By Staff
While we sit unable to use our computers due to a hardware problem, I need to reflect on the changes I have seen through the years.
We never had it as bad as Abraham Lincoln, studying by candlelight.
I remember having enough pencils and pens and paper to do my school work.
I never had to erase a black slate while I did my multiplication tables.
Still, my college work was done with a typewriter and that was before all these neat ways to eliminate mistakes had been invented.
When I had an error, I couldn't just white it out. We tried the strips of white powder, which we tried to position over the incorrect letter, to cover it and then retype over it.
My teachers, strict nuns, didn't accept such papers, so I was back to the beginning and retyping the entire page every time I made an error.
Then the huge computers, which used to fill a room, began to become more realistic in both size and price.
My first computer at the Dowagiac Daily News had a tiny screen and was all in one unit, called a Kaypro. Then I was just typing stories, not working on laying out pages like I do now.
We were still piecing the paper together by putting a sticky substance on the back of a story and lining it up in columns.
At the end of a column, you would cut the story with an exacto knife and place the next line at the top of the next column.
Now, the columns flow by themselves from one column to the next through some pretty amazing software.
The computers went from very small to larger screens to enable us to work on a page at a time. The monitors used to fill our desks. Luckily, I now have a flat screen, which saves quite a lot of space on my desk. A few newer computers have even replaced the large box with a small one about the size of four slices of bread.
Software has also become so sophisticated that it corrects my grammar and corrects my spelling.
Computers are great and I am thankful for them, except when they crash and what you typed is lost.
I remember I had my doubts about e-mail. I hate being bombarded with advertisements for male enhancement products and people who insist on sending not one but five copies of whatever it is they send that you never wanted in the first place.
Unfortunately, you have to weed through all of the e-mails to find the ones you really need.
It can, though, be a time saver when people you do want to hear from send their press releases in a form which is easy to copy and paste right on the page.
We also appreciate photos to share with our readers of events we weren't able to attend.
When a photo is sent to us as a "jpg" we can convert it and put it on the front page in a flash. That is when our computers are working.
I guess I feel the same way about the computers as I do about cell phones. They are wonderful when they work, but oh so frustrating when they don't.
My only regret is that we seem to have stopped sending actual letters any more.
I used to love to receive thank-you notes and post them on my bulletin board.
Now, when I do receive a rare compliment, I need to print it out in order to post it.
It just isn't the same.
I got a note in what is now known as snail mail, from my daughter's friend. She had given the girl a baby shower and I had sent along a gift.
In the note she not only thanked me, but told me what a great friend my daughter is to her.
That note is going to be shared with her and saved.
It might never get into the cyperworld, but I like being able to handle it and reread the nice words.
Some things were good the way they were.
She can be e-mailed at marcia.steffens@leaderpub.com.