Ian McNaught Davis & My Computing Evolution

Ian McNaught-Davis passed away last week aged 84. His name won't be familiar to most people but during the 1980's he was a familiar face on TV and more often than not he was promoting the early computers such as the BBC Micro, Acorn and Archimedes. Together with Chris Serle, another familiar face from 80's TV, he hosted in 1983 'Making the Most of the Micro' and earlier 'The Computer Programme'.

Both were attempts to sell the concept of computers playing an integral role in among the general public and industry. Little did they know back then just how much an impact the personal computer would have on the World and the development of the Internet which now joins these devices to a vast network of information and media. It's difficult to know how influential these programmes were given that computer ownership was extremely low. In the US, ownership was as low as 15% of the overall population. It would be another ten years before things really began to take off. Up to then there had been many attempts at developing a 'standard' home computer and I recall with fondness owning a few of them.

Nowadays we look back at these 'museum pieces' the same way we do a vintage car or wind-up gramophone. Their use was often limited to very basic games or simple word processing, but that was all we really needed at the time, and even this seemed amazing.

The dial-up modem made it possible for computers to connect to other computers and I recall using early Bulletin Board Services to access local information and news. Many of these were run from people's homes and the slow data rate and call costs made this a very expensive activity.

CompuServe was my first portal to the Internet in the early 90's. It wasn't 'true' Internet as we know it now - more a selection of sites made available via a portal. Even then there were just a few hundred sites available, each easily categorised according to content. I recall my excitement at having a whole electronic library of information at my fingertips and would regularly sit up half the night browsing these fledgling sites on my US Robotics 28 kbps modem.

Much of the time was spent patiently waiting for the pages to load, one line at a time, such were the limitations of modem technology back then. However, it worked and it was exciting - a taste of what was to come.
I don't remember when exactly ISDN became available domestically. It had been used by business for many years but for a time, BT marketed it to the general public as 'super-fast' access to the Information Superhighway. In reality, it was two phone lines joined together to give twice the maximum bandwidth. Even wit the two lines, the line speed was only about 256 mbps. By today's standards, this is very low but back in the mid to late 90's, this was high speed and with the limited complexity of sites, pages loaded quickly. This was a major step forward and opened the door to streaming audio and video - albeit at very low definition and bit rate. Most importantly, it worked and it worked well. ISDN wasn't around long enough to be established as a standard for domestic Internet access. It wasn't marketed, it was a lot of work to install, it wasn't user-friendly and it was expensive. The need to dial-up each time meant that forgetting to disconnect after use could mean staying connected for many hours, each minute of which was charged at a premium. I recall one month receiving a bill for £800 simply because I had forgotten to disconnect.
I was a latecomer to ADSL. I had moved from South London in 2001 and in South Lincolnshire, it took another couple of years before it reached me. I moved with my job, then in IT, so I was able to have ISDN re-installed in my new home, and installed again in my current home a few miles up the road. When it finally came, ADSL was a massive leap from ISDN. The biggest bonus for me was the ability to have several computers connected to the Internet simultaneously. Being permanently connected was a good feeling and it was great not having to worry about connecting and disconnecting. I could use my phone at the same time too - something I couldn't do with ISDN or dial-up.

Youngsters growing up with this technology know of nothing else. They are used to the Internet being there, being constantly connected from computer, tablet and mobile. My son will remember the Internet as it is now - fast, dependable and always there. What's next? Well super-fast fibre is the next step and swathes of the UK are being connected right now. As with ADSL, it will take some time before it reaches me. Roll-out is dependent on viability, cost-effectiveness and take-up. In a village of just a hundred or so homes, there won't be anywhere near the demand and for most people, ADSL provides adequate speed and bandwidth. However, even now there are signs that ADSL may be struggling to provide the bandwidth needed. I already see my 7 year old son placing huge demands on our connection to the Internet. He has discovered YouTube and streaming video services such as BBC iPlayer, and with much of it available in high definition, he often 'hogs the bandwidth' and makes it difficult for me to catch up on the latest news or check my bank account. Even now, the quantity and quality of information and media available to us is dictating the way we connect. As the Internet has grown, so too has our demand for what it can offer. The problem is that it grows faster than our ability to connect and feed from it. Perhaps fibre will eventually satisfy all our needs.
So I look back at where we have come from and how fast technology has developed since the first time I heard the high pitch squeal of my modem as it 'shook hands' with another modem in a far off location. We've come a long long way. I wonder what Ian McNaught Davis would be predicting now if those programmes were made again today? Rest in peace and thanks for helping us to understand now what we understood then.

