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The Road Ahead

We live in an area that has begun to use Green
Bins for household waste. Our regular garbage
is picked up every other week and the only
weekly garbage collection is our green plastic
bins, to be filled with leftover food products
and other organic waste.

When the program first started, I was sure
we could never change our ways, but before
long, depositing bones and leftover food in
the bin became automatic.

Why am I telling you this? Because using the
computer will also become easy for you the
more you try. Sure, the learning curve is
steeper than remembering which container
to use for which type of garbage, but the
idea is the same. Every time you perform a
function or solve a problem on your computer,
it will be easier than the time before.

This week, I read a book written by Bill Gates
in 1996 titled 'The Road Ahead'. Gates said,
"Computers frighten almost everyone
(everyone but children), before they learn to
use them. When people spend more time with
computers, they understand them better.
You can start by playing computer games or
doing other simple things. Once you start
using them, I think you'll like them."

With the Internet, we can keep in touch with
old friends and make new ones; have virtual
experiences of flying an airplane, driving a
car, even dissecting a toad. Pilots and doctors
practice their work without worrying about
accidents. Every school can have a wonderful
library thanks to the Internet.

Gates saw then how much our world would
change because of computers. Banking and
shopping online, distance learning, the ability
to telecommute and work from home - all of
these grew as software became better and
more powerful.

Gates talked about his own futuristic house.
Anyone in the house wore an electronic pin that
told the house who and where you were. When
it got dark, the pin would turn on lights nearby
and turn them off when you went away. Music
would play near you and the phone ring nearby
only if the call was for you. A home control
console activated choices of lighting, music,
and temperature. That was in 1996, so who
knows what his home is like now!

The book ended with a cartoon showing a mutt
using a computer and saying "On the Internet,
nobody know's you're a dog." How true - on
the Internet, we are all on equal ground.

When in my 40's, the university library where I worked was computerized. The thought of using those machines at my age was so intimidating that I moved to another department. I transferred back a year later, determined to learn.

To my surprise, computers were easier to use than I imagined, and so enjoyable that I went back to school full-time.

MORE RESOURCES:

Yahoo! News Search Results for hardware
Yahoo! News Search Results for hardware

• Russia army to upgrade 30 percent of arms and hardware in 3-5 years (Itar-Tass)
MOSCOW, November 19 (Itar-Tass) --The Russian army will upgrade one-third of arms and hardware in the next three to five years, chief of the Russian Army General Staff, General of the Army Nikolai Makarov said.
• PC game hardware worth $34 billion by 2012 (CNET)
A report from Jon Peddie Research says the market for PC game hardware is larger than the market for game software. And PC gaming is bigger than console gaming.
• Take the Tom's Hardware Survey! (Tom's Hardware)
Take Tom?s Hardware Readers Survey and be automatically entered for a chance to Win one out of five $50 Amazon.com Gift Certificates! Having a frustrating time looking for information that helps you make your tech and hardware buying decisions?
• Tiny hardware firewall opened to Linux hackers (Linux Devices)
? Nov. 11, 2008 ? [Updated Nov. 13] -- Linux hobbyists and hackers have gained access to two of the most highly miniaturized hardware platforms shipped to date. Yoggie has started shipping ope-source based, user-modifiable versions of its inline and USB key-shaped security appliances. ...
• Holiday Gift Guide: High-end hardware (ZDNet)
Lists ... if there's one thing that people seem to what at this time of year it's lists. Over the next few weeks I've planned on posting several kit lists for the Holiday season covering a wide variety of different kit. To kick off the lists, I thought I'd start by getting the big numbers out of the way first and look at high-end hardware! The top-end, sky's the limit stuff that, if nothing ...

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