Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Life Review: Personal Computers

 I was among the first at the UGA to do my dissertation on a personal computer, an Apple 2e. Putting it on the computer was easy, printing it off was another story. In those days, printers most commonly were "tractor-fed", which meant the paper was one continuous sheet with detachable edges full of little holes. After printing off a 150-page paper, you spend 30+ minutes tearing the sheets into pieces, and tearing off the edges.

When I got to my University the secretaries had not yet left typewrites for computers. They did have correction capability though. My first couple of papers i wrote long-hand, then gave to the secretaries who tried to ready my scribble and type the paper. The secretaries would naturally make a few mistakes which I would find and give back to them, which sometimes generated new mistakes. eventually the hard copy was mailed to a scientific jounral who mailed it out to reviewers, who typed their review reports and mailed in their reviews, which eventually came to me--and the process started all over agian.

WHEW!

Thank you L^rd for personal computers with editing function. The www then facilitated research, and reviewing. Now tests could be kept and updated. Papers could be emailed at the speed of light. And, life was so much better.

Thanks be to G^d for personal computers, personal printers, and the www. Thanks indeed.

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