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I suppose the first computer I ever fell in love with ran affairs for the lunar colony in Heinlein's
`The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress'; (his last really good book,
I think), but until the 1990's my computer experience
was confined to library computers, with their rigid
software, and the reading necessary to build up collections
for the computer buffs in my schools.But in the late 80's I studied
for a Post-Graduate degree in Psycholinguistics,becoming very much
caught up in the work of analysing and applying human acquisition of
literacy with a view to achieving true artificial intelligence.
I had already noted the effect of the computer invasion on my library systems. Almost overnight, it seemed,cataloguing and filing rules had to change, so that these new servant/masters might be better served, in order that they might better serve us!
But teaching is no longer the profession
for an idealist- or for a dreamer, and I requalified
as a pharmacy technician in 1992, aged , in
order to help my husband in our pharmacy and gift-shop,
at Bannockburn, a rural commuter town 20 minutes
drive from Geelong, Victoria, Australia, where we live.
CLOSER? 
This new job meant spending a lot of time working with computers, especially designing ways for our old files to come churning out of these new, hungry mouths. So I found myself in study mode again... and all that psycholinguistics and science fiction HADN'T been wasted, after all! And one thing led to another, as it does once you take that cover off the keyboard.......and here I AM!!....enthusiastically connected to ICQ , and Yahoo and Windows Live Messenger, and Skype, programmes which I have used to keep in touch, now, from sites all around the world!!
But how I wish I had owned a
computer when I was studying and qualifying and requalifying
during my Department of Education days! Remember
when a typing mistake , or a necessary revision at the
bottom of the page meant a whole page of retyping?
Remember when research meant long hours in the library and a fortune in Inter-library loan fees?
Our generation DESERVES computers! After all, we served our apprenticeship the hard way!
My road to this cable-filled point is a familiar one, I'm sure:
From 486SX, to sound card, to modem, to scanner, to more memory, to more hard disk, to new motherboard, to Windows 95 and Webpage, then a colour scanner, then an Iomega Drive for backing up and file transfer, then a new colour printer, then more hard disk and memory, then a better sound card, then a Toshiba Laptop and Win98 for travel writing.......
... and, in Silicon Valley, a digital camera, and then the WebCam..... with all the usual dramas along the way!
And eventually, the first office machine , an antique Compac, died a lingering death, and my beloved IBM went to work in the office...
And then, finally to my daughter's home for the grandchildren to use...
... and a brand new Centauri Celeron, the first of a family, came to live at our house!!
And was rotated to the pharmacy workstations as each newer sibling came to live with us.
And the newest was given a CD Burner to play with..
And then we needed laser printers for the dispensary...
And then I needed that new way of no-modem logging on from distant places, so a new Toshiba 6100 laptop dragged me kicking and screaming into WinXP Pro and DVD.
And eventually the newest Celeron needed a facelift and tummytuck, and breast augmentation, so it seemed a good idea to insert a second hard drive and WinXP Pro..and more memory..
And then, of course, my old scanner and webcam wouldn't work with XP, and I didn't like the new ones nearly as much..
And somewhere along the line, we acquired three more digital cameras...
And then the office computer and printer began to groan under the workload and came home for the kids to use for games, while a shiny black state-of-the art machine with flatscreen monitor and optical mouse, featuring a dropdown flap for easy access to a variety of data-storage input plugs, plus colour laser-printer came to work for me..
So a new webcam and scanner joined the home family...
And a DVD burner, of course!
And of course I had to completely reorganize the office, the husband not being the tidiest of men--but thern I didn't have to sit in the corner to work!!
In fact, going to work became much more attractive to me!!
And we thought the flatscreen monitors were just the thing for the dispensary, so set them up there, too, and then the master machine needed a bigger hard drive so we adopted another shiny black and silver computer-family member.....
And then, when we sold the pharmacy and "retired" in November, 2007, the office computer came home but began misbehaving so willfully that I ordered a new machine, which, my husband told Albert, our computer-guru, was to have "all the bells and whistles possible!"
And then I liked the work monitor and keyboards and mice so much that I HAD to have the same setup for home, with an even bigger screen...
And that meant I had to totally reorganize the study.....
And a very excited Albert started typing VERY fast and came up with a long, long list of specifications which included one of the first Vista installatons in our city!
So I was now settng up a full Media study computer, but I did find it seriously silly to have a remote control and 22" screen for a computer-study just 8 feet wide and 7 feet deep!
So that new State-Of_The_Art machine went into another bedroom we had converted into a sitting-room-study, making it a media-room for the grandkids when they visit, and the laptop went into the bedroom we had converted to the husband's study, and my old office machine , after a reformat and a USB TV card, decided to behave, and stayed here, in the old computer study, the matriarch-machine, directing a 3 computer-wireless broadband network, which, after a lot of trial and error, I managed to set up WITHOUT having to call on Albert..
Especially since the big laser-printer had come home with it, AND I won a multifunction machine in a competition!
And all the computers have microphones and cameras, so we can conference-talk to family overseas, and even to each other, without leaving our desks!!
We have been through a lot, my computers and I, and it is nice, in one way, to find that they seem to age faster than I do..
And with a computer in the house, there is no` Empty Nest' syndrome! Those demanding human children aren't home any more , though there's time to spare to talk to them online.. since those figures and statistics that used to take you whole days to compile now arrange themselves and add themselves up and email themselves off to your accountant for you at the touch of a button.
In fact, I am the "computer-person" in the family, called upon, regularly, to repair or reformat or rebuild machines the kids and grandkids have managed to crash!
And those seldom-used bedrooms double very nicely as studies and workrooms and those superannuation payouts and Golden Handshakes stretch far enough to handle all but the hungriest computer mouth!
And every day, something new to learn and somewhere new to visit!
Isn't this a GREAT time to be living and learning and travelling online?
And I suppose , when I began all this, that I felt I was pioneering something..that what I thought I could bring to this Geocities neighbourhood;
was the reminder that are not `Over The Hill'; that are willing to embrace and utilize new technology;
that can comprehend computers!
"BORN BEFORE 1950" doesn't have to mean "BORN YESTERDAY"!
It can also mean " BORN AGAIN!"
Take my word for it, modems
and routers ARE for the mature and there IS computer life ! In fact, computers can open up great new vistas
and opportunites for all the brave enough to
give the new way of life a go.Sort of like a science fiction
story happening in your own study!
of the computing world,
unite! Put your thinning or colour-enhanced heads together
and vote with your modems. Get yourself into ergonomically
correct computer chairs instead of wheelchairs!
Play Interlotto as easily as Tattslotto; play Riddler
instead of Bingo! Shop online! Write E-Mail and save
stamps! Read your paper and magazine on your computer
screen! Don't hide your chronological age behind a youthful
pen-name: flaunt it! Above all, enjoy this new medium,
this great new pastime. You've earned it...and it will skip
generations for you. For ever, until they become the parent
generation themselves, you'll have something to talk to your
grandchildren about...and lots of other people's grandchildren, too!
Please mail all your questions,answers and comment about this home page to:
robin_knight@bigfoot.com
CHECK OUT SOME GREAT TRIVIA QUESTIONS
READ SOME LIGHTHEARTED BOOK REVIEWS
LISTEN TO SOME GREAT MIDI MUSIC, WELL PLAYED!
READ MY TRAVEL-DIARY AND SHARE MY ADVENTURES!
