Severed from … Everything? OMG!

Yesterday, not only did I post late (and, perhaps, not very well), I also lost Internet connection for about an hour.

My Internet company doesn’t do badly. They average less than an hour a month. For a national company to only lose us for that small amount round the clock in a month seems acceptable to me; however, it didn’t at the time!

For me, it’s a triple disaster. I use the same cable for Internet, TV, and phone. Also, my small town is a “dead zone” for phones, so, when they are out, I am … OUT!

My son was using his IPAD for some things and wondered if it was having problems. I had just been online, but went back to check. Modem lights had only two on. After checking connections, resetting twice, even rebooting PC (more of “for something to do” as my Internet is wireless and doesn’t need the PC to work), I decided it was “down”.

It was kinda funny afterwards to think about how two grown men were a little at a loss because of this. We had a few moments of “what do we do now?” before doing some “manual” things like playing cards and talking.

It got me as time went on that I have become spoiled by the Net. When I grew up, there were no computers that I could afford. A calculator that did square roots was $80 and had a long instruction sheet on how to use it. I received one for Christmas (I believe) when I was in High School and I was ecstatic. I learned it inside and out, I did multiplication problems constantly, did percent, and all types of pattern math. I really soaked it up.

Isn’t she a beauty? This is the same model I had in High School.

Today, that “computer” can be found for $2-5 and inserted in a wristwatch (which, by the way, are not used anymore by anyone under 30). I visited the Smithsonian a long time ago and found the computer ENIAC? spellbinding. All it really did was count really fast, but it was the size of a room.

When I think that from 1974 to now we have come so far that I have a flash drive, smaller than a toothbrush, that will hold 16GB of information (that’s 16,000,000,000 bytes, by the way) and it cost under $20 as opposed to my first computer job in which a plate about 2 feet across and over 1/4 inch thick was used to hold 1 MB (1,000,000) of info, it nearly drops me.

I know kids today don’t fully understand what has happened to our world in less than 40 years. How could they? They were born into computers. I loved telling how I started out with my trusty calculator and moved through the computer ranks to get to teaching.

Even teaching has become so computerized that it is hardly recognizable. “Smart boards” have taken over chalkboards and most paperwork and planning and communications are done via Internet and Intranet.

High School? Wow!

I am okay being out here looking in now. I get to see how it increases. I am just wondering what it will be like in 10 years? I think we will all be amazed.
Ask yourself, “What technology do I take for granted now, that I didn’t even have when little?”
I would love to have you share that with us here.
Namaste,
Scott