Thought for today:
"In the world of the modern-day family where each new technological gadget is instantly demanded by the youngsters of the household as soon as it hits the high street, there is always one loser; poor, old dad! Fortunately for me, apart from computer games, the children had grown up before every child had the latest telephone/computer gadget.
I came to the world of technology late in life and to tell the truth, I needed to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century by my children's and employer's attempts for me to embrace it.
I retired at the age of fifty two on the grounds of ill health, and got out of the Probation Service just at the time when records and documents had to be typed into a word processor instead of being dictated to a personal secretary like I'd done for the previous twenty five years. Even when I started writing books, the first fifty books I got published had been written in longhand by me before they went to the printers for typing and producing. It has only been since I met Sheila five years ago that I now write my stories on computer.
I recall each time I have changed my mobile phone since the new models could do new things each time one upgraded and the stand up arguments I have had with the salesmen who have insisted,'But this model has this and that and the latest....bla bla blar.' On each occasion I have replied,' I just want a mobile that phones out and receives calls in. I'm not bothered about anyone on the planet being able to precisely pin point my whereabouts each time I move. In fact, I'd really prefer folks not to know where I am or what I'm eating and who with. No.... I'm not too bothered about sat nav either or top-of-the-range photography and internet access."
My mobile contract runs out this month and once again I face the dreaded experience of getting used to some other smart gadget. I swear that it's taken me the best part of the past two years to get used to the phone I presently have. I am quite proud of myself being able to at last use skype over the past year, particularly being able to see my son Will in Australia and my daughter Becky down South.
My ideal preference would be to not use phones again and to get Sheila to vet all my calls as my personal secretary, which she is effectively anyway." William Forde: March 20th, 2015.
"In the world of the modern-day family where each new technological gadget is instantly demanded by the youngsters of the household as soon as it hits the high street, there is always one loser; poor, old dad! Fortunately for me, apart from computer games, the children had grown up before every child had the latest telephone/computer gadget.
I came to the world of technology late in life and to tell the truth, I needed to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century by my children's and employer's attempts for me to embrace it.
I retired at the age of fifty two on the grounds of ill health, and got out of the Probation Service just at the time when records and documents had to be typed into a word processor instead of being dictated to a personal secretary like I'd done for the previous twenty five years. Even when I started writing books, the first fifty books I got published had been written in longhand by me before they went to the printers for typing and producing. It has only been since I met Sheila five years ago that I now write my stories on computer.
I recall each time I have changed my mobile phone since the new models could do new things each time one upgraded and the stand up arguments I have had with the salesmen who have insisted,'But this model has this and that and the latest....bla bla blar.' On each occasion I have replied,' I just want a mobile that phones out and receives calls in. I'm not bothered about anyone on the planet being able to precisely pin point my whereabouts each time I move. In fact, I'd really prefer folks not to know where I am or what I'm eating and who with. No.... I'm not too bothered about sat nav either or top-of-the-range photography and internet access."
My mobile contract runs out this month and once again I face the dreaded experience of getting used to some other smart gadget. I swear that it's taken me the best part of the past two years to get used to the phone I presently have. I am quite proud of myself being able to at last use skype over the past year, particularly being able to see my son Will in Australia and my daughter Becky down South.
My ideal preference would be to not use phones again and to get Sheila to vet all my calls as my personal secretary, which she is effectively anyway." William Forde: March 20th, 2015.
