Tag: computers

O is for Old, Out-of-date, Obsolete?

It’s interesting how data goes from current, to out-of-date, to history.

“Technology is so much fun but we can drown in our technology. The fog of information can drive out knowledge.” – Daniel J. Boorstin, Librarian of Congress (1973-85) on the computerization of libraries, 1983.

One of the things I learned in my first year in library school was that information disappears over time for a number of reasons, but that three are foremost: war, when the other side wins; commerce, when there is not enough of a perceived market for the cost; and technology when the newer methodology renders a previous iteration obsolete.

I remember seeing pictures of these massive computers back in the 1960s, storing all sorts of seemingly important information. Unless ALL of it got transferred to a later technology, and then the one after that, one must assume that some of that data is lost and irretrievable. How many of you had files on 5 1/4″ floppy discs, or even 3 1/2″ discs, but your current computer has no place for them?

Take music. Some of the symphonies originally recorded on those shellac 78 RPM records made it into 33 RPM LPs, but surely not all. And the music on 33s and 45s might have made it onto 8-tracks and cassettes, but did all of it make it to CDs? Certainly not, let alone other digital forms. Or take movies on Betamax/VCR tape, only some of which made it to DVD/BluRay.

So it is heartening to see that some old forms of technology are still hanging on. The LP, while still a small segment of the music business, continues to grow, as the sales of other physical forms of music continue to decline. There was a piece on CBS News Sunday Morning about the resurgence of – are you ready for this? – the typewriter.

Data goes from being current, to woefully out-of-date, to important history. A map of Europe showing the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and two Germanys might have been tossed at the end of the 20th century, but now has contextual value. Check out these old maps online.

Old cars, if they avoid the junk heap, might become antiques; old books, perhaps collector’s items.

I started thinking about this because of an article a young woman wrote, in part speculating whether the book will become obsolete in favor of Kindles, Nooks, and the like. I sure hope not.
***
LISTEN to Neil Young – Old Man (from the Harvest album )

ABC Wednesday – Round 10

Costello Calls to Buy a Computer from Abbott

ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.

COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?

Only because I was feeling a bit under the weather Sunday, I had the unusual chance to watch both football and baseball on TV, which always reminds me of the George Carlin bit on the two sports, a version of which you can watch HERE. Here are some baseball bloopers, only some of which are as funny as promised.

There’s a famous comedy routine about baseball by the classic duo of Abbott & Costello called Who’s on First? You can read it here and watch an iteration of it HERE.

My sister sent me this variation on this about computers, the humor of which is lost unless you’re familiar with A&C’s bit. So in honor of the World Series starting today – I’m rooting for the St. Louis Cardinals against the Texas Rangers – and the fact that Major League Baseball did not have a work stoppage this year (unlike NFL football and especially NBA basketball):

ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: Thanks I’m setting up an office in my den and I’m thinking about buying a computer.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: No, the name’s Lou.
Continue reading “Costello Calls to Buy a Computer from Abbott”

Random Post-Funeral Thoughts

The week before my mother died, I had nothing on any credit cards, save for any recurring expenditures.

TIMING

My father died on a Thursday; we had the funeral on a Sunday, and he was buried on a Monday. My mother died on a Tuesday, and our first inclination was to have the funeral on the following Saturday. But, instead of working on the obituary or the program on that day, we sat around telling Trudy stories. I think, in some way, we died my father’s death the way he would have wanted his death to be handled, quickly and efficiently; it also helped that we knew my father was going to die at least the day beforehand. Whereas mom’s death took us, and indeed her long-time doctor, by surprise; her heart was still strong, even after the stroke, and we were having conversations about placing her in some medical facility after she got out of the hospital the very morning she died.

Once Saturday was off the table, we considered Sunday, but it was Super Bowl Sunday, on which my mother’s mother died; I remember getting the call during the 3rd quarter of the game in 1983. Besides, it was just different. My dad was the hare, my mother, the tortoise, and we all know that slow and steady win the race.

So, it was a Tuesday funeral, which had an enormous number of people outside of the family wanting to speak, and a Wednesday burial at the Salisbury National Cemetery in Salisbury, NC, about 40 miles from Charlotte, Section 8, Plot 358, next to my father. I read a few passages from the Proverbs reading my eldest niece read the day before, then sang a little, then I, then my sisters, in turn, shoveled some dirt on her cremains, then we sang some more. Then we went to Waffle House, which was one of my father’s favorite places. I believe I had only been to that gravesite once since his burial there.

