Puter

In junior high school, one of my math teachers convinced ten or twelve of us to learn some simple computing in an optional after-school club using an Atari system. We had to learn some BASIC programing language and we got to design some of our own games. Most of us started by writing programs that would quiz kids on math facts. I wrote programs to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It was cool to write the code and then see it come to life, especially when someone else actually played your program. I finished the club with a group project where we programmed a bouncing ball breakout-style game with sound.

Lacking an outlet to practice those nascent computing skills I missed any opportunity to be an early creator of computer software, instead I became an early adopter and consumer. I was delighted when my parents got us an in-home computer. I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t even remember the name of the computer manufacturer. I do remember that when we bought the WordPerfect software it came with all the fun of having to eject one floppy disk and insert another if you wanted to use a spell-check or thesaurus feature. My brothers were especially excited when we got a Seagate internal hard drive so that we could install the operating software and avoid the back and forth swapping of floppy disks. I think that drive had a capacity of 500 kilobytes.

We’ve come a long way. I don’t even know how to evaluate the difference in the computing power between those computers from yesteryear and the laptop that I am using to type this note. I’ve heard comparisons to the computing power needed to launch a space shuttle pales in comparison to the computers that most people use in their day to day life.Now, it isn’t so much a question of computing power but speed of information upload and download given the size of information packets that are transferred as we all want high-definition experiences in our audio and visual media. And none of us want to wait.

As computing devices and equipment have gotten smaller and more efficient, we have moved to mobile computing systems because they are readily accessible, easy to transport and meet most of our information needs. My office provides me with one of these portable devices that is small enough to fit in my pocket. This device lets me listen to live radio from Spain, track my exercise habits, search the internet, map vacations, read books, organize my calendar, play games, take pictures and interact on social media. I haven’t even mentioned my music, electronic payment options or flashlight features. Once in a while,  I use it to place a telephone call.

It seems that calling my portable device by a name that reflects its function for less than one percent of its usage time minimizes its true value and essence. To that end, I will now call that device my puter.