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The stories on this page, as well as the other comments here, make me really happy because they're all examples of computers making life better, as opposed to b

The stories on this page, as well as the other comments here, make me really happy because they're all examples of computers making life better, as opposed to being passive consumption devices. Pretty often, I think back to putting together a database to track invites to my bar mitzvah on a 386 running a program called MyDataBase - it created print jobs for envelopes, let me mark back RSVPs, track gifts and thank you notes, everything. We carry such powerful computers in our pockets these days, but there are so few apps that I know of that actually use the device to make our lives easier. I wish more people knew how to use these tools the way the audience here does, or that I knew enough to make something that others could then use to do the same.

mooreds 5y ago
> The stories on this page, as well as the other comments here, make me really happy because they're all examples of computers making life better, Hear hear! I love stories where computers help relieve human misery. I got into programming because my parents had a business that required them to mail their clients a legally required notice every year. They originally were copying the letter, changing the address and a few other pieces of data, and then printing it out and mailing it. While I couldn't help with the latter, the former seemed like a great job for a database and mail merge. I set up WordPerfect to mail merge, and got started entering data (one month's clients at a time). Whenever the day to send out the mail came, it was a simple matter to merge in the data, generate a long WordPerfect doc, and print it out. Once the first year went by, it got even quicker. I ended up porting the dataset a couple of times to more advanced databases (eventually PostgreSQL). The first time they saw how easy it was going to make this onerous task, they were pretty happy. And I was hooked on software as a way to lessen such tedium. Edit: Of course now, I'd use a tool like lob to actually send the mail too.
- eddieroger 5y ago
  WordPerfect mail merges! Did we grow up in the same house?! That really takes me back. It is really cool to see that others had early computer experiences similar to mine, since so many of my friends with computers were just interested in playing games and stuff. I never really took to computer games when also offered the opportunity to play with BASIC or mess around in a terminal and figure out how the computer was working. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but it also seems to be the mother of learning as well.
nunez 5y ago
So many people think that the most recent generations are more computer-savvy because they use computers and smartphones all of the time. Quite the opposite; many are app-savvy, not computer-savvy. While I've gotta hand it to the amazing PMs, UX researchers, designers, and SWEs that have contributed to this phenomenon, it's a shame that computer literacy in general is so poor on average.

mooreds 5y ago

> The stories on this page, as well as the other comments here, make me really happy because they're all examples of computers making life better, Hear hear! I love stories where computers help relieve human misery. I got into programming because my parents had a business that required them to mail their clients a legally required notice every year. They originally were copying the letter, changing the address and a few other pieces of data, and then printing it out and mailing it. While I couldn't help with the latter, the former seemed like a great job for a database and mail merge. I set up WordPerfect to mail merge, and got started entering data (one month's clients at a time). Whenever the day to send out the mail came, it was a simple matter to merge in the data, generate a long WordPerfect doc, and print it out. Once the first year went by, it got even quicker. I ended up porting the dataset a couple of times to more advanced databases (eventually PostgreSQL). The first time they saw how easy it was going to make this onerous task, they were pretty happy. And I was hooked on software as a way to lessen such tedium. Edit: Of course now, I'd use a tool like lob to actually send the mail too.

eddieroger 5y ago
WordPerfect mail merges! Did we grow up in the same house?! That really takes me back. It is really cool to see that others had early computer experiences similar to mine, since so many of my friends with computers were just interested in playing games and stuff. I never really took to computer games when also offered the opportunity to play with BASIC or mess around in a terminal and figure out how the computer was working. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but it also seems to be the mother of learning as well.

nunez 5y ago

So many people think that the most recent generations are more computer-savvy because they use computers and smartphones all of the time. Quite the opposite; many are app-savvy, not computer-savvy. While I've gotta hand it to the amazing PMs, UX researchers, designers, and SWEs that have contributed to this phenomenon, it's a shame that computer literacy in general is so poor on average.