havn't read it in many years.
If you are interested in tension between our two generations, you may want to hunt down this story and read it.

That is what we are facing, and it isn't going to get better for people my age.

So what do we do about it, without losing our sanity?

FarmVille Go Round in Circles

I think Zynga (maker of the game CrackVi....I mean, FarmVille) finally has gotten the hint. (with apologies to you lucky people who have no idea what I'm talking about.)

Briefly, FarmVille is a game you play on Facebook with your other Facebook friends sucke....I mean, involved in playing it.  You plant a virtual farm, you harvest it, you replant it, you get and receive gifts, you find things in your friend's farms while tending them, you collect same for points, you get to buy and decorate with Tuscan Villas, waterfalls, Eiffel Towers and log cabins, you do co op farming with your friends, you have barn raising with your friends...the key here is "with your friends".  Zynga has some very good psychologist designers to make sure you are "hooked" and they have done their job well.

And if you have a friend playing FarmVille, chances are they've already asked you to be their neighbor.

THINK TWICE!

As your farm grows bigger minutes farming become hours....

There are three more things about FarmVille you need to know:
a.  It is supposedly free but a lot of people spend real money on all these limited edition animals, buildings, decorations and what-have you.  Or they get tired of barn raising and spend money to complete construction on buildings and whatever. (the latest is a "beehive".)  The point is, they've spent their own money on this game.
b.  The people in "a" get madder than hell when their real life purchases suddenly disappear in the newest glitch.  Actually, the free playing people, like me, get kind of mad too.
c.   Communicating to Zynga is like...well, like any other software company, they haven't won awards for their "customer service".

You see, FarmVille is just a tiny bit more than a year old.  It became successful so quickly that it is still in beta.  And computer folks know about betas.  Right?  So what has Zynga done the past year?  Tried to fix things?  Of course not!  Instead, they have spent all their time creating even more limited edition stuff, buildings, co op ideas and so forth.  So this becomes like a car crash ready to happen - you are there watching it in slow motion: every time they put on something new the glitches get worse, and worse, and worse, and worse....

Three of my neighbors have quit the game.  Two more tried briefly to play and very quickly decided not to bother.  I'd love to know how many of the 24,000,000. people that supposedly have played FarmVille at least once still do.  Zynga, I think the term here is "losing your customer base".  Not good.  I'm sure Facebook isn't thrilled either.

Anyway....

After the latest episode of glitches (farms turning into fields of giant unintentional crop circles, constant "Saving Farm! Don't Close Your Browser" messages [translation: better reload fast, anything else you do on your farm if you believe he message will go into cyberspace] interrupting harvesting, plowing and planting, Zynga FINALLY announced they were going to...get ready for this one:  concentrate on fixing the glitches!

Why does computer software do this to people?  Why do we, the end user, put up with "improved" software that doesn't work as well as the last version?  Why do we accept these products that really are betas (at least Zynga is honest about FarmVille being in beta) where we wouldn't accept a car that was worse than your last car?  But it's always been like that since the advent of computers.

So let's hope that those people in Zynga land actually fix their game before they introduce anything else to said game.

Maybe, though, I should hope they don't succeed.  Because it may be the only way I (and many others) will break that addiction.

Conversing with Computers-Old Style

Being a fan of old technology (must be where my dear son got it from) I found this posting about a conversation with a Univac fascinating.

Years ago, when son had a couple of Apple IIe's, I remember him writing programs (well, learning to write them from books we found at garage sales and library book sales) to do this kind of thing, but not so sophisticated.

And yes, this conversation is pretty sophisticated.  For years ago.

So Much for Owning a Laptop

I had planned to blog a lot more while o vacation but my laptop had other plans for me.  It's a physical problem and I don't even know if it is covered under warranty.  So it may be a few more days before I get my photos downloaded and I have a chance to blog. 

I hope I remember everything I wanted to say.

Life Changes-I am Thinking of getting a Mac!

I have no idea why I have been researching netbooks for a good two weeks and still have not purchased.  There is something in me that just does not want to push that "buy" button.  Could be because the netbooks I've seen in stores seem so poorly made...and I don't have the money to purchase a $400 "doorstop" loaded with crapware from a company who won't give me good customer service?

Yet, I wanted something light, with good battery life, which wouldn't overheat.  I want to take it on the road to blog, to manage my photos, and to...dare I mention it?  play FarmVille.

I was amazed when a cousin's husband mentioned to me the possibility of a Mac fitting the bill.  I have used Macs in my life a total of two times.  But I have several people in my life who absolutely swear by them.

Their cost has always put me off.

But guess what...I may just do it.

Unfortunately there is no Apple Store here but I may be in a place later this month that does have one.

Stay tuned.

Wireless Security, Part Two

After "talking" with some of my road warrior friends/relatives, I am told that (indeed) wireless security is a concern when traveling.

So now what, concerning my intended purchase of a netbook?

One friend said be sure to have security software, which I would have had anyway.   And to be really cautious about doing any transactions requiring a credit card.  However, I would want to sign into various things (including this blog, just maybe) and - obviously I don't want to have my passwords stolen.

Another (who is a professional in the internet field) recommended getting a network card for a nationwide wireless network and paying for prepaid service.  That might be an idea if I could figure out how to install a card.  I checked one such service out and I could actually buy netbooks from them with the card installed.  That may be an idea, if I can get exactly what I want.

Stay tuned.