I (Donis) have been preoccupied with tech issues today, so I'm writing this entry later than usual. One of our laptops is about to give up the ghost, so we took it in to the Apple repair place, thinking the tech was going to tell us that it was too far gone and we should put it out of its misery and buy a new one. But to my surprise, he thought it could still be updated and last for a couple more years. We've never updated that computer because I'm always in the middle of some piece of writing and am terrified that I haven't backed it up in enough places to be able to get it back if I lose it in the update. I'm told this is paranoid. I don't believe it.
Sometimes I long for the days of the electric typewriter. Or maybe the quill pen.
Chris, my brother/web master and computer expert, lost several sites in a crash a few years ago and nearly had a stroke. I think of that often and resolve to print off every entry on this site and all other sites I've ever written for, since I’d hate to lose all these pearls of wisdom that I’ve posted over the past dozen years. After his disaster, Chris told me he immediately did a database back up, burned it to a CD (This was a while back. There was no cloud.), locked it in a lead-lined steel box and buried it in the back yard to be defended by his vicious guard dog.
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| Chris Casey |
This just goes to show that technology ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. I’m reminded of the old Twilight Zone episode in which every speck of human knowledge was transferred to a microdot, and then somebody lost the microdot. Imagine, if you will, what would happen if electricity went away. What would you lose forever, and what would you no longer be able to do that you count on to live? I’ll tell you one thing, I wouldn’t be able to live here in this giant metropolis in the middle of the Sonoran Desert without air conditioning. I’m not nearly as tough as the native people and settlers who lived here before and endured the heat without even thinking about it, really. Of course, I grew up without air conditioning in Oklahoma, which is no slouch when it comes to summer heat. I’ve grown considerably wimpier since I was young.
I'm right there with you, Donis! I'd much rather use an old-timey typewriter. There's a fabulous book called Mr. Penumbra's Bookstore that gets into old world knowledge versus new world knowledge. I think society relies way too much on technology. Convenient, yes. Better? Debatable. Though to your point about electricity and the ability to live through summers in the desert, I do love the app on my phone that lets me turn on the A/C to my car before I step outside : )
ReplyDeleteI'll be taking screenshots of my website and sending them somewhere safe this weekend....
I should download that app, Ambre!
ReplyDeleteYour post was very timely in light of an experience I had at the library yesterday. A boy age 4 or 5 was glued to his mother's phone watching a cartoon or video as we stood in line at the check-out desk. The mother and older siblings had to grab his arm and move him along because he never looked up from the screen. They laughed, thinking it was funny. I thought it was very sad that he was so disconnected from the people and environment around him. What a terrible habit to form at such a young age.
ReplyDeleteTanya