It'll Never Catch on

How extraordinary it is to think that one person invented the computer mouse. Something that is so commonplace in work, schools and homes and something we take so much for granted. Yet the computer mouse hasn't been around for that long. I remember with fondness joining Churchill Insurance in 1989 and working my way into the IT department. There were certainly computers then and Churchill pioneered the use of IT back then which drives much of UK industry today. The computers back then were all text based, running UNIX and what we now refer to as 'green screen' terminals.
I recall one particular day when we were all asked to attend an IT department meeting. We were told that some people from a company called 'Microsoft' were visiting to showcase a new computer system they were calling 'Windows'. I think we saw it as yet another company trying to jump on the Churchill bandwagon, given that Churchill was at that time the UK's fastest growing company.

I remember a projector and a computer set up in a meeting room and the now familiar Windows desktop. On the desk was a standard looking keyboard and another device attached to the computer by a long thin cable. We were shown by the very excited representatives of Microsoft how the pointer on the screen responded to movements of the device on the desk. They called it a 'mouse' and it became clear why given its appearance. They demonstrated how programs were executed by double clicking an icon on the desktop and how it was possible to grab an item and move it to a desired location. Dropping an item in the recycle bin caused the computer to make a paper scrunching sound. The people demonstrating the system were clearly very excited by it, but were we? Well the answer is no. In fact our head of IT at the time stated to his assembled team that 'it'll never catch on'. We all agreed and so things remained the same for a couple more months.

Then slowly, things began to change. Managers began to have their computers replaced. One by one, computers running the Windows 3.1 operating system by Microsoft began appearing all over the company. Someone had clearly been impressed by what they had seen, though it is more likely that our biggest rival Direct Line, just down the road in Croydon, had begun installing them. The preference throughout my time there was to wait for Direct Line to do something, give it a few months to make sure it didn't flop, then do it ourselves, only ten times better.
Excel seemed to be the favorite application at the time though it didn't take long before staff had found Solitaire. The star field screensaver was also popular as was the Marquee screensaver which allowed staff to type their own message to scroll across the screen whenever they left their desks, messages such as 'Mel's Computer', 'Back in 5 minutes' and 'Don't even think about it'. For those witnessing the coming of Windows, these were exciting times.
So I find myself giving thanks to Doug Englebart. For his invention changed forever the way we interact with computers. If Windows hadn't been invented by Microsoft, maybe we would never have known about the mouse, for it was really Windows that exploited its full potential and made it an essential aid to using Windows 3.1 way back then. Long may we continue to point and click.

Spending Spree

I've been spending a lot of money, though sadly it's not my own. The money is the funding we (Blue Skies) have received from the NHS Mental Illness Prevention Fund in support of two projects we are running - Arts & Crafts and Computer Skills.
I do find spending money to be an excellent form of therapy but what makes it feel all the better is that the money is buying things that will make people's lives better. The arts & crafts equipment will allow our group members to make things they wouldn't normally be able to and to develop their creative skills thus improving their confidence and feelings of self-worth.
The computer skills project will enable our members without computers at home to learn how to use them and gain access to the Internet. We have provided the facility for them to scan and print documents and to even try their hand at digital photography. For many, it will be a new experience though I'm confident that within a few weeks, they will have developed the confidence and knowledge to log on to a computer and access the Internet.

A Marriage of Technologies

I stumbled upon this in the Daily Mail Sunday magazine. It's a USB typewriter and essentially allows you to use a normal typewriter to interact with a computer. I actually think it's a very clever idea, particularly as the functionality is there for the typewriter to be used normally if needed.

I've probably written before about my love for typewriters. As a child, I had several typewriters and pretty much taught myself how to spell and write by copying large amounts from books. I would look up words if I didn't know their meaning and soon became very adept at writing letters.
Whilst reading the article, my son glanced at the picture and asked me what it was. I explained it was a typewriter and that it printed letters onto paper by pressing the keys. I could tell he was instantly fascinated and enquired of my parents as to whether they still had the old Underwood typewriter I remember using as a child. It turns out they have and it is safe somewhere in their garage. I will one day let my son see it. He's a bit too young at the moment, as it is an original and quite delicate. I would though very much like for him to have his own typewriter. I am convinced the experience helped me with my use of words and I'm sure it would do the same for him.

