Famous last words

Last week we lost all contact with the Internet for an entire day. We all experienced severe withdrawals.

Without the Internet, how could we do our work? Of course we survived, but the experience of working without Internet support made me think how my attitude toward technology has changed over the years.

Consider some famous last words I embarrassingly admit I made:

• ‘A computer? I’ll never use one,’ circa 1986. My daughter who was in college had a PC used mainly for word processing. I thought an electric typewriter was more efficient.

• ‘Hard drive? What for?’ circa 1989. I began to see the advantages of a computer with a word-processing program. I decided to buy one, but I didn’t want to waste my money on a hard drive. Why would I need that? I could store everything on a floppy. (My latest computer has an 80 gig hard drive and can write to CDs and DVDs.)

• ‘Why Windows?’ circa 1990. When Windows 3.0 came out, I wondered why anyone would need to run more than one program at a time.

Today, I often have five or six programs running simultaneously.

• ‘E-mail? I don’t think so,’ circa 1991. A departmental secretary checked e-mail periodically on the one computer that had a modem, printed it out and delivered it, and then input all replies.

I didn’t think e-mail would catch on. Why e-mail when you could telephone? Little did I know.

• ‘We’ll never need a Web site,’ circa 1994. The small publishing company where I worked bought a computer with a modem. I accessed the Internet using ftp and gopher. (Netscape and Internet Explorer were not yet available.)

When a colleague asked me if our company should have a Web site, I told him I didn’t think we would ever need one because people would never purchase books and newsletters online. (I now do most of my shopping online.)

I’ve had to swallow my words about technology more than a few times. Technology happens. It helps me do my work better, faster, and more efficiently. Obviously, it helps you, too.

Our goal in this issue is to give you some ideas about buying and using office technology. I hope you’ll enjoy the articles.

Until next time,

Linda Segall, Editor-in-Chief