On Sunday, June 03, 2012 11:44:44 AM Jack Coats did opine: > Every generation seems to loose some of the old generations 'base > knowledge', and their expectations of their 'basic normal' is upped to > the current level of 'consumer tech'. > > My Mom told me about kerosene refrigerators, and before that just > keeping milk cool in water pumped (by wind) from the well. I remember > visiting her mom (my grandmother) when she still lived in a half-dugout > house in West Texas. > > Moving from the well water cooling to a kerosene refrigerator was a > technological coups for the day. > > When my grandmother moved into 'town' into a 'regular house', that was > another great advance. > > Both my parents remember when electricity first came to their homes, and > one light bulb in a room was > considered a big deal.
So do I, I can remember reading a McGuffey's, or a high school (no, I wasn't that old, yet...) physics book, by kerosene lamp as late as 1942. Then we moved to Des Moines & my parents went to work loading 30 and 50 cal ammo at the Ankeny IA plant during WW-II. We had electric there, but no phone, before that our connection to the outside world from the farm was a battery powered radio, turned on to get market prices in the morning, and the evening news. Getting to listen to Amos & Andy was a treat because of the cost of the batteries. I can remember the sight of seeing everyone crying when Dec 7 1941 was announced on the evening news. I can remember, when it wasn't rationed, both bread and gasoline for 7 or 8 cents. Grandpa did have an ice cooler for household milk & such, but we cut that ice from the middle coon river in February, with a one man saw, packed it in sawdust from grandpa's sawmill & stacked it in the center of a tile building under a couple feet of sawdust and usually had ice for the cooler until late Sept or Oct of the next year. We made ice cream with a hand cranked freezer for the family get together on the 4th of July from that ice. Cold drinking water was straight from the windmill powered well. That was just how it was then. And we were happy as clams. > My parents thought Color Movies were great advances. Their parents > thought 'Talkies' were the 'bees knees'. > > I grew up with a B/W TV and it was my base norm, as was a party line > dial telephone. When 'direct dial telephone service' came to the > Dallas/Ft Worth TX area, it was a big deal. We went to downtown Ft > Worth and toured the Southwestern Bell switching center (relays mainly, > before solid state switches). It was really 'high tech'. > > Not many of us remember doing 'duck and cover' drills in school, in case > of enemy nuclear attack. My dad almost put in a bunker, but instead we > lived close to military bases and manufacturers. He said it was > partly so we wouldn't survive the first attack, if it happened. > > I can go on. > > My kids don't remember not having a hardwired network at home and > computers for everyone (we were the first on our block that I know of). > We did 'share' a dialup modem, but via a linux server that did dial on > demand in another room (on a separate phone line) so it looked to them > like we were 'online all the time'. > > My kids don't remember dial telephones, or pay phones. And as my > daughter is a school teacher, she is running into the 'next generation' > effect with her second graders (and she has only been teaching 2 > years). > > I find myself waxing about 'old tech' when I could understand how all > the toys work to some reasonable extent. But my 'base knowledge' of > how logic gates work (NAND, NOR, AND, OR, Inverters, and how to combine > them into state machines or processors) is not common anymore. Most of > that knowledge isn't needed even by digital designers. ... Technicians > are board swappers not 'repair people', as the cost of people goes up > and equipment goes down that is a natural progression. > > Today, I think of 3D printing as high tech, if I had grandkids (none > yet) they would not know a world without it being available, and would > ask me what that box on the wall with a hand crank is (it is a > telephone from my wifes grandad's home, still has room for B batteries > inside, and has a generator on the other end of a crank ... no dial) > > In 10-15 years we will have Compaq or GE or Fujilkjlfkja :) making 3D > printers and scanner multi-function replicators we can buy at Walmart or > Best Buy (I would have said Sears and Wards 20 years ago). And that > will be the norm for another generation. > > *"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." > -- Arthur C. Clarke* > * > * > *And technology keeps advancing even if we don't. I don't care to live > forever, but I would sure like to be able to peek from behind the > curtain and see what happens!* Chuckle, your progression of history is quite good Jack, and I was thinking we must be about the same age, till you said no grandkids yet! I have great grandchildren who could make me a great great grandpa in another 4 or 5 years. Whether I will live to see that day is the $64 question. Diabetics, type 2's, tend to develop a whatever attitude since every morning we wake up, despite the aches & pains, the fact that we woke up makes it a great day. :) Cheers, Gene -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) My web page: <http://coyoteden.dyndns-free.com:85/gene> 667: The neighbor of the beast. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