A Family Sized Challenge

I had a family christening to attend today, the youngest daughter of my sister-in-law. For me, it was another one of those awkward family gatherings that I used to cope so well with. Now it is just a struggle, something I never really enjoy and hours of wishing I was somewhere else. I do wonder if I manage to hide how I really feel. I've never really been any good at small talk and prefer for others to speak to me. I'm OK when that happens, but I simply don't have the courage any more to start a conversation myself. The confidence I once had has all but gone. This is how I am in 'family' situations. How different it is at my Tuesday A&D support group. I'm at ease there and I feel able to start a conversation and keep it going. I'm amongst friends there, people who were a few months ago complete strangers, but people who now know more about me than my family. I know this sounds mad, but it is true. For there is so much I am able to discuss with my friends that I wouldn't dream of mentioning in the presence of family. I know my friends feel the same way, so perhaps it is more common than I'd realised.
Alcohol does give me a degree of temporary false confidence, but it doesn't mix well with the tablets and I soon find myself becoming very drowsy and often get a headache. I do find that since my illness, I am left pretty much to myself and rarely does anyone attempt a conversation with me. I think this is a natural reaction - some people prefer to steer clear.
How relaxed I feel now I am set free and back in the safety of my own home. I can be myself here and jig my leg as much as I want without stares from those who like to judge. I can feel like this in one other place, each Tuesday amongst those who understand me and accept me. Why can't family be like this and why does it feel so foreign to be amongst them?

I have my father-in-law's notebook computer to repair. He's managed to get some kind of virus on to it. I know when he calls what to expect. It's always something to do with his computer, and my heart sinks at the prospect of having to help him. It's not so much the task, it's more the explaining why it has happened. How do I tell him he's simply downloading too much junk? How do I tell him not to click the download button on every game he comes across? It's such a dilemma and being the only 'IT guy' in the family, it's a burden I simply cannot escape.

We had a mini-tornado here last Thursday. The weather has been freaky all week and local events have been cancelled due to the heavy rain. I managed to capture the twister on my camera phone on the way back from a visit to the library. It had caused some damage which was evident from the number of roof repairs taking place the following day. It's not something you see every day...

I have a date for my NHS Volunteer Service interview - it's on the 3rd of July and being a Tuesday I'll be at the venue anyway. It's all a formality really as I've been in the role for some time, and like any similar role, a CRB check has to be completed.

Finally, it's an evening dominated by football once more and the roads around here are wonderfully quiet. Oh how I wish they could be like this all the time. Followers will know by now that I'm not exactly a fan of football, perhaps another reason why I feel so awkward around my football-loving family. I'll be checking the score of course, and if it goes Italy's way then tomorrow is sure to be a day of misery... If we do well, then we face Germany, and part of me does get ever so slightly excited by the prospect - but that's all!

Getting My Throat Back...

My goodness, I've been poorly this last week and today is the first time I've felt able to write anything. My son had been suffering for some time with a cold he'd picked up from school. Schools are a breeding ground for all kinds of illness and there really isn't one week that passes when at least one member of his class isn't poorly. I normally do quite well by avoiding colds and viruses, in fact it's been over a year since I've had anything significant. Wherever this particular virus came from, it had my name on it and a payload designed to incapacitate. I don't think I've ever actually felt so ill. I knew I was coming down with something a week ago. It's that feeling you get that tells you a cold is on its way, or that precursor to a sore throat. Within a couple of days, it had properly hit but went straight for my throat rather than start in the nose or the chest. I'd wake feeling as though I'd swallowed a handful of razor blades, and so this continued all week. Unable to swallow, I've certainly lost some weight, which isn't a bad thing I suppose.
As it hadn't cleared by Friday, I made myself an appointment and popped along to the health centre to be told what I already knew, that I had a temperature and a chest infection. Amoxcillin was prescribed and plenty of fluids. It's certainly working. My throat is almost back to normal but I do have a chesty cough. But it does seem to be on the way out, thank goodness.

A busy week ahead (for me). Tomorrow I have some NHS training to attend in North Hykeham. I'm taking with me another support team volunteer as she doesn't drive so I'll need to collect her en-route from Spalding. I checked the route on Google Maps and it dawned on me how far we'll need to travel. It's a 120 mile round trip in total and I just hope the weather will be better tomorrow than it is right now.
I will attempt to write-up the training session and add to my website where I now have a small section on Health.

