Dry Slot

Generations (continued)

Posted by: Bogon, 2:40 AM GMT on June 13, 2012

In 1951 I was born into a different world. It was the Atomic Age. During my first year of life the world's first H-bomb was detonated on Eniwetok. As a child the image of the mushroom cloud haunted my dreams.

The pace of technological evolution was increasing. It was also the Jet Age, which soon segued into the Space Age. Combine the Atomic Age with the Space Age and you get ballistic missiles, which meant that no place on earth was safe from prompt nuclear annihilation. Learned and authoritative men such as Henry Kissinger and Zbignew Brzezinski reassured me that our international policy of Mutual Assured Destruction was working.

No wonder that one of my favorite movies is Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb!

Then there were the wars. I might not have worried so much if the earth had been a peaceful place. There were endless World War II movies for impressionable young kids to watch. John Wayne could be counted on to shoot the Krauts or blow up the Japs. Or you could turn on the news and hear about the Korean War. At first there was only AM radio, but around the time I was old enough to start school Dad brought home the family's first black and white television. Soon after that we got a high fidelity FM stereo receiver/phonograph. These spiffy new electronic devices were built with vacuum tubes. They were massive furniture. (Mom still has the stereo. By now it's pretty much in the same category as Grandpa's Victrola.)

Back then we got two snowy channels on the teevee. Still, that was enough to enjoy the effect of video, which enhanced the immediacy of current events. By the time LBJ escalated the Vietnam War (guns and butter!), we could view the carnage in living color.

That was life during the Cold War. The main event was the ever-present nuclear Sword of Damocles, but there was always a hot brushfire burning somewhere in the background. We talked peace, prayed for peace, sang praises to peace and goodwill, but there was always a war. There still is. I have stopped worrying about the hypocrisy of that. What's a little hypocrisy compared to the threat of Armageddon?

* * *

The national news was no more encouraging. A series of charismatic and capable leaders and spokesmen got gunned down, erased: John and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lennon. Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and John Belushi all dropped dead. I'm probably leaving somebody out here. These lists were compiled from my decreasingly reliable memory. Leave a comment, if you like.

Perhaps these people were too good for us here on planet earth. Perhaps we didn't deserve them. Perhaps we weren't ready yet to hear what they had to say. When will we be ready?

* * *

The news at a personal, local level is better. In a single lifetime my grandfather went from horse and buggy to jet plane. He lived to see NASA astronauts land on the moon.

By the time I started school, my father had earned his Ph.D. His formal education was complete. He spent the rest of his life giving back to education. When I graduated from high school, he was superintendent of schools here in Burlington. He held that job during the period of mandatory desegregation that followed the Supreme Court's decision Brown v. Board of Education. He managed to satisfy federal requirements to end segregation in the city school system, while keeping the schools functioning and maintaining peace in the community. I recall that he was subsequently invited to appear before members of Congress in Washington, DC, to explain how he did it. In numerous other locations around the country the same process did not end as well.

If I were to pick one thing to represent my father's legacy, that would be it. Thanks to people like him, black people in the South get a better deal today than they did in my grandfather's time. There's more work to be done, but a lot of progress has been made. Heck, a black man is President. It gratifies me to see bright, well-spoken people of color in my community, who look you square in the eye and smile when you say hello.

My sister-in-law has adopted a black child. She tells me that they get funny looks sometimes, when they go out together. I look forward to a time when skin color will be no more meaningful than the color of your eyes or hair. Perhaps, one of these days, such externalities will all be equally adjustable. In that world little green men would not necessarily be alien.

* * *

It is the Information Age. My first hands-on experience with computers came when I went to college in the early 1970s. Somewhere along the line I elected to take an introductory programming course. I discovered that I enjoyed learning programming languages. The logical thinking came naturally. I did not enjoy the process. At that time each line of code had to be punched into a paper card, the cards stacked into a deck, and the deck dropped into an In box to be queued to a card reader. Eventually your program would be allocated slices of processing time on the university's mainframe. The machine would generate fanfold output (usually just an error message, until you got the program debugged) on a line printer. The printout would be wrapped around your card deck with a rubber band and deposited in an Out box for pickup. Each iteration of this process took hours, and it was inherently error prone. I was not motivated to pursue this activity as a career.

Fifteen years later I bought my own personal computer. It was a miracle of microelectronics. The processing power of that desktop machine was comparable to the room-sized mainframe I had used at school. The difference was in the interface. The PC had a console. Feedback was immediate. Awesome!

At first my interest in personal computing was avocational. Playing with the machine was fun. I learned how to do stuff, how to make it go. This was back in the days of DOS. All I had was a command line, plus whatever commercial software I was willing to purchase on a hobbyist's budget. One of the most useful packages ever slotted into my floppy disk drive was called ProComm. With that and a 2400 baud modem I could go on-line. I could connect to bulletin boards, where I could download information and free software.

Gradually computing began to absorb more of my time and energy. Then I hit a mid-life crisis. I began to rethink everything, my whole setup. I floundered around for a while (years!), but the outcome was that I went back to school for a computer science degree. Since then I've had a tiger by the tail.

