Many times recently I’ve been met with the challenge of completing forms on line. This can sometimes be an absolute nightmare particularly when you’re completing them on behalf of someone else who isn’t “fond” of computers.
I’d tried hard to be patient and muddle my way through, as each website invariably asks for the same information, but unfortunately sometimes not in the same format. Government department forms are so long you almost give up completing them. Continue reading
At the AGM on 19 July, Teresa Urutia was elected Chairperson, Sue Connor, Secretary and David Salter, Treasurer. The following SeniorNet members were elected to the Executive Committee for the ensuing year. Barry Bailey, Peter Bunkall, James Heron, Peter Jones, Veronica Kemp, Brian Milne, Shona Spicer, Patrick Stephens, Peter Thomson. If you want to see the various roles and responsibilities assigned to the Committee Members this year, click here. The Guest Speaker was Roger Currier, the President of U3A who reviewed the many interesting facts about YouTube.
Honorary Membership recognises those Members who have provided meritorious service to SeniorNet Kapiti and have been an Executive Member or a Tutor for a minimum of 10 years. Continue reading
I was watching a presentation by a young chap by the name of Tristan Harris who has a thing about how we spend our time, indeed whether the time was well spent or whether our minds have been hijacked by our smartphones or other technological devices.
It makes one think because Mr Harris is a product of the very same industry that uses designs to keep us hooked to a screen for as long and as often as possible. It is good to remember that about 2 billion people use their phones every day, and if technology steers that many people’s thoughts and beliefs every day imagine the kind of influence that has been created.
We have talked quite a bit about Artificial Intelligence as well as technology in a broader sense [AI under the loup] and the inventions of the personal computer, the tablet and smartphone has certainly shaped our lives, and yes, Kapiti SeniorNet wouldn’t be around today to assist you without them.
When the economic revolution in the century from 1870 to 1970 took place, the speed of innovation was quite breath-taking, but since then has not in fact had the same pace or been as deep or wide. This in spite of the impact of our computing devices on our daily life and work.
I was reminded of this today when a son of mine moving abode was stressed over
It is 1877 and a Mrs. Sheehy of Roxburgh is the first person to have a conversation on a private line using the new-fangled contraption called a talking telegraph.
Two years later New Zealand’s first telephone office opened in Port Chalmers and another two years went by till the first phone exchange opened in Christchurch in 1881. Auckland then followed suit with 10 subscribers.
The first telephone system opened in Blenheim in 1887 with 33 subscribers and it was not until 1920 that the first automatic exchange opened.
By 1930 all the main centres had been connected and toll calls between cities and towns were possible. Gossip never had it better.