We've seen more flooding across the UK, most notably in Wales where rivers have breached their banks causing many thousands of pounds worth of damage. This morning there are reports of flooding in Sussex and frankly if this persistent rain doesn't stop, I see this being repeated here. I'm really getting fed up with writing about the weather. It is just so bad at the moment and so changeable. I know people for whom weather like this can make all the difference between getting up and about or staying in bed. It affects their mood greatly. I did pop out briefly to get a top-up voucher for my mobile and to drop off a pair of ear plugs I'd promised to a member of our group last week. He suffers with broken sleep due to noisy neighbours so I've recommended he use them. For the short time I was out, I got soaked so was glad to get back home in the dry.

I have a couple of computers to work on this week, from the same customer. One of them is a laptop, the same laptop I'd repaired a few weeks ago replacing the keyboard. This time, the laptop has been dropped and has a fault as a result. It'll need stripping down to find out what has become dislodged. The other is just a general tune-up.
I've also been asked to provide some basic computer tuition, but I am struggling with this as the person I will be teaching has absolutely no skills or knowledge, but is at the same time and expert when it comes to his own computer and the Internet, despite the fact he's not even connected(!) I just know this is going to be difficult and I wonder how my sanity will hold-up. I have for now managed to put him off due to my 'man-flu' but I just know I will have to bite the bullet at some point...

A Little Job & Olympic Worries

I've had a couple of small jobs come my way this week. A work colleague of my mum-in-law has a laptop with a faulty keyboard. It's a strange one this, as all the keys work except for J,K and L. I've taken the keyboard out and taken a closer look but unlike laptops of old, there is literally nothing that's serviceable. They keys do come off, but that's it apart from the contact sheet underneath. So I've recommended a replacement which to my surprise will cost just £25 to procure. Computer spares must be the only things that have actually decreased in price over the years. The same customer has a tower unit which 'blue screens' on starting which could frankly be a number of different things so I'll be taking a look at it once the laptop is repaired.
So that's all very good. I do love fixing things especially computers and if I can earn a little by doing it, then happy days.

Weather, oh weather. It has been nothing short of horrible for the last two weeks. It all came to a peak last night when we had very heavy rain and strong winds, which persisted well into today and have only really eased in the last hour or so. There are flood warnings almost everywhere at the moment and there are rivers where their banks have already burst, such as in York. Yet we are told we still have a drought. So why not try to collect some of this water, the same way I am in my garden, but on an industrial scale?

In the news we've had the Leveson Inquiry and the furore surrounding the Culture, Media and Sport Minister Jeremy Hunt. I've certainly been glued to the coverage surrounding this and I firmly believe that there remain many questions to be answered and I believe there are rough times ahead for the current government. I could spend an hour or more writing about my thoughts on this subject, but I won't. Suffice to say that I believe not one word of what we are told by our government or Mr Murdoch, regardless of how plausible their explanations and excuses may seem. They may think we were all born yesterday but I for one am not going to be taken in by it, not a single word of it.

Twitter. I've written on numerous occasions regarding the power of Twitter and its influence on our society is clear given the media coverage it has received lately. Admittedly, the coverage has been for the wrong reasons and unfortunately, it is all too often used as a weapon to offend or humiliate.
But I do see it very much as a tool for making comment and observation, and on many occasions over the last week, I have received replies and even had my tweets read out on radio. I already have over 100 followers, to my surprise and how many of these read my tweets, I do not know. But the fact that my tweets regarding electricity providers were picked up by Eon and NPower and my tweet regarding the mis-treatment of Christopher Tappin was read out on-air by LBC, it does make me feel good about using this relatively new medium. What started out just a couple of years ago as an Internet SMS service has grown into perhaps the most powerful tool of communication and opinion in the World today.

No week would be complete without a crisis and this time it was a flat tyre. I had spotted it just before my wife was due to leave for work. Of course it was all too much for her but we managed to get someone to come and collect her. I managed to get some air into the tyre and drove gingerly to the local garage. Within half an hour they had located the puncture and repaired it. Wonderful, and all for just £20. A huge relief given the fact I was expecting to pay £40 for a new tyre. So a major crisis was averted thank goodness.

