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Technology isn't just for the young
It’s not long after you retire before you see condescending attitudes toward the elderly. “Ooo, look at that old man, he’s learning to use a computer. Isn’t he clever?” A refrain that is all too common nowadays and one that is encouraged by a government that assumes all older people need to attend, or be dragged along to, basic computer classes.
But millions of Britons from an earlier generation worked for many years with advanced high-tech systems. Men of my age (70) and even older worked in space sciences, atomic power stations, advanced transportation systems and, yes, computer systems. Don’t forget the first programmable computer was built at Bletchley Park in the 1940s (check out the working replica, it’s awesome).
I myself worked in the aircraft and other high-tech industries from the 1960s onward, and can include in my portfolio Concorde and guided missile systems, computer-controlled power generation and so on. Of course, manual workers and women of this past age may have had no opportunity, or even desire, to enter the world of electronics. But quite a lot of us oldies are, surprisingly to youngsters, techno-freaks.
I have built my own new (updated) PCs three times and am now online using Wifi; the only reason I’m not using all of the latest gadgets is a lack of finance. So, all you young-uns, stop being so damned condescending to wrinklies: you never know, you could even learn a few things from us.
Mind you, a virus called the Victor Meldrew Syndrome seems to be attacking my old operating system and causing me to grumble, as you have probably noticed. A stable and secure operating system from Microsoft? I don't believe it!
Brian Slack
December 21, 2007 in Vent your spleen! | Permalink
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Comments
Well said Brian !!
Posted by: Oregonjohn | 22 Dec 2007 15:12:48
My first computer used a 6502 CPU and was built back in 1978 from scratch . I ran a BASIC program to generate the 'Game of Life ' which took about 3 mins for each generation . I then wrote a Machine Code routine for the same thing and this generated 3 per second . This ran in about 300 bytes and never crashed.
Recently I got a windows program to run the same ' Game of Life ' which ran no quicker despite a 32 bit CPU running 3000 times as fast as my 'old ' 8 bit did 30 years ago .Such is progress !
Posted by: John Davies | 24 Jan 2008 21:02:49
