Using a Computer

Using a Computer ©

By Michael Casey

We all use computers now, but it wasn’t always like that. When my brother said try computers back in 1978, yes nearly 40 years ago, they were new, and if you told anybody you were using a computer they were impressed, very impressed. They always misunderstood what a computer operator was, they thought it involved programming though people call it coding nowadays.

A computer disc drive was as big as a washing machine and vibrated just as much, tape drives were as big as wardrobes and the rest of the computer was long enough to sleep on, but that’s another story. So if you compare then to now, a computer is as small as a text book with a dinky keyboard attached.

I use the family desktop to write my stories and load them up to Amazon  books when I have a collection of 100 or so, not forgetting my 3 websites. I share the computer with my girls and they use the printer at my feet, so very typical of most families the world over. Then we all had the gift of Windows 10 which is good in my opinion. So we all use computers in our daily lives.

So how do you use your computer? If you are rich and/or have worked hard then you may have an Apple Mac, these look very pretty, I’ve never been lucky enough to have a play on one. However I do note that the keyboard is very small, it’s very pretty in an artistic way, but with my sausage fingers way too small. Even the standard size keyboard it a bit fiddly.

I did have some luck though as I was allowed to take home an old Microsoft keyboard, it’s almost as big as a skateboard, it was going to be binned, but I was allowed to rescue it. Once home I gave it a big scrub and tried it in the family PC and to my delight it worked, it’s the perfect size for my sausage size fingers, it has lots of little buttons I never use, nor do I really know what they are for, but the keyboard is ergonomic as the call it. It means its curvy like a woman’s body if I’m allowed to use that word.

A computer desk is a nice thing, the keyboard can slide in and out, though I tend to have the keyboard on my lap as I talk to you all, I have a drink perched on the desk in front of the PC, for safety the drink is not above the PC itself but on the opposite side. It is above the printer, but that’s always switched off till the girls need it.  And that’s how I am as I talk to you, not forgetting the screaming in Mandarin from the room behind me, you try living with 3 girls and a bilingual cat called Totoro.

Now a computer used to be very boring, then speakers came along, so you can listen to radio online, or play your music while you are using the PC, of course there is Utube too, but I’m assuming you are using your eyes so it’s just your ears free. So for few quid, or the price of 5 pints in a pub you can get some decent speakers. Then you are never alone as you work on the computer, I tend to play the same albums over and over, though now with Magic Radio and its sister stations I have plenty of advert free music.

At work people have postit notes stuck to their computer, like Autumn leaves about to fall, with curled up edges. Some have photos of kids stuck all around the edges of their PC, though some of the people I used to work with may have had phone numbers of 3 pubs stuck to the frame of their PC. WE were market research into alcohol sales after all.

Others have pens and pencils and felt tips in the grooves of the keyboard, personally I need a clear keyboard, as it’s balanced on my lap anything on the keyboard would soon fall to the ground and Totoro would run away with it. I do keep a pen to hand in front of the screen and last year’s diary I recycle to scribble any notes on, like don’t forget to buy Fairy Liquid.

The screen does make a difference, I was one of the 1^st to have a flat screen, maybe 14 years ago, we knew somebody whose factory made them, so I got one, it was very expensive at the time, a new one today with a much bigger screen size is ¼ the price of what I paid back then. Dinky size screens are just irritating, so a nice large screen is good. Back in my computer operator days in 1978 they were cube shaped with just black and white letters on, no pictures at all. So today when we have HD and all singing and dancing screens it’s a revolution, and the work of the devil compared to 40 years ago when I first started in computers.

The bottom line though is what you produce on your computer. Otherwise it’s pretty but a waste of money. Me I write my stories and will reach 800 next month or in early September 2016, then maybe by Christmas 2018 I’ll get to my 1,000,000 WORD, and maybe 1000^th story. So if my chair is broken by then I’ll treat myself to a new chair, they do tend to only last a year as I’m 100kilos plus and 40 hours a week plus sat in it is a lot of weigh.

Before I forget, a word of warning, never trust a computer, not ever, assume it’s a Politician who’ll stab you in the back, topical reference thrown in for good measure. Always back off your files to at least 2 usb sticks, or any other removable media. Always back to the cloud too, and just to be extra safe email your important files to yourself, you should have at least 2 email addresses, or more, as they are free. Email stuff to your 90 year old maiden aunt too, so if anything happens, like Donald Trump’s Russian friends hacking you, at least you have safe copies in cyberspace.

On that note I’ll say goodnight, I have to watch to Politics on Sky and the BBC now, though I tend to watch it on the computer too, so freeing up the family tv for my 3 girls and our bilingual cat Totoro. Trust Nobody as Mulder says….