Office Technology

"You have attempted to perform an illegal function. "

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"This program must now be terminated. "

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"Sorry as hell if you didn't save your work. "

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(And then, just to pour acid on the wound)

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"Press any key to continue." .

I have a couple of ancient laptops on display at the office.

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One is a Compaq, more accurately a portable than a laptop. Mid to late 80's vintage. Not originally mine. Was probably about $4,000 new? 5 1/4" floppy drive (remember those?).

The other is an Epson. Early 90's vintage. Was originally mine. About $2,500 new. 20mb hard drive, 3 1/2" disc drive (low density). Weighs a ton, but we used the crap out of it. It still runs.

I just bought a new Lenovo laptop recently, it runs circles around those now ancient laptops. Was only about $800.

Our first network, if you could call it a network, consisted of connecting 2 computers by serial port cables and using a program called LapLink to copy files. We thought we were in Hog Heaven at the time.

Then there are cell phones. I resisted getting one for a long time. I was the last one in the family to get one. First one was a pretty basic Samsung, then a Blackberry Pearl, now a Blackberry Tour. The computer chip in my phone is way more advanced than the ancient laptops pictured here.

I started my own accounting practice in 1988. At that time we did about 125 tax returns each year. We now do about 400 per year. There is no way we could do near that many without the use of computers. We have electronically filed returns since the early 90's. Kills less trees that way.

Well, maybe.

Back in those days a 20 page tax return was rare. Nowadays a return like that is almost pure joy. I have done some that had over 400 pages to them because it seems that every deduction, credit or item of income now has to have some sort of a peculiar form or worksheet of its own.

I have always been interested in computers. So much so that I even considered majoring in that field when I was in college (1970's). Took a couple of Fortran courses in college and really enjoyed them.

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Then I took a course in Boolean Algebra (the algebra of switching circuits).

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That course singlehandedly ended my interest in making Computer Science my life passion. The guy that taught the course looked and smelled like he hadn't had a shower in a week or so. But he wasn't the real problem, the subject matter was so dry as to make Arizona look like a rain forest. There weren't any cute women in the class either.

. After that I decided to leave most of the bits and bytes to other people. I just want it to work and not give me messages like the one appearing at the top of this post.

. How about those operating systems over the years? .

DOS 5.0 DOS 6.2 Windows 3.0 Windows 3.3 Windows 95 Windows 2000 Windows XP Windows 7 (We skipped Windows 98 and Vista)

I used to think I had a pretty good knowledge of computer systems. Used to help out some of our clients a lot.

Then one day a college student intern that was working for us showed me what you could do by right clicking on the start button and other places. I was so pissed! Why hadn't I known that years before.....

Remember 1,200 baud modems? Compuserve?

Early AOL?

I am showing my age.

Used to think that my knowledge of computer systems was pretty near the forefront. We used to use an old database program called Paradox. Designed some pretty neat applications for ourselves and for some of our clients. Nowadays, you just buy specific software for some of the same functions.

I generally use WordPerfect for word processing and QuattroPro for spreadsheets. I'll use Microsoft Word and Excel only if I have to. I almost despise the Microsoft products. Granted, they all do the same stuff, my preference is mostly just because I am more familiar with using the others. We gravitated from using Wordperfect and Lotus123 in the old DOS days and at the time it seemed to be an easier progression.

Maybe I am just mad because I didn't buy Microsoft stock in the early 90's.

My blog is pretty simple (formatwise). Yeah, I know I can get in there and mess with the html settings, but for right now I don't have the patience or time for it. I do plan to dress it up a bit in the next few months. I am a little tired of the way it looks. I really need to take better pictures too, and that is a blogging goal as well. It's another after "tax season" project.

I am also planning on some riding and picture taking that weekend after the 15th of April. Stay tuned!

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