Who's Here Is On Facebook?

[skip1930]

Craig skip Weis       is.

skip.

To add--> I agree. Generally computers are the greatest waste of time that man has yet created.
Use to be folks went out into the garage and invented something, built a Soap Box Derby car, or model Aeroplane. Took a bike for a ride, Re-read The Cain Mutinity...a fav of mine.

But no nowadays kids are texting and sexting their friends, ignoring the dog, not eating, or eating while texting, which is to say eating all the time. Texting in class...I make all my students 'park' there cell phones in a garbage can when they attend my boat safety class required by Wisconsin DNR so they can take the jet sky out for a spin.

Yep. I don't much care for computers...but they are addicting.


skip.

[mikkel]

                                             

                                     I I SKIPPER

[Bob23]

Not me...don't have time to waste.
Bob23

[bmiller]

Nope

[rwdsr]

I am, the one nice thing about it is, I'm able to keep more or less in touch with an extended family.  I've also located friends that I haven't been able to stay in touch with for years.

[Geargrip]

I am as well...Tim Kramer...look me up!

I agree with most of what skip said, although I tend to place the blame on the parents rather than the technology when it comes to how kids today aren't out there creating with their hands and minds.

I was lucky in that (born in 1970) I grew up right as the transition started.  I still remember my dad coming home with an Apple II in about 1978.  Of course, it was more of a hobby then, as opposed to a fixture like it is now.  I still built model airplanes, collected pond water to view under a microscope, sailed our Super Sunfish and Catfish, and built ramps for my friends and me to jump our Schwinn Stingrays.

Heck, the way I use computers today does not waste my time.  In fact, it allows me more time to spend with my 19 month-old daughter or sail or woodwork, or nap in a hammock.  OK, maybe that last one is still kind of a pipe-dream with such a little one running around - but you get the point.

Tim

[wes]

This is a somewhat hilariously ironic thread, because if not for computer technology this forum would not exist and none of us would derive the (many) benefits that CPYOA offers. The original 1988 owner's manual for my 19 has a chapter at the end about joining the national owner's group, which involved mailing your name and address to a guy who would mail out an ANNUAL (that's right, once per year) booklet of photocopied suggestions and tips submitted by other CP owners. Can you imagine that?

So, Skip, it's true that computers can be a time waster - but on the other hand I cannot imagine how a neophyte sailboat owner like me could have possibly attempted a complete CP 19 restoration project without the resources that this "social media" site (as well as the Interlux web site, defender.com, and a host of other online information sources) have made available to me. The computer giveth, and the computer taketh away. Balance is the trick. Surf the web and order parts when it's cold and raining, work on the sailboat when the rain stops, go sailing when the sun comes out. A lot (not all) of teenagers haven't found that balance yet. But with time, I think they will.

- Wes

[skip1930]

Geargrip says, "I was lucky in that (born in 1970) I grew up right as the transition started.  I still remember my dad coming home with an Apple II in about 1978.  Of course, it was more of a hobby then, as opposed to a fixture like it is now.  I still built model airplanes, collected pond water to view under a microscope, sailed our Super Sunfish and Catfish, and built ramps for my friends and me to jump our Schwinn Stingrays."

Cool. 1951 for me. Although dad was in the Navy, his two business partners and he had a business that occupied the old City of Chicago Trolley car barn when public transportation was pulled by horses. It had stables on the first floor, a manual elevator for trolley refurbishing on the second and sat on three square city blocks at Elston and Addison. They pulled together enough  cash in 1947 to purchase said property for $3000. When they sold the business in 1977 to K-Mart by the square foot, they grossed $100,000,000, cash.

The company had about 35 to 40 employees and sold about $6 to $9 million a year.

A IBM computer salesman came in, showed the 'boys' a computer. Toughed what it could do. The result..."Who needs it?" No sale.
Then a copy salesman came in. Same result. "Who needs it?" No sale.

Each 25 page or so proposal an was typed in a day dictated from an A.B. Dick Dic-A-Phone with a foot pedal created by the sales engineer. Our  gal used an IBM Select Drive Ball Electric Typewriter. She also ran the patch cord switch box for the phone system. One black copy, two yellow carbon copy. Each blue print or sepia drawing had a Bill-Of-Material. The component estimated cost was noted on our drawings in the B/M and compared to the actual cost by one billing person and compared to see if we made our nut. Profit was great and certainly is not a dirty word. It's how you and I get paid.

