In my discussion section this evening we got onto talking about the legal infrastructure that makes property be "yours" and how that ownership is a pretty fragile structure based on laws, respect for laws, punishment for strongmen, etc. We take it for granted but it's based on conventions that could fall apart in a moment, if crisis strikes.
A similar and fragile web holds all our technology together. Where do the electrons that display this entry really reside? Can copies end up anywhere the reader wants them to? If I come back in 10 years, will this site still be here? If the grid goes down, how will I enter the information superhighway?
Part of me feels that it's my responsibility to be a "smarter" technologist (I am lame as can be when it comes to technology: ask the Infamous B). This comes up today because I forgot my mobile drive at home today. I had the laptop, so I finished my lecture notes, copied them up to "Sno Cones," went to a computer lab and copied them down to Word and reformatted them, then printed them out. Lame, lame, lame. If I'd ever figured out how to use shared network space (or how to print from my laptop at school), this wouldn't have been a problem. But I do the easiest-for-me thing, not the most technologically savvy.
Posted by otto0114 at April 19, 2006 09:32 PMYou are not technologically incompetent!
You are 10 times better at these things than most folks. You simply want to do more than the 'standard' tasks because you demand more!
The problem is that technology only works intuitively for geeks like me! And if you want to figure out anything beyond the 'standard' way... it takes LOTS of time and effort... Something almost no one is willing to give!
Ergo... computer geeks will ALWAYS be in demand!
-B