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My first digital experiences
12 March 2010
By Tennie Videler
This post is going to really highlight how old I am getting: I first encountered computers as an undergraduate (I still think the course designers got it slightly wrong, as the introduction was an exam on programming in Fortran). I learned Wordperfect (without a mouse) for writing up reports. I used the internet for the first time in 1991 within weeks of learning how to use a fax (where I thought it hadn’t sent the page on the first go seeing as it came out the other end…). I sent the hard-won sequence (16S rRNA) of my uncharacterised bug off to a database and, unbelievably, they sent back the phylogenetic information within a few days! These alignments are now of course done in real time and you have far more control over all sorts of variables. A year or so later I started using email, but mainly sociably. I signed up to discussion lists regarding my research in the early 90s, which were really helpful. Having just signed up to something similar on LinkedIn I am struck by how similar the questions, answers and general interactions still are! Searching for referencing has changed beyond all recognition. During my doctorate I went to the library to photocopy every article I wanted to read, even if I had found it by primitive online search (anyone else with fond memories of BIDS?). I am sure that currently any article’s quotation rate will be influenced by the accessibility of the article’s pdf to download.
I have got a bit more sophisticated online recently, honestly. I blog as one of the core contributors to the Vitae research staff blog and twitter (but hardly) as tennievideler.... Looking forward to meeting you all on Monday!
Elizabeth Wilkinson12 March 2010 at 05:26 PM
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Don't worry Tennie! I saw my first computer in 1965 - it was in two large rooms. I first learned programming at school - we posted our BASIC code on sheets of A4 to the local college, and a week later, they sent a printout of what the results were (debugging took some time...). In my first job as a programmer, I used to code in assembler with occasional forays into hexadecimal machine code. But, we can both still keep ourselves young by keeping up with the latest web technology and feel smug that with our blogging and tweeting, we're still ahead of many people (muffled mumble) years younger than us. Onward to the holodecks!
Tennie Videler13 March 2010 at 10:25 AM
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Thanks Elizabeth, that makes me feel younger anyway... Love your blog. see you on twitter....
E Dingley15 March 2010 at 08:45 AM
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Hi Tennie, One thought that came to mind when reading about how you had to photocopy every reference is just how many references are still stored both electronically and hardcopy? People can download pdfs but many also keep them on hardcopy as well. There are plenty of tools the 'digital researcher' can use to access references electronically from anywhere in the world but it still feels easier sometimes not to read from a screen. See you at the BL