FOOD

One of the traditions in the South, at least in my parents’ circle, is for people to come over, often bringing various food items, usually homemade. And by “come over”, I don’t mean that they call and ask, “Would this be a good time to come over?” I mean that they just show up. I became aware of this tradition ten and a half years ago; can’t say that I’ve gotten USED to it. But it was (mostly) nice.

MONEY

The week before my mother died, I had nothing on any credit cards, save for any recurring expenditures, such as the newspaper. Can’t say THAT right now. The next bill will be a whopper; it will include:
The funeral parlor. When my father died, the same funeral parlor accepted the promise of payment from his insurance; not so this time. So it went on my credit card. I’ll get reimbursed eventually. But it was the least amount of money we could spend, which would have pleased my mother, $840.
The obit. I totally miscalculated how much it was going to cost: $472.75. I’ll probably eat half of that.
The niece’s last-minute plane ride from California. Somewhere north of $600, which I hope to get back eventually.
The hotel. Once my wife and daughter arrived, the house would have been too crowded with my sisters, my nieces, and a family friend. Five nights, $330; not bad actually.
*Miscellaneous stuff, including a meal after our bizarre visit with the funeral home – was she high, merely incompetent, or uncaring because we weren’t spending enough? She couldn’t even spell Charlotte, and at one point, my sister threw her out of our meeting.
This doesn’t even count the train tickets or the rental car, which are on my WIFE’S credit card. BTW, 3 days out on Amtrak is a better rate than 2 days out, which is WAY better than one day out.

TECHNOLOGY

I had access to the home computer, but I didn’t have one of my own. My wife actually brought the daughter’s laptop, but it was uncharged, and she forgot the plug, so it didn’t work.

Of course, I had to focus on the funeral stuff and managed to write four blog posts in the 12 days I was down there. Viva the blogger’s reserve, which I was trying to create for our vacation this fall. C’est la vie.

The hotel had one (count’em, ONE) computer in the “business center”, which was often occupied. Once I was on it – at 2:48 a.m. – and some young woman came down and said, “This is the ONLY computer here? I have to do my homework!” I ceded it to her at 3 a.m. after I’d spent an hour on it. BTW, it needs a new keyboard; the a, c, e, m, and n were unreadable.

The house printer didn’t work. The hotel printer was quirky, at best.

I used my cellphone more in that two-week period than I had in all the previous two years.

One Twitter tweet, one Facebook post. Just no time for it.
***
The train ride back from Charlotte to Albany last Friday.

 

Cranky

Computer problems gave me, quite literally, such a raging headache that I went to bed Sunday night at 9 pm, which is VERY early for me.

I see that Arthur is cranky; maybe it’s the summertime blues for him.

I’m cranky too, and it’s not just the cold and snow.

*The shooting of nearly two dozen people, including a Congresswoman, with six deaths, including a guy who shielded his wife from gunfire, and the nine-year-old granddaughter of a former MLB pitcher who was the only girl on her Little League team, made me more than just cranky; I found it emotionally devastating.

What made me extremely cranky, though, is the attempt by that so-called church from Kansas to picket the girl’s funeral today.

Earlier, I was also appalled by the insistence of several news organizations to pronounce the Congresswoman dead, when, in fact, she was not. Somehow, in the throes of the chaotic situation, the need to be first trumped the need to be accurate. It’s an error for which “oops” just doesn’t cut it.

I wrote a little something for our local newspaper’s blog, more as a way for me to cope than anything else. I used the now-infamous graphic targeting members of Congress, including Gabrielle Giffords, but the text, I thought, was rather restrained. In any case, all I needed to do was post and (mostly) get out of the way.

I did note in the comments, however, that the First Amendment-protected right to free speech is not absolute. What I didn’t say, because I did not know the facts at the time, is that the Second Amendment right to bear arms can be limited as well; the weapon the assailant used was banned in the US until 2004. Somehow, I DON’T feel safer now.

Incidentally, I found the most useful information about the shooting on C-SPAN, the website dedicated to Congress. For at least part of the time, it was using the feed of the ABC-TV affiliate in Tucson, the unfortunately named KGUN. Oddly, I had been watching an episode of Grey’s Anatomy that afternoon, in which a young gunman shot up a campus; miraculously [spoiler alert], no one died, which, unfortunately, did not extend to the real-life drama.

