Smudger Snippets
Created | Updated Oct 4, 2007
I suppose it's because I have so much time on my hands these days that all these memories come flooding back to me.
Progression
Here I am on this new laptop writing a Snippet. The only thing is, that I do not have Word 2007 on this computer, so I will have to work away without my usual spellchecker; so onward and upward we go. I had to buy this new computer as the desktop one I had been using for the past few years eventually gave up the ghost, and lost the internet connection, so I made some enquiries about repairing it and upgrading at the same time. The cost of that would have been around the same as buying a laptop, so here I am. Come to think of it, when I was transferring all the programs I need over to this laptop and reinstalling them I was thinking how incredible it was, as it was only a few years ago when I did not even know how to switch a computer on, let alone add and remove programs like I was doing.
It just goes to show how much my computer knowledge had progressed since then; not that I am saying that I am totally familiar with everything about computers, just enough knowledge to allow me to do what I need to. Most of what I know has been learned from computer helpsites, along with the help section that comes with Windows, and some assistance from some kind researchers on here. Another place which I log into every night is an ex - service which I joined around the same time I found h2g2, they have a thread where you can get all the help you need on techy stuff, along with some really good Ex forces banter as well, which really cheers me up when I am feeling a bit low. Then there's my stepson who is the youngest of Mk2s kids, and is a computer whiz kid, he has been there to help me when I get things wrong, and that is more often that I want to admit to!
Computers have been with us for quite a few years now, and have been rapidly advancing ever since, just keeping with their progress alone can be a daunting task in itself. I suppose I am lucky in a way, as I got in early, as they say, even though I am classed as a silver surfer, I consider myself to be at the very least computer literate. I remember when I first came into contact with computers in general, was when I was working as a welding supervisor on one of the oil construction sites here in the UK. We had to use computers for various things, but luckily they were always left on, as the job was manned 24 hours a day, which meant they were never switched off. I had to learn how to use one, and very quickly as well. Luckily I had a mate on the same shift as me, and he was a really good teacher, which made it easier for me to learn the basics. Our shift started at 7.00am, and after we had got all our squads started on what ever job they had assigned to, we had to 'input all the data', as it was called, into our computers. Information such as the job card number, the man's name and clock card number, line number and so on. A squad consisted of around twelve welders and maybe four helpers, and six pre-heat operatives, so it was a lot of information to be entered for each man. Anyway, all this data had to be entered into the main frame computer by 08.30am, so that when the office staff came in to work at 9.00am, all the information would be there, waiting for them. That was where it all went pear shaped, as with every supervisor trying to enter all their data at the same time, from all the different departments all over the site, the whole system would crash!
The result would mean that we were right back to square one, writing everything down on paper and sending the runners up to the offices with it all. So I suppose that would be negative progress.
One area where the computer really came into its own was when we were installing the miles of pipe work that went into the modules, which was a daunting job in itself. As no matter how much the draughtsmen and the piping engineers collaborated, there were always clashes (as we called them, where two pipes got in each other's way), where we had to reroute the pipes, which of course meant rerouting them and changing the original drawings for both the pipe work and other systems that were affected. This used to give us all problems, and could cause very expensive production delays. However, with the computer we could all communicate between the different departments involved, via the computer. In fact we could see the actual changes happening, as the draughtsman altered and displayed the new route, on a 3D display of the actual module which would turn so that we could see the changes from every possible angle on the computer screen. This saved an enormous amount of time and money. So that was one way in which computers were an asset for us, so it was not all as bad news as we all thought. My next time I came into contact with computers was when I bought one. It was one of the really early types, in fact it never even had a mouse. It was an Amstrad 6120 - whatever that meant. Compared to the laptop I have now, that first computer belonged in the dark ages, (where, I have been told, I came from), so things have really progressed since then.
Since we moved down here some seven years ago, I have driven past that site where I used to work quite often, and it is depressing for me to see it all derelict. The large cranes that used to be so busy, just standing there majestically in the sky line, idle, and rusting away. I suppose in a way it was a case of 'you had to be there' to understand it. I got the same feeling when I visited the pub which we all used at the time I worked there back in the 1980s. It was the same pub, but everything else had changed, different staff and different owners, and none of the locals that used to be there back then. When I think about it, it makes me feel like I am in a time warp, for example the people using that pub today are in real time, and my memories of it all are from way back in my time. People call it progress, but it was a really strange feeling I had when I walked in there that day, it was like I was encroaching on their time, for using that pub, and they had no way of being allowed there in my time. I have seen many changes in my lifetime, the birth of video, which took the world by storm, right through to its demise and its being replaced by DVD, and even that being replaced by memory cards, as being used in what we used to call cine-cameras. The birth of stereo, which I first heard in a music shop in Hong Kong, back in the early 1970s, right through to present-day iPod and MP3 players with their digital music. I mentioned earlier that I considered myself to be at least computer literate, and the same goes for these modern music players, in fact I bought an MP3 player for Mk2 when she was ill in bed. Her son, who lives near us, came and showed me how to set it up and use it, and it was not long before I was transferring music that I had downloaded earlier onto a CD, over to the MP3 player. Not all progression has been so good however, for example we have seen what was a beautiful area where wild flowers, trees and shrubbery used to grow, has now been completely levelled and a housing scheme has been built on that land. Mobile phones now have the ability for video recording, which can be sent to other people's phones; not a bad thing by any means, in fact very useful for doctors and ambulance crews to send footage of injuries ahead to the hospital. However, they are being used by thugs who film the victims they are beating up, and in some cases setting fire to, and uploading the footage onto the internet. So even progress has its very own dark side, good in some ways and bad in others, whichever way you look at it, it will always be called progress.
