Thursday, 6 December 2018
Still Nursing my cold/flu
well I posted a Jake email I had on my Wordpress
then today I get a fake email, but it was from my own email address and in Spanish
Then some guy in the DT said email should be banned, and said You've got Mail was a rubbish
film, well more or less. So that's my morning once I finally got out of bed.
The wife is off so I have nagging in the background, as I cough and splutter like a 1970s car
Somebody else in Holland is reading my stuff in Google Spanish.
so for
the guy below here's my view from 2001, you can pass it on to him if you know his email.
It's time we killed off email
The trouble with Technology (c)
By
Michael Casey
The
trouble with technology is that we all use it , now if we just left
it all alone then we all have no problems . Simple really but we all
just can't leave it alone , we all just have yo use it . In the
beginning if we wanted water we'd fetch the bucket and drop it down a
well . My mother was born just 30feet from the sea , but they were
fortunate because they had their own well , so they went outside and
dropped the bucket down the well and then they had water . Then
technology comes along and we just turn a tap and we have clean water
instantly . We have hot water too , at the turn of a tap . In one
generation so many changes . However technology then works against us ,
because we assume it will always work and that there will be no problems
We don't even know where the stopcock is , so our homes flood and then we discover we are not covered by our insurance .
My mother
grew up with an oil lamp hanging above , no luxury of gas lamps for her
, as for electricity , that was just a dream . Nowadays how could any
society manage without electricity , its impossible to believe life
without electricity . No tv , no radio , no freezers , no street
lighting , no traffic lights, the list goes on and on . As for indoor
plumbing , the luxury of a hot bath , the WC in the home . My mother
grew up with no indoor plumbing , if you needed the bathroom as the
American's say , then you'd leave the house and pick your spot in a
field with the cows gazing on , as for toilet paper you had a blade of
grass to wipe your %^** . As for me we did not have such hardships , we
had an outside WC , which we did not have to share with any other
family , just 8 Caseys sharing our outside bog/toilet . There was a yard
light to illuminate the way and a light in the toilet too . Which was
sheer luxury compared to my mum's and my dad's childhoods . My dad would
always come home and immediately switch off the yard light because it
was wasting electricity . Then a shout would go up "Put the light on" ,
and my dad would always say "I didn't know" . Then there was the
indignity of running out of paper . My brother Tony had a very good
sense of humour so it was always the case that I'd shout from the yard
"More Bog Roll" which is the English slang for toilet paper . Tony was
kind so he'd always bring out a fresh supply of paper , only he liked
to tease so he'd push one sheet , just one sheet of paper under the door
and say that's all there was in the house , and that mom said I'd have
to use my finger . Then he'd go away laughing . He always left a full
roll of paper on the doorstep , much to my relief .
Simple
technology , we all take for granted , water and electricity . What does
all this technology do for us ? It gives us independent comfortable
lives , we have clean water , hot water , light and warmth . Then with
the miracle of TV we can all watch the world go by , from the comfort of
our homes , or the local bar whichever is our true home . We are now a
global village as has often been said , but then we become anti social
as its easier to watch tv than to interact with real people , we'd
rather watch fiction on tv than have a real life . But with technology
we can send an email to our neighbour across the road , with pictures
and video , rather than leave our castle homes , rather than going over
for a coffee and a bar of chocolate .That's one view the optimistic view
says that we truly can break down barriers by using the miracle of
email to keep us connected though we are thousands of miles apart . I
have to hold my hand up and admit that I am an email Junky , I did send
up to 5 emails a day to my friend in another part of the office ,
because we were both having fun . Then when I fell in love with my one
true love it was ONLY because of the miracle of email that our love
survived .I sent my girlfriend long long emails everyday for 6 months .
She was in Shanghai while I was in Birmingham . My heart was breaking
with love and hope until finally she came back to me . I'd come home
from work at 3am and hit the keyboard , with luck because of the time
difference we'd actually be live and talking almost in real time .You
cannot imagine how heart rending it was to come home to an email , to
get up in the afternoon and read an email before going on night shift .I
think whoever invented email should be made a saint, without email our
love would not have lasted . An exchange of letters takes 14 days from
Birmingham to Shanghai , so thank God for email and God himself KNOWS
just how much I mean that , Sainthood is not high enough reward for the
inventor of email .Is it Saint Bill Gates ? The telephone is fantastic ,
but too expensive , I know my phone bill reached 4 figures , but an
email can be read over and over again , and even printed off , so it is a
letter.
So I confess email is the most important leap in technology of the 20th Century , as far as I am concerned .
The next
stage in the technology story are mobile phones that send/receive
video and tv , so we are literally wired up where ever we are in the
world science fiction becoming science fact . We all used empty match
boxes to pretend we were Captain Kirk communicating to the Enterprise
but now they are here for real . If you have been in a
theatre,church,hospital and these things bleep you have to decide for
yourself are they useful or just a real pain in the *&^% . On
balance they are good , but people have to be a lot more considerate ,
nobody else wants to hear their conversations if they are in church or
at the theatre or even cinema . I remember a conversation I had at
dinner on Xmas Eve just gone , the guy sat next to me happen to design
mobile phones , he was very very good at his job , but I did warn
caution about saturation point being reached . Then today 4months on , I
am proved right , the mobile giants are in trouble , why , because of
saturation point now being reached .
I don't
want to end on low note , so I'll tell another anecdote , we all
remember when we had our first colour tv , how wonderful it was and how
we all marvel and the colours . The BBC started showing snooker because
of the colours , and now tv without snooker would be unimaginable . Then
remote control came in , so we'd try different positions and even
outside the house and through the glass into the room where the tv was .
Technology makes us all like children , its supposed to be a triumph of
engineering and technology but really its our greatest toy , and our
greatest joy . On Saturday my dad will come out of the old peoples home
to spend the day with me and my Chinese wife in our home . I'll be able
to show him the internet and I hope I can bring tears of joy to his
eyes as I show him County Kerry on the computer monitor . Sitting in my
living room in Birmingham he can read the Irish newspapers and see his
homeland where he started as a blacksmith in the 1930s . This is how we
should be using technology .
End
20/4/2001
now its 2018 and my girls are growing up fast.....
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