Computersight -

I can safely say that I have arrived at the status of senior and a little beyond. It amazes me how much the meaning of words has changed since I was a child. I find humor in most of them as I relate them to what these same words were used for in the past. The most humorous ones are found is in the world of the computer.

1. The first on my list is Log In. Well, this to me always meant to put another log in the stove or on the fireplace. Nope, not anymore now it’s used for signing in on your computer. Then there is Log Off. This use to be word used to not put anymore wood on the fire as its hot enough.

2. A monitor is what you hooked up to your baby’s room so you could hear the baby crying. Now it’s a display screen for your computer.

3. Download meant to us getting a load of wood off the truck. This is now used to bring information to your computer that you want to save.

4. A floppy disc is what you would get from carrying to heavy of a load in your arms. Now this has become a data storage medium for your computer.

5. A ram was always out in the field. The one with the horns that would let you feel them in your backside if he caught you bent over. It’s not only in the field anymore it’s in your computer as a memory chip.

6. A hard drive was something you did in the winter trying to get through a road that was piled high with snow and found it a hard drive getting through. This is now where you store “cookies” on your computer. Didn’t we always keep these cookies in a cookie jar?

7. Prompt was a sign that someone was good at getting to work on time or made it to a meeting without having you wait. This has gone to the world of computer but in a different way it’s a message that tells you your computer is ready to do what you tell it. My mother could do the same thing to us children when we were young and we responded, fast.

8. A window is what you had in your home that was shut tightly when it was cold and opened wide when it was to warm. Go figure how the computer took over that word but they made it a family of operating systems for personal computers.

9. A screen was something you put to your windows in the summer time to keep the bugs out now it’s a part of your computer that allows you can see your information. Just like the TV we use to have. The 17 inch one.

10. The word Byte. Now by saying the word not spelling it once meant it was something some of us couldn’t do when we get older, especially if we have false teeth. Most of us oldies wouldn’t notice the difference unless we saw it in writing at least I wouldn’t! Now this is used as a binary term for your computer.

11. Now I really love this one “Chips”. It was always something you munched on while watching TV but not anymore it is a piece of semiconducting material on which your circuit is embedded.

12. Climbing onto the lap top of your granny as a child was always a treat now they carry it around in their hands as a portable computer.

13. A keyboard used to be right by your door going out to hang your keys on. Now what did they go change that for? It’s now a set of typewriter keys that let you enter data on your computer.

14. The plastic forks and knives that you would take on a picnic must be what the computer world calls software now. Nope, its computer instructions or data or anything that can be stored electronically.

15. A mouse use to be something that would send you screaming to the nearest chair but not any more they have it tied on to your computer now. In the computer world the mouse controls your pointer on the screen.

16. The main frame was something that held your house together. Nope not anymore the computer world has changed this too. It is a very large and expensive computer that is capable of supporting thousands of users at once.

17. A port is where your ship came in when you were at the airport. Today the computer world claims it as an interface on your computer where you can connect a device.

18. Dot Matrix was old Ed Matrix wife but she passed years ago but I guess the computer world must have heard of her because they used the name for a type of printer to print closely spaced dots.

19. Random access memory is what I find I have at my age, my memory is short and I have trouble accessing memories. Nope, wrong again it’s the computer’s memory that executes programs and stores data. Maybe I could get me one of these?

Oh yes there have been major changes in words but they give us the opportunity and hope of learning something new every day and that is just what the computer does. We have access to tons and tons of information. Now if I could only find one of them random access memory thingies.

This article is all in fun and I hope it makes at least one person smile.