Transition Complete?

Got to pose the question: Did the transition from Ice Age Neanderthal to functioning 21^st Century citizen occur?

Let’s review the journey starting in the middle of a cold January.  I figured out how to use electronic mail efficiently, versus sending out smoke signals or carrier pigeons, so that’s a win.

February chills brought navigating the Internet safely and the use of Internet protocols enabling delivery of vittles and streaming video to the cave, another win.

March madness, I mastered the “Word” application saving my thumbs and back, sooo I’d say "Win!!!"

April showers kept me indoors as I struggled using spreadsheets and spill functions (Excel) and painted with digital ink (PowerPoint).  Though my brain hurt after these forays, I consider this another win.

Tally the months up, and it’s four wins…so maybe not a fully functioning 21^st century citizen but in no ways an Ice Age Neanderthal, possibly a Cro Magnon?

Neanderthal vs. Digital Ink

Finally looking forward to a lazy Saturday with very little to do. Fields are planted, hunting grounds scouted and cave maintenance is all done-yay! Settling down to watch the clouds go by when Mrs. Donna Smilo taps me on the shoulder and mentions the cave walls kind of look bare and need sprucing up with artwork. Oh no, there goes my lazy Saturday.

I gather my sticks, brushes, mixing pots and set to work drawing mammoths, deer, hunting scenes, moon, sun, stars and takes me all day.  I step back, admiring my work and then Donna states: “You draw like a toddler, can’t you draw any better?” Crestfallen, I wipe my stained hands on my pelt and proceed to scrub the offending art off the wall.

Teleport into the 21^st Century and if I’d used Digital Ink, maybe Donna Smilo would not have been so critical.  Digital Ink is a great tool that allows users to draw using either the mouse or the touch screen directly onto the slide. Then using conversion tools, convert the hand drawn items into polished items: shapes, text or if I was a mathematician I could write mathematical formulas and convert the chicken scratch into nice, neat formulas. Food for thought.

Playing around with Digital Ink, I lost a whole afternoon in the 21^st century …I wonder what neanderthal Don would’ve thought of my endeavors.

Kiddos, Dino and Spill Functions

As the days get longer so does the task list. Check the hunting grounds, figure out the planting schedule, repair the damage from the winter weather and then into the harvest schedule, followed by the food preservation timetable.

I set out to make lists with dates and organize them with dates and people I’ll need to help me. I grab anything I can write on, and after a while the floor of the cave looks like a mess of scraps of hides, clay tablets and pieces of bark.

I take a short break then start organizing them into piles into various categories. A few hours later, I have neat piles. Agriculture, hunting, repairs and then food preservation and I feel great since the entire year is planned. Then disaster strikes as the “kiddo Neanderthals” playing with “Dino” come careening through the cave and my nice, neat organization explodes in a hail of bark, hide and clay confetti. Uggh! Back to square one.

In the 21^st century, the kids and dogs would not have destroyed my neat piles since I could use Excel to build spreadsheets/workbooks with all the tasks, organized into categories, due dates and then using Spill functions to sort them any way I wanted. Now, I could have a master list of all the tasks sorted by the due dates from Spring through Winter. I could sorted them further if I just wanted the planting dates or when I needed to see hunting grounds date and adjust them if they conflicted. The power of technology.

As the bark, hide and clay confetti settled around him and Don Smilo fumed at the kiddos and Dino, I wonder if he ever thought of the future concept of electronic spreadsheets.

I can't spell!

Standing in front of the class dreading my turn at the mock spelling bee and here it comes.

Teacher: “Little Don, your word is Neanderthal.  Spell Neanderthal.”

Little Don: “N, E, E, A, N, D, E, R, T, H, A, A, L…right?”

Teacher: “No, little Don, it’s spelled N, E, A, N, D, E, R, T, H, A, L.  You had an extra E and A.”

Crestfallen, I return to my seat and dread going home and having my parents drill me on spelling that night. Spelling is my biggest weakness in Ice Age school.

Fast forward to the 21^st Century and Microsoft Word’s built-in spell checking.  Yippee! For me being a horrible speller, I love this, and it really helps me focus on getting my message across.  Funny thing is I really didn’t know how to use it correctly and kept seeing the squiggly red and blue lines and was confused as to what they were telling me until I took the module in class.

Now I know that I can correct the red squiggly (spelling) as type or wait till the end using the Review tab and proofing group. Or the blue squiggly (grammar) using the same method. A word of caution though, I still read though the whole document to make sure the “word processor” caught everything because occasionally, I still find it misses things.

I used to think my documents looked patriotic with the red and blue squiggles against the white background but now know how to clean them up as I move forward my IT journey.

Saving sore thumbs - Printing Files

Done! My left thumb aches and my thumbnail is black. Oh no, the message does not look right on the tablet.  The sentences do not line up and the whole message would look better if I turned the tablet 90 degrees. And I must make five more copies of this message. Back to square one and a lot of stone chipping. I will have to sharpen the chisel and carve out a bunch of tablets. I have a bunch of work ahead of me.

