I Wish I Knew!

Years ago -like about 45-46 years that is -I was working for a large, national association in Washington, D.C. and they were -at that time -in the process of converting all their membership files over to the then pretty new medium of computerization. I was one of several employees chosen then to become a part of that new department -The Computer Section.

Now bear in mind, I was trained then to become a keypunch operator and back home, when folks learned my job at this place involved working around computers, many people thought this meant I really had it great, knew a whole lot about computers, operations and such and well, dealing with those little cards with those funny looking little holes punched in 'em was considered to be very high tech back here.

I did learn about a few other things while I worked there pertaining to computers but it was all pretty minimal in reality. I even was lucky enough for a time to receive training on writing programs using the COBOL language too -but not enough to take me any further in that type of work.

However, it was enough that I do still have an interest in computers and do enjoy various things I can do now with my own computer, in my own home. Compared to where I worked back then and the size of the computer that did our processing, being able to perform many of the things I can do with this little box on my desk, the screen in front of me and a mass of tangled wires behind that box and on they floor is really remarkable and amazing for sure. The computer at our office back then was a huge piece of equipment with several great big reels of computer tapes that the operator had to know which tapes to put in this machine that took up about one fourth of the entire floor where our other offices were located!

But, today -though I do have this blog, I am pretty active with e-mailing (something a lot of people, even today, consider to be a "marvel" to be able to do that and play around a lot with Facebook as well, my knowledge about these things is really very, very limited. VERY!

And it is that limited knowledge that sometimes makes me wonder about some of these things pertaining to computers today too.

Sometimes, strange things happen while I am playing with the blog thing. Things that one minute worked fine and dandy and the next -not so wonderful. Frequently, the same sort of situations will develop while I'm playing on Facebook too and the problem then often is that I have no clue if it is something within my own computer playing little tricks on me or is it a glitch with Blogger or some new technique or application that I have little or no understanding about with Facebook. And running into those type of things is -for me -sometimes really frustrating.

Sometimes I wonder -or maybe I wish -that these various components had some kind of data center virtualization that controls everything pertaining to Blogger or Facebook and where those entities could some how check into those centers to see if someone having a problem is dealing with something that is just within that person's own computer or if any of the goofy little things that occur are part of a larger problem then within those particular programs themselves.

I'm thinking this would be neat in a real world and maybe even better -plus faster -in the virtual world -because it could then sort things out quickly and let the individual know if you need to call for some kind of technical repair for your unit or even trade it in and get a new, bigger, better, faster computer or if your little piece of equipment -old or new -is working fine but their system is the one with the problem at the moment.

Just wondering if something like this would/could/should be possible now or in the future and just one of many, many things I wish I understood and knew a whole lot more about!