Computers, What Are They Good For, HuH !
By Asta Dido
One of the advantages of being a hip and young minded Senior Citizen, as those of you who were born in the ‘30’s and 40’s would know, is the ability to see the things that made our world develop to the point it is today. My particular interest has always been and is now technology and computers. The PC or Personal Computer is new but computing machines with gears and clock like works are not new; similar early devices and the things that man invented that could compute and calculate have been around for centuries. Those of you interested in history should read about the earliest attempts that man has made to make things like counting and calculating easy—from the simple use of stones and notched sticks by early man to the Jacquard Cards with punched holes (invented for weaving of all things)The Abacus (still, when used by an expert, one of the fastest counting devices around). And, let us not forget the greatest computer on earth is still the human brain (well some brains) and how long would you say that’s been around?
Man had then and has now the need to “quantify”—from the shepherd (having to stay awake) and, counting his sheep to the poor stockbroker currently on Wall Street with his big, complex and failing portfolio! Caesar himself had to know exactly what taxes and tribute he exacted from his conquests. Caesar, the Pharos and all the Kings and Emperors in all of history all had one thing in common—what we today call MONEY! They all knew how to wage war and conquer and even run an empire but when it came to their treasuries they all needed “specialists” to count and manage their wealth--sound familiar? It’s just too bad they didn’t have the use of a laptop and things called “killer aps” like MS-Money, Excel and Quicken three of my favorite things just a notch below Canoli, Lasagna and Ice Cream.
Killer aps (applications) are the programs, the first programs that made modern personal computers the useful tools they are today. The first ones were spread sheets like VisiCalc for the Apple II and Lotus 1-2-3 for IBM PC’s. I personally was able to use some of these early aps to write one of the first Horse Racing Handicapping programs and it worked very well—with it I was able to cash in on a large “pick six” and several pick fives at Aqueduct—the work involved was just too much so I banked my winnings and quit while I was still ahead because the only way you can beat the horses is stick-up the track’s money room with a gun as was once done—I can still remember some of the comic headlines and Bill Gallo’s cartoons and Jimmy Breslin’s column in the NY Daily News.
I still have my handicapping program based on Borland’s Quattro-Pro using phased out 3.5” floppy disk. Floppies are out and the new things are USB (Universal Serial Bus) flash and thumb drives. Computer Mfg’s don’t even install floppie drives anymore; card readers (for those cards in your digital camera) are the thing—everything else is USB. The IEEE 1394 firewire never even got out the gate. The next generation and logical extension of this technology is wireless transfers and WiFi. Infra-red transfer devices never quite caught on either the main reason being is that they had to be pointed at one another and had to ask the question: “Are you talking to Me?”
Wireless and all the wireless protocol devices; all the BlackCherries and Cell Phones-- and I don’t want to get technical here, are the hottest things since pizza slicers. Your newer laptops are all rigged up for wireless and things like the iPhone, Clyde Phone and those highly addictive “Blacherry” devices are the rage along with Skype and Twitter. I can remember when having a blue tooth meant you’d better get to a dentist and soon; nowadays it’s a connectivity thingy that allows your newest toys to talk to each other and lets you walk down the street proudly with one dangling from your ear. Frankly, I’m not overly fond of Bluetooth but it has it’s place in the latest technology schemes and having it installed in a new car has boosted sagging sales. The technology being installed in the latest automobiles is truly amazing-- XM radio and Location Finder wild and wooly stuff! This isn’t your Poppa’s Olds for sure as you sit there in space and time listening to your rocking digital CD—it’s as if you were in a “Boom Box” with three hundred horses and wheels!
If you are a “baby boomer” or slightly earlier and into the rock and roll era you will remember the song “War!” I paraphrased those lyrics and so sing the title of this column. Computers, what are they good for, Huh, absolutely everything. Come-on you can sing-- I’m sure better than any American Idol contestant including the winners! Ok, if you prefer not to sing imagine all the things in the modern life run by computers and computer chips from your enriching him financially auto mechanic’s joy—your car, to your fridge, toaster, TV, home entertainment system, home heating & cooling and even greeting cards and games. Toys? Kids won’t even touch a toy that doesn’t walk, talk and say “Yo Mamma” and I can’t even begin to imagine any manufacturing facility that isn’t most or all run by automation and that means computers! Oh, Charles Chaplin, where are ya now?
Again, being a Senior human guy that spans generations means that I can see what’s happened in the past and also guess what the future holds. Good Science Fiction writers have done a lot of forecasting and some with amazing clarity—you feel that they have already gone to the future and back. Some of what they say and tell us is frightening and some, too little, is beautiful. What you think the future holds depends on your own mindset. For me, just supposing what a couple of years down the road will bring is ample thought—what scares me is trying to figure out what to eat for dinner tonight, what the future holds for gas prices and who(m) my tax money will be used to bail out tomorrow…
Asta Dido,
Master of the Oblique Reference
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