Blog about technology

Ooh I missed doing the blog entry on this.

I have been using technology way before it was cool..

I remember my first job in a typing pool where we typed overdue notices for account holders. We had to go through a room full of cards in drawers and then type each letter individually. Now I send out over 100 overdues in two minutes and they are all customised to the period of overdue. Times have changed.

I also had a job where it manned the telex maching. You know those machines that spat out a long tape with holes in it - seen them in the movies? Well way back then you couldn't correct errors you had to start over. I had to do complete shipping lists of unusually named professional cinema cameras. You can imagine the stress. I was SOOO pleased when we got a Sagem telex machine that allowed you to cut and join the tape.

I learnt to type on a manual typewriter, you had to have really strong little fingers. I was stoked when I got to use a golf ball typewriter in my first job which was primarily the assistant PABX operator. We had to answer all calls (to a large company in Syndey) and physically put them through to the correct extension. Yes, go back to the movies for the woman (they were always women) sitting at a large console, with headphones and microphone (that looked like a small trumpet) plugging cables into holes in the wall in front of her. That was me... Earnt a whole $88.00 a fortnight too!

I remember the first Apple PC, the operating system BEFORE MSDOS, Atari and Commodore 64s, $20,000 PCs that didn't have any input device but the keyboard and mouse, (no tape, floppy or CD). I also used an accounting machine that had cards with holes in it which was the program!

So when PCs arrived, there was no stopping me. YEE HAA. way to go...