In the late 1960's, my job was to oversee the development of academic computing on my campus. I was invited to take the job because I had written in the campus bulletin that I had some computer experience and would welcome conversations with others who also worked with them. At the time, the academic computer was the campus's 2nd computer. The first was used for salary and larger number-crunching operations. As I talked with various faculty about the possible use of the academic machine, I was often asked, "What is a computer?"
Nowdays, that question is not heard much, although the smartphone and the Samsung or Apple tablet are the tools of choice in many cases today. I would not be surprised if the computer fades even further in popularity.
Today, I ran into a major bugbear of modern popular computing: passwords. To change a password, I had to insert a date with month, day and year. I know the numbers but I was required to use the format mm/dd/yyyy. I inserted a two-digit number for a one digit month like an obedient computer slave. The next character was required to be a slash, in fact, a forward slash, one that leans to the right. One that leans to the left would not be accepted. I have three keys on my keyboard that type slashes, two of them right-leaning. When I tried typing the required type, nothing happened. I tried several other approaches, checked all my connections but all I achieved was greater frustration.
So, what the hell? I just tried a two digit number for the year and it popped right up, WITH THE REQUIRED SLASH INCLUDED! Telling Lynn about this, she interrupted with "Oh, you just type the numbers and the computer puts in the slash." What? She knows this but I don't? Again superior female knowledge and behavior!