There is concern at the moment regarding the ability of our immigration control services to cope come the Olympics and the predicted hundreds of thousands of extra visitors. This has arisen after complaints by entering passengers who had to queue for up to 3 hours at Heathrow. Mobile phone footage showed long queues of disgruntled passengers and I can't help but imagine the scene in three months from now when Olympic devotees begin descending on the capital.
We are being assured that the airports are prepared for the influx, buy haven't we heard all thins before? Do they really know how many people are expected? I doubt it. I fully expect to see huge queues at our airports, caused in part by delays in processing passports and in the inability of our transport system to transfer the masses to the Olympic site.
Somewhat amazingly, there is discussion at the moment regarding the siting of ground to air missiles and the surreal suggestion to place missile batteries on top of apartment blocks and other tall buildings. We are being assured a complete no fly zone will be enforced over London during the Games, but mistakes do happen and I could easily see a situation where a plane or other airborne object could stray and a missile be launched in response. The results of this would be catastrophic for anyone below.
And of course there's the hoaxer and the chaos that would ensue following any warning deemed credible.
Of course, there's every possibility the whole thing will pass without incident, and I hope it does. But I do have serious doubts as to whether the current infrastructure will cope under the additional strain and I seriously doubt our preparedness. Time will of course tell.

Supporting People & Their Tech

I support technology, and I have done for a long time. This does have its benefits but more often than not, it makes you the repository for everything computer and Internet related. Now this is of course fine provided that the tech does what it's supposed to. Unfortunately too much of it is designed to go wrong. The upside is that it keeps people like me busy - not than I earn a penny from it - and countless IT engineers charging huge amounts per hour to resolve faults easily understood by them but perplexing for the average user. There is good money to be made from it, but none of it comes my way.
Of all the forms of support, help by phone has to be the worst. You are blind and are expecting the person at the other end to see what you need them to. This seldom ever works and is a constant source of frustration. I know only too well how difficult it is to talk someone through reconnecting their WIFI or installing a new device. It is painful and made all the worse as the pain has to be suppressed for the length of the call and no sign given of your frustration with the person at the other end. I have years of practise to rely on and I think I do it quite well.
The advances in technology over the last 10-20 years have been fantastic. We are able to do things now that could only have been dreamt of then. What we haven't done so well is the user help side of things. When a device disconnects itself from a network, the process for reconnecting it is not easy. It should be - especially for the user. For me, the process is relatively straight forward and something I can normally do within a few minutes. I've learnt to spot the signs and indicators. For the user, there really isn't much to help them and certainly nothing that will resolve the fault. The Help System is useless, even in the latest versions of Windows often stating the 'bleedin' obvious', things like 'is it plugged in?' or 'have you installed the correct driver?'. What's needed is inbuilt fault resolution, the ability for a device such as a WIFI adapter to work out what's wrong for itself and actually attempt to apply a fix. I've singled out WIFI as this is probably the most common source of faults nowadays and certainly one that I constantly find myself fixing.
I know that WIFI works and works very well if it setup correctly and not tampered with. I have two wireless networks - one I use for gaming and media, the other I use for Internet browsing and file sharing. This setup works very well. It is stable and very seldom ever causes me problems. The hardware isn't particularly new, I've had it for several years. It isn't the best and certainly not the most expensive, but it does the job.
Most of what I hear when I am asked to fix problems is 'it was working fine yesterday' or 'it started snowing and it stopped working'. The inference that the weather is in some way to blame for the problem is wrong, but it is something that on occasion I've been known to go along with, in the interests of my own sanity.
It is hugely frustrating to me when something I've spent time designing or installing suddenly goes wrong and stops working as it should. It's even worse when having spent half-an-hour on the phone trying to resolve a problem, the fault persists.I hate leaving things like this but having exhausted every telephone skill, I have little option. A visit is now required. I know that within just a few minutes, I will have it working again. It always happens. The shock and surprise etched into the face of the user is something I've grown used to. It's as if I've worked some kind of magic. In almost all cases, I have done exactly what I had described over the phone. I am reluctant to claim any special powers or to suggest ignorance on the part of the user, and I will normally just put it down to gremlins or simply admit that I'm at a loss to explain what had gone wrong. Perhaps the weather at the time had caused it to fail.
I grit my teeth so much that they are now in a terrible state. I find myself doing it more and more, the older I get. It simply isn't worth the hassle to do otherwise. I could explain how it is that I managed to reconnect the laptop to the wireless network in under a minute, but I choose not to. I instead accept explanation from the user as fact and show sympathy that their efforts were in vain.
And then there are those who claim to know far more than you. They confidently boast that they have bought a new drive for their modem or carried out an upgrade of the processor. These people can never be argued with, I know this from experience. I've tried and failed. When it's family members, you have no chance. Again I choose just to go along with them, my sanity intact.
Sometimes I wish they would call on someone else, but I just know that isn't going to happen...