With Office applications, I can quickly change this with a few mouse clicks and the message will look the way I want it. I can change from portrait to landscape, line up the margins, and in the print menu, make multiple copies. From carving out stone tablets, scraping parchment, to having scribes copying messages and even using photocopiers, the digital age is a real time saver and physically safer.

As I progress in the technological journey, my stone carving skills can focus on artistic endeavors, and I can save my thumbs from errant hammer blows!

Communication Evolution

Spring has sprung, days are longer and warmer. Time to get the word out to break wintering camps, follow the migrating herds and head out. Now to send out the messengers/runners with the instructions.

Hmmm??? Now to decide whether to send verbal or written instructions. I hate writing since chipping out the message on stone or imprinting on wet clay takes time, but the runners may forget key pieces of information if it is verbal, what a conundrum. Plus, the weight of the tablet slows them down. Hope in the future, humans develop a better way.

In the 21^st century, humans now have a better way. Thanks to Al Gore inventing the internet 😉 and the use of word processing applications, getting the word out is so much easier. No need for runners/messengers, heavy stone or clay tablets and worrying about messenger forgetting key pieces.

I spent the past few weeks learning about how the internet works, breaking down files into packets, transmitting them and then reassembling them. Most importantly I spent the past eight weeks stumbling through the word processing application Microsoft Word. I learned how to create documents, use several types of lettering or fonts, format paragraphs and pages, create and modify tables, insert pictures and diagrams, and manage references. All of this can be done quickly once mastering the word processing application versus the stone carving, imprinting on wet clay, inking with a pen, or using a typewriter. Errors can be corrected and most importantly, the output can be formatted easily for visual appeal and then sent via the internet at the speed of light. Faster than any messenger can run, mounted on horseback or via airmail.

Spring has sprung, so as I sit at my computer, I am using my word processor to craft my messages, sending them via the internet as we get ready to move out. Humans developed a better way. The messengers’ feet and backs thank you!

Internet Protocols, that’s the key!

It’s fall, and I'm out on the plains, hunting and see a petroglyph of a few Antelope.  Over the next rise, I look out and see the herd.  We’ll be set for next winter.

Rock paintings, petroglyphs and cairns were simple methods to communicate water holes, hunting grounds and important information to early humans.  Simple and direct, the person saw it and understood somewhere nearby there was what the image communicated. Early rules or Protocols?  I doubt early humans used that term.

However, when I was told about the Internet, my neanderthal mind was blown. How did all those networks all over the world, in all the countries, businesses, schools, cities, universities and homes send and receive all that information?  The Internet follows a set of rules or protocols which determines how the information is packaged, then sends it across the network. 

As I learned, there are various types of protocols (rules) for information depending on the situation.  For example, for perfect data, we use Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), but it has drawbacks since it slows down the transmission.  For speed, we use User Diagram Protocol (UDP), but we can end up with missed information packets, which may end up with halting video when watching a streaming video.  For security we use Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) with a Transport Layer Security (HTTPS), which encrypts the data along the link allowing users to send confidential data without worrying about it being intercepted and read.  

So, this fall, I can hang up my spear, bow, and arrows, and don’t have to worry about looking for petroglyphs or rock paintings to stock the larder.  I can log onto the Internet using TCP/IP, use a website with an HTTPS address to order online, sit back and watch a streaming video using a UDP protocol and wait for delivery of the vittles. Hopefully, I don’t gain too much weight.  Technology!!!

Ice Age Safety vs. Internet Safety

Yikes! Roaming around during the Ice Age plains was a lot safer! If a mammoth was going to stomp you, you saw it coming and could duck out of the way, not so with the Internet. I thought I'd be fine with spear phishing, but it wasn't the type of fishing I thought it was. Oh well! This week learned about the types of various types of social engineering attacks, response and precautions you should take.  

After this week, I can safely face the Nigerian scams and the other Internet threats with the same confidence I did the Ice Age ones.

My First Technology Nugget

This week I learned how to use rules to sort emails in my inbox into separate folders, decluttering my main inbox. This is a real time saver.  I really liked the ability to move emails dealing with college events into a separate and move those dealing with coursework into others.  Using this function, I can focus on the class/coursework emails and review college events at my leisure versus scanning through all the emails in my main inbox an possibly missing an important class/coursework announcement or assignment notification.

This Tech nugget = working smarter and saving time!

Don Smilo: The Journey Begins

Creating this blog has been an exercise in patience and persistence, but it is up and running and I am able to "blog.".  This blog is a requirement for a college course I am taking at the College of Southern Nevada, IS101, and is my first ever foray into the "blogsphere." 

So, over the next few months, as I learn and adopt this new technology in class, I'll use this space to document my journey from an Ice Age Neanderthal to a functioning 21st Century citizen.