Not everyone likes change. Seems like the older one gets the harder it becomes. The first words are usually, Why, What fore, nothing wrong with the way it is.
I know for one when the internet was in its infancy and son Ryan was still in college I could not see why he needed a computer to do his work…. after all for 100′s of years people graduated without one. Ryan is smarter than most and showed me just how I could better my business and keep all my parts and ordering on computer.
Well, at first I was a bit reluctant but with an open mind I said OK. We started with a small Mac that he could use in school and also use in my shop to do the bookwork. The secretary hated it… in fact she quit because of it. We are still good friends and she is currently doing the bookwork for the school….. I have talked to her about it and we laugh together of the times we had figuring things out. I talk to a lot of people my age….not sure if I am a old duffer, old coot, or old fart as I could not reach Randy Robinette to find out the correct category that I am in because he is the official on this matter.
What I find is most people my age don't want anything to do with computers and are not willing to learn. Like it or not they are here to stay.
Another good example of change is the cell phone….. Which so far I have avoided mainly because I am around a phone all day and some days it gets in the way of doing my work. I would love to talk on the phone all day but I get paid on what goes out the door not what comes in but you have to talk to the customer. I use to route it to the Secretary but everyone wanted to talk to Stan and training her was more work than talking to the customer. Don't mistake me here; I think cell phones can be a good thing. For instance in a emergency they can save lives and a lot of business use them regularly and could not function without them…… on the other hand I see people yakking while driving and text messaging and just wonder how much is actually needed. One thing I have to acknowledge that the cell phone like the computer is here to stay and if you think "MA Bell" is going to be burying lines underground forever….. You are badly mistaken.
Anyway, some change can be good and I hope you will look at our new site in this way. We will be making some changes and adding things which will be much easier for us and hopefully will benefit you. If there is something you want changed drop me an email and let's talk about it. On the old site, I would post once a year usually around the first of the year and ask what people wanted…… very few times did I get a response. I can remember that Reed would respond on occasion and was very helpful and we do appreciate. I do hope you will bear with us as we switch over and give us the benefit of the doubt as some things may not work properly. I did appreciate the messages we would get when the chat on the old board was down or there was a problem. Our policy of using your full name will still apply to chat and so far the guests have been policing the chat line very well.Thanks to all especially Francis Becigneul and Dick Grosbier who are on almost every night and make sure everyone logs in correctly. This makes my work a lot easier.
In closing, we hope you like it and be sure to lets know your feelings. Published Sep 21 2007, 01:14 AM by Stan Ware Filed under: Misc Comments
R.G. Robinett said:
"I talk to a lot of people my age….not sure if I am a old duffer, old coot, or old fart as I could not reach Randy Robinette to find out the correct category that I am in because he is the official on this matter. "
Stan, you are a mere Duffer – just a pup! ;)
"Another good example of change is the cell phone….. Which so far I have avoided mainly because I am around a phone all day and some days it gets in the way of doing my work. I would love to talk on the phone all day but I get paid on what goes out the door not what comes in but you have to talk to the customer"
I can relate to this – very well put! RG September 23, 2007 10:13 AM
Al Nyhus said:
I guess I'm a bit of a paradox as far as computers and electronics go.
On one hand, in my 'day job' I operate 3 very complex and demanding pieces of computer controlled/driven medical equipment. Each one of these costs in excess of 1.5 million dollars and they require a very thorough knowledge of basic quantum physics, radio frequency, signal generation, tissue heating, blah, blah, blah.
On the other hand, I can't figure out how to retrieve my messages from my cell phone.
Go figure……..
Laffin' in The Forbidden Zone. September 26, 2007 8:09 AM
Reed Garfield said:
Amazes me to think that the generation my parents' ages (they would be in late '80s) grew up, lived and worked in a world without electricity and lived to see men walk on the moon. Talk about change!
I had the first Radio Shack Model I computer in VT as far as I know. 8K ROM and 8K RAM with a cassette tape recorder for storage. I'd never seen a computer but knew I wanted one. I think it was 1976 and it cost way more than I should have spent. Upgraded to 16K RAM and I was on the verge of the Second Coming. Bought a book on BASIC programming and learned to write code because I couldn't afford to buy what little software was available. Used to stay up all night writing code and not even go to bed. Just take a shower and go to work.
I had heard of "mega" and "kilo" because I was a ham radio operator, but "giga" and "tera" were still to come. My video RAM today is bigger than my first hard drive was!
I love what technology can do. My boss came back from a newspaper trade show in 1986 with contracts to buy dedicated ad-setting terminals at $29,995 apiece. I told him I had been reading about a new computer from Apple called a Macintosh and I wish he would give me a chance to look at one before he bought anything. Found an Apple dealer and went for a demo. I was love-stricken! Told the boss he had to come with me and look at this thing. He did. We bought the first four Mac Pluses sold in the state of VT, each with an external 20 meg drive, Appletalk cables, and a LaserWriter … all for $18,000.
I set those computers up and with two girls who had never seen a computer before and the next day we did all the ads for the paper. Nobody had ever seen shaded backgrounds, bold, italic, variable point sizes — they were halcyon days for sure. For years I went to trade shows and told people "we set our ads on Macs" and they didn't even know what I was talking about. All the industry bigwigs told my boss I'd ruin his newspaper because these newfangle things couldn't survive. Little 9″ screen, black & white, no function keys, mouse, store-bought software … whoever heard of such a thing!!??
I was also instrumental in getting the newspaper online, even when I had to scan the text in on top of my regular work because there wasn't a text converter to get it from our dedicated system to the Internet. We were the first daily newspaper east of the Mississippi River to have a daily-updated web page.
Today, for the first time, I learned how to go to a site that tracks commercial airliners in flight and tracked my mother-in-law from Norfolk, VA to Manchester, NH in real time. Things like "15,400 feet, 280 Knots" as it was happening, superimposed on a map showing their progress. Pretty neat!
Always said I'd never have a darned cellphone, too, and now I can't live without it, it is really convenient. I use the Internet every day as a source for news, info, entertainment, etc.
Bring on the new features, Stan (and Ryan). I turned 64 this week and I'm excited to think what this Internet thing is going to become. By the way, my 81-year-old mother-in-law has an old PC running Windows 95, dial-up service, and terrorizes everybody she knows with email. She doesn't do much web surfing because she doesn't understand most of it. Three years ago she had never turned on a computer! Now you better not get in the way when it's time to do email!