h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Welcome to the 'I accidentally logged myself off h2g2' club.
Actually I've done it twice. The first time out of ignorance, the second out of carelessness. Still I learned something. The first time I had to come back as someone else (so to speak), the second time was easy. Although I'm a mere stripling at 49 I'm still struggling to get to grips with the modern technology, too. In my young days, as they say, computers were the size of a small room and had about the same computing power as a modern washing machine. (Yes, punched cards and paper tape and all), but I dropped out of computers for twenty years and sort of lost touch.
I think it's pretty cool that you're still into learning new things, and the experience of a lifetime is a good counterbalance to the youthful exuberance that's more the norm round here.


Happy hunting
Sage

Hi Nogging the Nog (formerly Sage)
That is quite a mouthful. thank you for writing to me about having logged myself off. Perhaps we should form a club for the accidental loggers-off.!!(ALO_ quite a good acronym - we could add another L that would give us the same name as that funny comedy on TV Allo.
So where did you learn your orginal carboard card computing? I am amazed that I was ever able to do it at all. And yet I managed that magnificent programme of Dbase 3, without any trouble. Designed my own data bases (which were very good even thought I say it myself!) but I cannot even remember how it was done. I suppose that it might be possbile to find a book with the details in it. (In those good old days they sold you a book with the computer. None of this nonsense of having to put the mouse here or there. You typed in your instructions. ) Oh well, I suppose this is progress.
Hope to hear from you again. Kind regards.
AR1

I first worked on a Texas Instruments 4Kbyte automatic camera in 1973. Later I graduated to ICL 1900; but I was always an operator, not a programmer. The programmers all had degrees, the operators had mostly been expelled. Modern computers are all 'user friendly' of course. Provided nothing goes wrong.
Later on I took up philosophy, but I still have the day job. I'm a subpostmaster/shopkeeper but for how much longer I don't really know, given the state of the Post Office at the moment.

Regards

Hi my new friend,
I am just ing off to bed but I just wanted to say how happy I was to get your note. I shall write more either tomorrow or Thursday. I have remembered I have a lecture tomorrow night and I have done virtually NO work on it at all. Good night. AR1

Dear Sage,
Sorry I have taken so long to reply. I had the unexpected - but very welcome visit - of an old friend on Thursday. we both used to live in Zimbabwe in the 50's so you realise that we are both very ancient!. She is much better preserved than I am though. She looks so attractive and well groomed.
I have absolutely no idea what it was that you were doing with the computers. Do not underestimate yourself when you say that some of them were graduates. There was a wellknown expression when I started working on computers and that was "Garbage in, Garbage out". I think that is the important part. One must know one's subject very well before one tries to put it into a data base. Otherwise one puts in unncecessary or sometimes duplicatie information. And also often one cannot extract vital information - which seems to happen all the time now.
Do you live in an urban or a rural setting? I should imagine that the role of postmaster does differ in each. It is fortunate that you have experience of computers because I am sure that it is helpful to you. My son is making noises about being hungry so I had better go and cook his lunch.
I send you my warm greetings. AR1

My first job was producing displays from seismic surveys, mainly for oil companies. The "camera" was for turning the data on tape into cross sections on film. My second was at Sainsburys processing branch orders, payrolls, that kind of thing. A sort of six million dollar filing clerk, really. The only use any of it has been since is that when post offices were computerised (about three years ago) I didn't have the fear of new technology which some people had, which made the transition easier.
As someone who has lived in Zimbabwe what do you make of what's going on out there now? From an outsider's point of view the first years after independence seemed to give good grounds for optimism, but over the last few years it all seems to have gone pearshaped. It almost seems to be human nature that whenever people get the opportunity to put old hostilities behind them and make a fresh start they make a hash of it. There always seems to be someone who prefers revenge to reconciliation. Depressing, isn't it?


Regards

Dear NN, thanks for the explanation. Yes it is most fearfully depressing. I still have many friends there - who are getting really old and it is all so horribly sad. I do think that South Africa were so lucky to have such a wonderful man to lead them into the future. We could all do with a Nelson Mandela to plan the future and a Desmond Tutu to guide the reconciliation. One can but pray and hope that it turns out alright. But in the meantime a great many people are suffering and many are getting hurt.

Kind regards AR1