*I get these e-mails about 365 Ways to Drive a Liberal Crazy. Most of them are pretty lame, such as “Quote G. Gordon Liddy: ‘A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.'” Or “Always refer, in pitying, sympathetic tones, to the ‘Liberal psychopathology.’ This implies that liberalism is a form of mental illness. Which it is.” Or “If it’s cold outside, deploy Global Warming Fun…Say to every liberal you meet, at every opportunity: ‘Brrr, it’s cold. Makes you think we could do with a bit more global warming.'”

Oh, I’m SO crushed by these mean comments. What makes me cranky is the notion that 1) it should be one’s goal to annoy others, just because of political differences, and 2) that the examples are so reductivist.

*We’ve had a real winter this season, with weather forecasters having to do some heavy lifting (figuratively, at least). And, from my vantage point, they’ve been reasonably accurate. Yet I heard just this week that meteorologists are paid “$80,000 to be wrong 90% of the time.” Unfair, and untrue. What is particularly difficult in this particular region, is that, because of the topography, the snow amounts in the area, even in certain counties, could vary by half a foot.

*I’m having computer problems. When we (OK, I) got a virus in the laptop, it got scrubbed by the techie at the purchasing locale. Suddenly, we don’t have any word processing applications. The techie at Staples says we need to bring in the installation disc, but my friend says that Windows Vista doesn’t come with an installation disc, that I have to find the info on the computer and burn it onto a disc. Well, I can’t find it in there; maybe it got wiped, too. In any case, this gave me, quite literally, such a raging headache that I went to bed Sunday night at 9 pm, which is VERY early for me.

*The stationary bike is broken. One of my church buddies took it apart and found what seemed to be the broken part, but getting all the information necessary to identify the problem has turned out to be more laborious than I could have imagined.

*Sooner or later, we’re going to have to buy a new television, my first new one since 1987. When the volume is up moderately, it just kicks out periodically. You have to crank it up high enough for the set, which is downstairs, to be heard upstairs for the volume to be sustained.

Jingle Award: The E-Ticket

I recognize the library as the remedy to all of life’s problems.


Jingle gave me an award, and the rules of the award say – they ALWAYS say – you’re supposed to tell seven things about yourself. Well, OK, but I’m going to cheat and tell a story, with the items thus revealed.

The Wife, at my encouragement, went to see Bill T. Jones at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center a week ago, on Thursday night while I stayed home with the daughter.

1. I appreciate dance, but don’t go out of my way to see it.

I heard about this particular dance about Abraham Lincoln from watching Bill Moyers Journal on PBS.

2. I miss watching Bill Moyers.

My wife went online to order the tickets on Wednesday, but you’re supposed to print your ticket or tickets, which basically is a bar code or a bunch of bar codes. We experienced the same thing when we went to see Cats at Proctors recently.

3. I hate the cost-saving measure (on their part) of having the customer have to print the ticket.

Oh, and not incidentally, these tickets, almost invariably, are UGLY. I have tickets to shows I went to years or even decades ago that I’ve kept; these are NOT keepers.

Well, our desktop computer was being cranky – again – and the Wife ordered the tickets on the laptop, from which we had never printed.

I suggested rehooking the Internet connection doohickey –

4. I am not particularly technologically savvy, except in the eyes of those who are even less so

to the desktop, see if it worked again, and try to print from there.

Thursday night, I get home from work, and the Wife said she didn’t print the ticket yet. Yikes – had she called me, I would have printed the ticket at work and brought it home.

5. I HATE dealing with things at the last minute when it is avoidable; sometimes, it’s not avoidable, but…

She said that I said that I could just take the printer cable to the laptop and print that way. I said that’s NOT what I said. I said to take the Internet cable and reconnect it to the desktop and try to print from there.

6. I HATE it when people say that I said things I didn’t say.

So I made the switch, but unfortunately, the desktop was dormant for so long that I was going to have to reboot it – WHICH TAKES FOREVER – and it’s now 6:30 pm for an 8:00 show that’s a half-hour away.

I said, “You should go to the library and print your ticket from there.”

7. I recognize the library as the remedy to all of life’s problems.

And so she did, successfully, print her ticket at our neighborhood library – YAY, neighborhood libraries! – went to the show and had an enjoyable time.

And after she left, I DID try to link the printer to the laptop, but the laptop required software for which I did not immediately know the location.
***
And I’m supposed to bestow this award on others. If you are reading this, and I’ve never bestowed anything on you before, consider yourself bestowed.

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