As I look back on my life I can’t believe how many changes there have been in how we all live – mostly due to computers.
I say that because when I was in school computers were something only the government had and were so big they took up whole rooms in buildings. There was no such thing as a “personal computer”, or PC.
Computers didn’t directly impact my life until the mid-1980s when the first ones were purchased to produce this newspaper. The first computers used by the Record were tiny little things with about seven-inch screens. Once training was done this local newspaper was composed on those computers. The computers were used to print out sheets with the words you read in the columns of the newspaper. Those sheets had to be cut into columns, waxed on the back, and stuck in place on large, newspaper-size, sheets. Those sheets were taken to the printing plant, and pictures were taken of them. The negatives of those pages were used to “burn” the images onto aluminum plates for the presses.
Not too long after computers were introduced to the newspaper office the technology and software available started to advance and before long the newspaper-sized pages were produced on bigger, better computers. In a relatively short amount of time, the pages of this newspaper were sent electronically to the printing plant and production of the newspaper started before anyone working at the newspaper arrived at the printing plant.
Computers are used in every aspect of producing this newspaper, and when I compare now to when I first started sweeping floors at the Record I can’t help but wonder what things will be like in the next ten years.
This topic came to mind as I watched a computer-driven vacuum cleaner go across the floor of my home. I don’t care how many times I’ve seen this task performed. I can’t help but be amazed.
As I type these words and watch the robot vacuum move across my floor I realize I’m typing (with a computer) while a computer is cleaning my floor – Oh, and by the way, I set the vacuum in motion with another computer – my phone.
Before too long I’ll probably turn on something else driven by computer technology – my television.
It’s also interesting to think that I don’t need a doorbell because there’s a miniature camera on my door that sends me an alert (with live video) of anyone approaching my front door. Guess where it goes? To a miniature computer, I hold in my hand, called my phone.
With today’s technology, I start my car, open my garage door, and get driving directions to almost anywhere – all with my phone.
Computers will never cease to amaze me, and they are wonderful – until they don’t work.
Have A Good Week!
