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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Thursday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week –
8/10/05 |
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"I
wish coke was still cola, and a joint was a bad place to be ...." Merle
Haggard wrote those words back in the 70's, in his song "Are the good
times really over for good". He was talking about how words in our
language gain new meaning. If Merle was into computers he'd be having even
more problems with our language. Has this
ever happened to you? You're reading something in the paper, and it doesn't
make sense to you. Suddenly you realize it's because you're filtering the information
you're reading into the jargon and mindset of your work world, as opposed to
the real world. I think
this has happened to me many times over the past years, watching tv, reading magazines and the newspaper, and just talking
to people. We get so caught up in our own work worlds that we have a problem
interpreting the rest of the world. A few weeks ago I was reading the morning
paper, and the headline of an article made absolutely no sense to me, because
I was interpreting it through my computer filter, and not my rest of the
world filter. The article was talking about Java – coffee – but I
was interpreting as being about the javascript
computer language. It's
almost like those optical illusion pictures you look at, where sometimes you
just can't see what you're supposed to see because you're interpreting it
differently. Then finally - maybe with someone else looking at it with you -
the different picture suddenly appears. As if the
computer world didn't have enough buzzwords, now the internet adds a whole
layer on top of that. Can I IM you? Need to check my hotmail. Who's
your ISP? What’s your IP address ? Can you
play MP3 music files. Webcam. And of course all the designer virus
names, like Anna Kournikova. I think
we all make the assumption that everyone uses computers and everyone is into
today's computer world and the internet. Then we come across someone who
isn't, or something that isn't, and it startles us. "How can you possibly function
without a computer? How can you communicate without the internet? What kind
of simple sheltered life do you live ?" But the majority of the people in the world don't have computers
and don't use the internet, and they get along fine. Maybe they get along
better than us. For one
thing, they sure don't have information overload, which I think is exhausting
everyone in the computer world.
If they need information on something, they can pick up a book and
read about it. They don't enter a search phrase on google ,
and then stare blankly at the thousand or so possible responses. When they
get a letter in their mailbox, they don't have to worry about a computer
virus being attached to it. They have
a street address, not an email address, and it usually doesn't change for
many years. People can find them by remembering where they live.. The
internet provides instant communication anywhere in the world, but if you
change your email address, nobody can find you. If
non-computer world people want to talk with someone, they can pick up that
old fashioned device called the telephone. Or better yet, they can walk over
to that person's house, sit down on a porch in the shade with a cold lemonade, and communicate with them. See the other
person's expressions. Maybe pick up a guitar and play some
music together. Just sit on that porch and watch the world go by and just
enjoy life. All without the need for computers. I'm
heading off into that world for my annual vacation away
from computers, and I'm really looking forward to it. See you in September. For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2005 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html (509)624-7230 |
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