tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post3989728098789912133..comments2024-03-15T23:25:52.517-07:00Comments on the joy of sox: My Work Has Nothing To Do With Computersallanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673233312198832937noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post-14294666061170555132010-10-12T19:49:11.590-07:002010-10-12T19:49:11.590-07:00He could not have meant that we would be using com...<i>He could not have meant that we would be using computers in all of our jobs. Many jobs would not be applicable.</i><br /><br />That isn't what I meant either. Never mind! :)<br /><br /><i>It was compared to my response!</i><br /><br />Ha! Very true. He is a forward-thinker, that's for sure.laura khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05524593142290489958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post-87687074307982106892010-10-12T15:28:34.843-07:002010-10-12T15:28:34.843-07:00FenFan - Thanks! They are good for a day when I ha...FenFan - Thanks! They are good for a day when I have nothing else!allanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04673233312198832937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post-28899132548296906352010-10-12T15:27:50.663-07:002010-10-12T15:27:50.663-07:00I don't think knowing this in 1983 was especia...<i>I don't think knowing this in 1983 was especially prescient. Many people understood this by then, although it was before the age of the personal computer.</i><br /><br />For me, it seems like it might as well have been 1883!<br /><br />But personal computers seems to be what is talking about -- having them in our lives as much as pencil and paper. He could not have meant that we would be using computers in all of our jobs. Many jobs would not be applicable.allanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04673233312198832937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post-92126058490593193502010-10-12T14:46:44.344-07:002010-10-12T14:46:44.344-07:00"I don't think knowing this in 1983 was e..."I don't think knowing this in 1983 was especially prescient."<br /><br />It was compared to my response!johngoldfinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09322562737172405323noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post-33809571110110380722010-10-12T13:42:52.108-07:002010-10-12T13:42:52.108-07:00But writing on computer is still and always will b...<i>But writing on computer is still and always will be different than with paper and pencil, thank god.</i><br /><br />Yes, it is a zillion times better.<br /><br />I hate writing with paper and pencil. Hate it and cannot do it.<br /><br />I have always only been able to write successfully when typing - first on a manual typewriter, then an electric typewriter, then a computer. The only exceptions used to be my travel journals, and thankfully laptops and internet cafes have solved that issue.laura khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05524593142290489958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post-9091291213083077992010-10-12T13:39:33.236-07:002010-10-12T13:39:33.236-07:00He wrote that in 1983!
I love this essay, but I d...<i>He wrote that in 1983!</i><br /><br />I love this essay, but I don't think knowing this in 1983 was especially prescient. Many people understood this by then, although it was before the age of the personal computer.laura khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05524593142290489958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post-67407773190731211802010-10-12T10:27:24.692-07:002010-10-12T10:27:24.692-07:00I was teaching at Job Corps in 1983--and one day a...I was teaching at Job Corps in 1983--and one day a bunch of boxes arrived holding Apple Computers all loaded with Bank St Writer.<br /><br />I wish I could tell you that I had 1/1000th of Bill James's intelligence and prescience. My reaction to my first computer experience was completely Luddite: "What a fucking waste of time learning all this shit when there's handy paper and pencil that will do the job a thousand times faster."<br /><br />In the last 23 years of working with computers and writing programs, I've seen every impediment disappear: students not knowing how to type, not knowing how to start computers, not knowing what a word processing program looks like and how it works, not knowing about disks and files and flashdrives and internet and printer queues, and so on. <br /><br />Now, we're back to where Bill James told us we would be. We're back to writing, with the same old problems writing always has. But writing on computer is still and always will be different than with paper and pencil, thank god.johngoldfinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09322562737172405323noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post-12675554474936492832010-10-12T07:53:28.259-07:002010-10-12T07:53:28.259-07:00Some of my cartoons were up in a gallery in town h...Some of my cartoons were up in a gallery in town here and the curator had categorized them on their little labels as "computer drawings". I thought that was funny - kinda quaint. I just think of them as drawings, and my newspaper editor just thinks of them as drawings, but to this old art gallery guy they were "computer drawings". On a different note, I wonder of Bill James ever predicted that in the future computers would be used to add purses to pictures of A-Rod....MacLeodCartoonshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02508412401089448874noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post-87707587149117488232010-10-12T06:46:14.232-07:002010-10-12T06:46:14.232-07:00The entire essay is worth reading for his comments...The entire essay is worth reading for his comments on how much a part of our lives computers would be -- as important as words on paper.<br /><br /><i>What is unique (exciting, terrifying) about the computer is that it extends our capabilities to such an enormous extent and in so many areas -- in more different areas, I think, than any new invention since the tire iron. The reason for this is that almost everything which can be done on paper can be done easier and faster (some would say better, but I'm not convinced of that yet) on a computer. Since all our lives revolve to a large extent around literacy, around works on paper and numbers on paper, our lives are in time going to revolve to the same extent around computers. Whether we like it or not.</i><br /><br />He wrote that in 1983!allanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04673233312198832937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post-86017192984822452082010-10-12T06:40:56.479-07:002010-10-12T06:40:56.479-07:00When I was looking through daily newspapers from 1...When I was looking through daily newspapers from 1918, it was always reported that Owner X was speaking via the "long-distance telephone". I have no idea when that stopped.<br /><br />This was the part that I loved:<br /><br />"... they ceased to identify the trip with the machine and returned to identifying it with its purpose."allanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04673233312198832937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post-14008983112450577352010-10-12T06:25:56.208-07:002010-10-12T06:25:56.208-07:00These nuggests are great - thanks redsock!These nuggests are great - thanks redsock!FenFanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02348863925130603048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730822.post-76981890276187949862010-10-12T06:12:11.727-07:002010-10-12T06:12:11.727-07:00Computers are going to have an impact on my life t...<i>Computers are going to have an impact on my life that is similar to the impact that the coming of the automobile age must have had on the professional traveler or adventurer. The car made it easier to get from place to place; the computer will make it easier to deal with information. But knowing how to drive an automobile does not make you an adventurer, and knowing how to run a computer does not make you an analytical student of the game.</i><br /><br />This is great - I love it.<br /><br /><i>There is, you see, no such thing as "computer knowledge" or "computer information" or "computer data". Within a few years, everyone will understand that. </i><br /><br />It might be difficult or impossible for most people now to understand what he meant by that. We might think "computer knowledge" means "knowledge of computer systems" - IT. <br /><br />But in 1984 "computer knowledge" had a different connotation, something no one would say anymore - exactly as James says, the way no one says, we're going on an automobile trip.laura khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05524593142290489958noreply@blogger.com