Since we are not a bank the standard boiler plate was 70% with order, 20% during erection, and 10% held back for the tick-off sheet that the purchaser used until completely satisfied. Shipping always FOB.

Jack and George and O'Lee were so cheap the lights were turned off in the place during lunch. " It ain't what you make. It's what you keep. " skip.

[Geargrip]

Skip, you are a true link to that past generation and I think it's awesome that you have such a vivid recollection and love of that era.  I think we definitely lost something as the transition happened.  The technology grew so fast that our collective Psyche could not keep up.  That may be how we ended up where we are now.

I mean, the first practical home computers came in around the mid to late 70s or so and not even one generation later almost every home had one and there was little time for anyone to think about what we were losing in the process; the ability to entertain one's self by exploring the world around us through actual experience.  The information one can gather via a computer is amazing.  Just look at all the information on this site alone!  But nothing substitutes for actually going out and trying it.

One last paper-computer-trasition story:  I was in 6th grade, whats that 11 or 12 - so its 1981 or 82.  Anyway, I had this Apple II and my dad got me this program called a word processor (it was Wordstar for those of you who might recall and we had upgraded the computer to run the fledgling Microsoft OS - waaaay pre windows).  I typed out a paper for Mr. Mitchell's English class, printed it on our dot-matrix Okidata printer, and handed it in. 

He flunked me - gave me an F.  Because (and I'll never forget his words) "the computer must have done all of the work for you".  As a youngster, I did not have it in me to talk back to him so I went home and reported this to my parents.  I remember my father being furious.  He ended up going right to the principal and having to bring in the computer and show all of them that it really was no different than typing.  (There was no spell or grammar check in those days.)

Pretty funny in retrospect.

[brackish]

I am, reluctantly.  The individual who does our web page for my running club decided to have a facebook page for the club instead of a moderated forum.  That forced me to get a facebook account in order to participate.  I don't do much else on face book.  check my "news feed" and find a page worth of meaningless junk most days.

[skip1930]

"One last paper-computer-transition story:  I was in 6th grade, whats that 11 or 12 ?"

Well in 6th grade John F. Kennedy was shot. And our test sheets were on blue Mim-o-Graph, and I occasionally got to run the darn thing.
I can still smell the ink.

skip.

[Bob23]

Actually, I must confess- I lied. I do have an account on facebook. I joined up in order to view a video made by our own Bill (cp27) on a voyage he took down in the Sea of Cortez. I have not done anything on fb nor do I intend to. It's not that I'm anti-fb or anything wierd like that. No, I just don't have the time to waste.
Bob23

[HideAway]

I don t have a facebook account but my wife does.   Sure we could live without it but that means not keeping in touch with our far flung family not to mention the locals.  We have family in seven states, mostly out west in addition to England, Austrialia and Japan.  Face book has been a real help coordinating donations for those in Japan by the way.

The argument can be made for most anything - I cannot imagine why people use sticks to whack small balls into cups buried in the ground but I suspect they cannot imagine why we spend so much effort to float around in very slow boats either.  Both activities take enormous amounts of time and if you are not careful you can spend your life doing only them and miss life s other charms. 

All this technology can be a great way to suck the life out of you - But its benefits far out weigh the problems for us. Matt

[crazycarl]

i opened an account on our oldest daughters pleading.  then i updated it with photos to quell her sarcasm at how dull my site was.  after that i didn't do anything with it.  tired of receiving emails notifying me that another long lost friend has found me, i recently deactivated the account. 

i was a highly skilled pattern maker for 20 years until computers, cnc machines, and finally hong kong sweatshops took that profession away.  i admit to using this device to gather information, but there is something about going to a library and looking into books that can't be replaced.

                                                                                carl

p.s.  my wife made a killing in the early and mid eighties selling computers.  $4000 for an ibm, $400 for the cables, and another $400 for the d.o.s. manual.

in fact, i remember when she brought home a compac "laptop".  she asked me to bring it in from the car because it was too heavy for her to lift!

[Bob23]

   I do see the advantages of fb but for me personally, I could envision myself spending tons of time on it so I'm choosing to abstain. Being a small self employed buildling contractor, I spend alot of time these days just running the business, working, aquiring new customers, etc so finding the available time for yet another activity is out of the question. I also don't golf.
   Any free time is spent sailing, working on the boat or looking for new boats to buy.
   But I'd have to admit that this forum is my facebook. If I had to be honest.
Bob23