Smudger Snippets
Created | Updated Jul 29, 2004
I suppose it's because I have so much time on my hands these days, that all these memories come flooding back to me.
Silver Surfers!
I came across that expression a few days ago when I was reading someones post on computers here on h2g2. I put myself in that category as I am in my early fifties and have only been on line for eighteen months now. The topic of discussion at that time was technology, and just how far it has come over the years.
Looking back over those years, I can recall the old seventy eights, being played on the old wind up gramophone with the trumpet loud speaker. Then things progressed to vinyl records, with the singles being the smaller ones and played at forty five revolutions and, of course, the old Long Player which was played at thirty three and a third. As things progressed we saw the arrival of stereo! A brand new concept in the quality of the sounds. I can still recall the very first time I heard stereo - it was when I was in Hong-Kong while serving in the Navy. I can remember standing in the shop and the assistant came over and stood me on a cross marked out on the floor. The he turned on the record player. It was just too fantastic and the very first sound I ever heard in stereo was of a train as it passed by me. It felt like it had gone through my head!
I bought one straight away that very day, even though I knew I would have problems with storing on board the ship. Space is one thing which is very hard to find on a small frigate war ship.
The next item that came on the scene was the eight track. These were going to be the end of it all, the latest gadget. Once you had bought your eight track player you could listen to hours of your favourite music. The main attraction of these was the fact that it could play for longer periods without having to turn it over.
These modern tape players were not top of the scene for long as, soon after everyone had bought an eight track player and a large collection of tapes, along came the cassette player.
Now the advantages of these were the fact that the tapes were a lot smaller, as was the player. In fact I bought a player which was combined along with an FM radio. The advantage of this was that you could record music directly on to tape from your radio while you listened. The surprising thing was that I bought my very first stereo in Hong Kong on the way out to do a tour in the Persian Gulf.
This tour lasted for some eighteen months and, when we came via Hong Kong on our return, I bought my very first combined radio and cassette player. So, in fact, the large bulky stereo that I bought on the way out was old fashioned and obsolete and replaced by a smaller combined stereo system! Such is progress.
Upon arriving back to the Britain I was the proud owner of the very latest hi-tech stereo system. It was not long before another innovation came along; it was, of course, the Compact Disc. These CDs, as we called them, were supposed to be so strong and robust that you could spread jam on them and play them after a quick wipe! This turned out to be totally false and, in fact, they were more susceptible to dust than the cassettes they were replacing. These CDs came along just in time to catch up with home computers, another innovation that was catching on in a big way at that time. In fact PCs (personal computers) had come so far down in price and size that they were affordable by working class people like me. It was not long before the Compact Disc took over from the Floppy disc, used for storing information, and, by this time, music and films.
The internet, meanwhile, had crept in slowly and then seemed to burst onto the scene as the technology of home computers came along in leaps and bounds. Then came re-writers and PC drivers that enabled people who were online to download music and films from this internet.
It was about this point in time when I found myself at a keyboard, staring into a screen in amazement trying to absorb all the information (or Data as it was now called) in the Help section of my very first PC. After a lot of study trying to feel my way around this new concept, I watched my stepson who could send that mouse flying all over the screen; clicking on here and clicking something off there with such ease that I felt a bit stupid.
I kept at it, learning a bit more every day, printing out all the helpful tips that were passed on to me by other users on the net who took the trouble to help us Newbies to the scene. Then, within time, I managed it! I actually downloaded and made my very first CD, after registering with a music site online!
I would never have believed it! Who would have thought that we could reach this level of technology in my life time? I had seen everything from the old wind up gramophone to downloading and making my very own CD.
Long before I bought my first computer I used to hear workmates talking in this strange language, of gigabytes, drivers, and defragging and downloads. I thought it was an alien language, way above my capabilities. Yet here I am today, a silver surfer. Well at least I know enough to do what I want to do. I am in no way an expert but I have come through. I can even hold a conversation with my stepson about computers and understand what he is saying. Yes, I am pleased with myself as someone who came out of the Dark Age and tackled this technology on a one-to-one basis. For who knows what the next generation of computers will look like - and will there still be silver surfers?
