IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS THE FILE CABINET!
THUS, BEGAN THE DIGITAL OFFICE PHASE OF THE COMPUTER AGE:
Now, persons under 20 years of age may never have actually seen a
REAL file cabinet, and they could be panicked at their first sight of
one. But, I think there is a "file cabinet" on display at the
Smithsonian, or soon will be, for those brave enough to look.
Basically, the file cabinet held what we call "hard copy." Now, this
is not the hard copy of the ancients, not clay tablets, or cuniform
writing of Mespotania. Rather it was "just paper."
The paper that when into these "file cabinets," as hard copy, were
mostly things called "invoices." These invoices were put into the
file cabinets, mostly chronologically, but sometimes alphabetically,
as they came in. And, that's was about all there was to it.
Outside of the file cabinets there were other "paper products,"
called variously, journals or ledger cards or "books."
As the invoices came in, they were "insribed" on to the journals as
a "journal entries."
Then, from time to time, these "journals entries" were written into
bigger ledgers. The ledgers were often rather specific as to the
details of the entry, they weren't just time of entry, or alphbetized
entries. OK?
Eventually, wise men, called "accountants," came into the pre-digital
office, and magically turned the various ledgers and journals
into "reports" and "statements." And, that was about it.
NOW, THIS PRIMATIVE "PRE-DIGITAL OFFICE" WAS FINALLY SUPERCEDED BY
THE "DIGITAL OFFICES" OF THE COMPUTER AGE.
HERE, IN THE DIGITAL OFFICE, PAPER BECAME MOSTLY OBSOLETE, EXCEPT TO
PRINT "HARD COPIES" FOR DIGITALLY ILLITERATE "EXECUTIVES."
AMAZINGLY, File cabinets, journals and ledgers merged into computers
called, SERVERS!
SERVERS HELD EVERYTHING IN A DIGITAL FORMAT, AND EVERYTHING ON THE
SERVER WAS VIEWED ON THE COMPUTER SCREEN, OR ON PAPER COPIES
PRODUCTED BY VERY EXPENSIVE MACHINES CALLED "PRINTERS."
But, these printers were so expensive, that it was decided that they
should be "networked," ie. connected to more than one "workstation"
or computer to save money and time.
THIS, GENTLE READER, WAS THE REAL ORIGIN OF THE "COMPUTER NETWORK!"
So, at this early DIGITAL OFFICE PHASE; Workstations, Servers (for
storage), and Printers where all there was to the DIGITAL OFFICE.
THEN, SOMEONE DECIDED THAT IT WOULD BE "NEAT" TO "NETWORK" THE
VARIOUS OFFICES TOGETHER. THAT WAY EACH "OFFICE" COULD "TALK" TO THE
OTHER OFFICES. (Yea, right!)
But, instead of "talking" ONLY to your printer, 20 feet away, you
could now "talk" to the computers down in the basement, or on the top
floor of your building.
THIS WAS CALLED THE "LAN" OR LOCAL AREA NETWORK.
THIS WAS THE NETWORKING PHASE OF THE COMPUTER AGE:
This was the era of Cisco! Hubs and Bridges and Switches and Routers
connected everything!
THEN SOME GENIUS DECIDED THAT ALL OF THESE THINGS COULD BE CONNECTED
GLOBALLY! THIS WAS CALLED THE INTERNET! Any Questions so far?
THE INTER-CONNECTION PHASE IS NOW ALMOST COMPLETE.
THE THIRD PHASE OF OUR COMPUTER AGE IS THE DATA BASE PHASE:
THIS IS WHERE WE ARE TODAY;
Today we want, not only to INTER-connect globally, but to SEE AND
WORK WITH ALL OF THE VARIOUS DATA BASES ON THE INTERNET.
DATA BASE ACCESS AND DATA BASE MINING IS THE NEW FRONTIER OF THE
COMPUTER AGE AS WE SPEAK.
ESSENTIALLY, THE QUESTION NOW IS:
OK WE'RE ALL CONNECTED?
SO WHAT?
THE DATA BASE PHASE OF THE COMPUTER AGE SEEKS TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION:
SO WHAT?