The rate of technological change in the field of computing outstrips anything I might have dreamed as I was growing up. The internet — who could have imagined the internet? (Well, William Gibson had a vision of the digital future in 1984. J. C. R. Licklider foresaw the possibilities way back in 1962. I reckon Lick wins the prize.) Now I'm talking to you across it. Pretty neat, huh?

Okay, I've probably talked long enough. Your ears are going to wear thin, and I'm liable to get hoarse. C U L8r!

Categories: Forecasting Howdy In Memorium

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51. Bogon 12:25 PM GMT on July 04, 2012
Good morning, Ylee. I'm happy to be the unwitting instrument of your liberation! :o) Do the upgraded privileges enable you to see the photos in comment 30? And speaking of glitches, I have been trying to modify comment 30 since shortly after I posted it, and for some reason it won't let me. No major changes, the version that's up there will do, but there's a slightly better version (in my opinion) waiting to go up. Ah, well, I don't suppose it matters much by now. Member Since: June 26, 2008 Posts: 72 Comments: 2762

52. Bogon 1:18 PM GMT on July 04, 2012
Tuning up for the Fourth... Member Since: June 26, 2008 Posts: 72 Comments: 2762

53. masshysteria 5:30 PM GMT on July 04, 2012
Good Afternoon, Bogon! Lately, computer and other problems have made it difficult for me to do any extensive WU posting or blogging. Now that I've managed to get online, I wanted to be sure to wish you and yours A HAPPY AND SAFE FOURTH OF JULY HOLIDAY AND WEEK! Wow, that Stephen Stills Youtube sure brings me back to those happier moments I experienced in the late 60's and early 70's. I was such an ardent fan of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and had all their albums until my younger sister absconded with my favorite collectibles. Such was life and younger siblings! LOL! I've so enjoyed reading your blog-header entitled, "Generations", as it's truly relatable to this particular "Baby-Boomer". You've certainly made the most of all your life experiences and education along the way! Thanks for sharing! Member Since: June 21, 2006 Posts: 52 Comments: 7125

54. Bogon 6:23 PM GMT on July 04, 2012
Hi, Mass. Thanks for the holiday greeting. I just returned from a mad-dogs-and Englishmen style walk in the noonday sun. My goal for the rest of the day is simply to keep cool. On this day we honor the birth of our nation, but this also seems a propitious time to recognize all the folks who worked to develop air conditioning. Good ol' Benjamin Franklin contributed to both. You've certainly made the most of all your life experiences and education along the way! You know, there might be at least one missed opportunity in there somewhere. Thanks very much for the vote of confidence. :o) Member Since: June 26, 2008 Posts: 72 Comments: 2762

55. Barefootontherocks 7:15 PM GMT on July 04, 2012
Thanks for stopping by my blog. Happy Fourth! Member Since: April 29, 2006 Posts: 135 Comments: 16316

56. Ylee 1:43 AM GMT on July 05, 2012
I'm afraid the photos in comment#30 are still in my filtering software's "no-fly" zone! :( However, your Wikipedia links have been most valuable, as I've been able to find the lyrics that I used in my blog! A salute to Mr. Carrier and the other folks by which we benefit with cool air! :) Hope you had a good 4th! Member Since: February 3, 2011 Posts: 65 Comments: 11299

57. Bogon 8:56 AM GMT on July 06, 2012
Good morning, campers. You may recall that I started having forebodings of summer heat back in commment 12. Since then heat has arrived with a vengeance. The last time we had something resembling a cool day was on June 26. I know, because I saved a temperature map from that morning. I don't remember the last time we had a decent rain. The last mention was in comment 5, three weeks ago. There have been some near misses. My hopes rise whenever the sky grows cloudy, as it did yesterday. The grass is turning brown in my yard. I water daily, but my efforts are directed at preserving the garden, trees and shrubs. The grass can fend for itself. Barefoot - Wife invited the in-laws over Wednesday night. They brought fireworks and ingredients for making banana splits. I was a bit tired and grumpy when they arrived, but the banana split helped. I have a personal tradition of consuming one each summer. This year I didn't have to bestir myself. The banana split came to me. Ylee, I considered inserting a link to the wiki for air conditioning. Sounds like you found your own way to the page about Willis Carrier. Air conditioning is one of those things that have become commonplace during my lifetime, which makes it on topic for this blog. I dimly recall a time when most places I went were not air conditioned. It's hard to remember what that felt like. One's memory works better for the good things in life and selectively filters out the bad. I surely don't miss mildew and clammy sheets at night. Some of my readers may live in places where summers are cool enough that you don't need air conditioning. A lot of you live in Florida or elsewhere in the South, where AC is largely taken for granted these days. Folks who live in the South and don't have air conditioning are probably not reading this blog, because computers and hundred degree heat don't go together. Ah, that spurs a thought: unlike the traditional desktop PC, mobile devices like the iPhone should be expected to perform in ambient conditions indoors and out. Does anyone have stories or experience of snazzy new smart gadgets that can't handle the heat? Member Since: June 26, 2008 Posts: 72 Comments: 2762

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