davidbowerkingwood

Change is Inevitable, Your Adventure Awaits You!

Years of experience have shown me that things are always changing; nothing on this earth stays the same. In 1970, Alvin Toffler published a book called “Future Shock” in which he described the increasing speed of change and its impact on the average person. Since then the speed of change has only increased and change is coming faster and faster.

One of the driving forces behind this increasing speed is the rapid development of technology. One only need watch movies of 15-20 years ago to see how much life in general has been impacted by technological change. This is especially true in the field of communication and computers. It is almost laughable to see what cutting edge technology was just a few years ago and if you turn the clock back a little farther it becomes even more amazing.

My wife loves the movie, “The Desk Set” with Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy; released in 1957, it portrays an office staff feeling threatened by the introduction of a massive, room filling, computer that was seen as a serious threat to the job security of the ladies working there. I hasten to add it all works out in the end and everyone leaves happy.

The secret to living with such rapid change is to simply accept its reality and do your best to make peace with it; some of it may apply to your life, some of it may not. I’ve learned to completely ignore those areas that have no useful appeal and enthusiastically embrace those areas that do but sometimes I have to learn which is which.

My Adventure Begins, I meet my First Computer

In 1998 my wife suggested we get a computer; my response was why would we need one of those? On the spur of the moment I could not think of a single good reason to buy a computer. She had been exposed to computers when she was taking a class in computer art and design at the Houston Art Institute. After a little bit of persuasion on her part we got our first computer, a Compac computer, which was a first step in what was to become a long and eventful journey which continues to this day.

An early decision was whether to go with Windows or Mac; Mac was described as a 300 hp sports car with 100 miles of road while the Windows platform was a 100 hp family sedan with 10,000 miles of road. I decided to go with Windows; a decision which is still working well with two exceptions, our Apple iPhone’s.

A Sharp Learning Curve

Being one of those guys who actually likes to read instruction manuals I started reading all I could about how this computer and computers in general were supposed to work (I actually bought a book on digital electronics) and began experimenting on our new Compac computer. At first I was almost afraid of it, fearing that if I pushed the wrong button the whole thing would go up in flames. I quickly got past that initial phase and began to see it first as a fun toy and later as a valuable tool.

In order to speed up the learning process (I’m completely self-taught) I ordered an exact duplicate for my desk at the office; thinking that what I learned at the office could be applied to the computer at home and vice versa. This worked out well enough and soon the computer became an indispensable tool for both home and office.

At first we had one computer with an AOL dial-up connection; I can say with complete and total sincerity I’m very happy that phase is far behind us.

Moving On

Jumping ahead around 18 years, we now find ourselves using our computers daily as an important part of what we do. We have both an Ethernet wired network and a WiFi network to connect us to the internet and enable the computers and the other electronic paraphernalia to communicate with each other and the web as needed; today it seems everything wants to talk to the web, even our new washing machine and gas dryer have a WiFi capability and offers a smartphone app to do the job.

As many of you know I spend several hours each day working as an online missionary for Global Media Outreach. This is all done with my computer so I spend many hours each day working with my computer as a completely necessary tool. In addition, I write the blog you are reading on that same computer and also do most of our family business on it as well.

After eight years of faithful service my old T3400 has been moved to a secondary position and replaced by the Precision T5810 pictured above. The Dell Precision Workstation series has proven so reliable for me that I decided to stick with the series when I got my new computer; I’ll say one thing, the new one is incredibly faster than the old one. Although the T3400 is still working, its hardware and software has simply become obsolete, technology has moved on.

Precision T3400

The Computer as an Artist’s Tool

As an artist, my wife uses her computer, a Dell Optiplex 9010, in her art and it has become equally important as a tool for her. She has several websites that she manages from her computer which include the following:

Art by Adele Bower

Adele’s Art Prints

I encourage you to visit her sites and see how she is using her computer.

Windows 10 has made a significant improvement in the speed with which we can do our work on both of our computers; I would have to say I’m a fan of Windows 10 and Dell although I’m still adjusting to Windows Edge.

In conclusion, we now each have our own computers and with our high speed cable connection (200 Mbps) can both work independently and even make phone calls when someone else is online which was impossible with AOL which had a download speed of 56 Kbps (200 Mbps = 200,000 Kbps) and tied up our phone line. The computer has moved to a central position in our normal daily activities and quite frankly we simply couldn’t do what we’re doing now without them. For us they have joined the ranks of essential home appliances along with the refrigerator, washing machine and gas dryer.

As the family IT guy it falls my lot to try and keep everything working and playing together harmoniously; my wife expressed concern when I devoted so much time to setting up the T5810 but I told her, with complete honesty, this was all fun and games to me; our five computers and two networks speak eloquently to my technophilia.