Comments on The Burd Report: How to leave a name on your comments

The library is everywhere, Manfred. Yes, young peo...

2009-06-07T14:40:06.397-04:00

The library is everywhere, Manfred.
Yes, young people take to tech like children to toys. That was the case when I went to Loyalist College of Applied Arts & Technology and saw a special air-conditioned room with a huge computer in it. So I signed up for data processing. The class was made up of 20 business students and one poet from Comunications Arts.

Most of my peers and colleagues in the 60s & 70s, who quickly embraced technology grew up to become fuddy-duddies. Sadly, people grow up after they leave school.

Once upon a time they were verbs, now they are nouns, immovable as a rock-noun in a river with verbs constantly passing them by.

I agree completely. Anonymous comments are really ...

2009-06-07T13:19:15.411-04:00

I agree completely. Anonymous comments are really annoying!

In my day to day work I have the opportunity to ob...

2009-06-07T12:36:23.228-04:00

In my day to day work I have the opportunity to observe all ages and how they react and act in various situations. As for technological matters, I see most adults approach it with caution and if they do something, they do it hesitatingly, usually reacting with some level of surprise at the result. School aged kids, and up to early adulthood approach it with that glint in their eyes that says "oh neat - something to play with" and proceed to launch an 'offensive strike' upon the challenge before them, anxious to see what it will do, and perhaps not do.

I guess the same goes for these computer related matters, including 'google', 'blogger', 'e-mail', 'facebook', 'apps' and all those other 'things' that appear so 'breakable'. The biggest leap for me came when my son told me "go ahead, do what you want - you can't break the internet" and so I did.

Yet, to keep up with, and maybe even understand to some small degree, what seems a daily expansion of ideas in computerland, I just can't get a solid handle on any of them. There appears to be no single source of guidance on the big picture, just little snippets here and there for specific situations. Maybe we still have to rely on the great-great-great-grandmother of the information highway - the library - to get some help on how to handle the mercurial offspring. Whoever said books were a thing of the past certainly had to be under 50 and oblivious to today's pace of technological evolution.