X marks the spot ...

... where Christ has been taken out of Christmas. It is common to hear people refer to Xmas and even 'Chrimbo'.
Why am I, you might ask, talking about Christmas, as it is not one of the Holy Days in the Baha'i calendar? Well, many of my family are Christian, and they come to visit us at Christmas time. The last of our relatives has now gone home and the house is returning to a more 'normal' appearance. Respect for all faiths is important in the Baha'i teachings, and the harmony and unity of the family is also important. Members of our family will be joining us when we celebrate our Baha'i Holy Days.

"Consort with the followers of all religions in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship"

SatNav - where goest thou?

I have just had a visitor who complained about the road signs in getting to my house. Talking of the problem, I discovered that he had relied exclusively on directions given by his SatNav system. It directed him along a road which was converted to "buses only" about 6 months ago!
What worried me about this was the fact that my visitor proceeded to follow the directions of the SatNav and ignore the road sign! Why are we becoming so trusting of a system that we ignore the warnings that are put on the road? This is not the first time I have heard of drivers who disregard road signs; because the SatNav tells them to go a certain route, then they will go that way whatever the road signs are.

Personally, I much prefer using a map and thinking about where I am driving. I would never hand over control to some device. Perhaps it is because I work with computers and know their limitations.

wireless fun

I connected my laptop to my wireless router the other month, but until today had not got round to configuring my daughter's laptop computer for wireless connection. Configuring my SimplyMEPIS linux machine to take an Intel card was so easy, I thought that there would be no bother connecting my daughter's machine. How wrong I was! Even though the wireless LAN card was supplied with, and had the same maker name as the laptop, I could not get it to work under Windows XP - all I had was the message that the driver failed to load. Searching for a solution (using the ethernet cable connection), I discovered that others had encountered the same difficulty. The card, like the computer, is a rebadged OEM device and identified in Windows as a Prism card. I discovered that the card was recognised in the Linux system that I run on my laptop. So I came to the obvious solution - I swapped cards! MY laptop now has the Intersil Prism running under SimplyMEPIS, and my daughter's machine is using the Intel card.
Just goes to show that 'extras' supplied with a machine are not always guaranteed to work with it!

Security - what security?

Whilst working on getting my network moved from a wired LAN to wireless, I discovered a neighbour had set up a wireless lan also. Nothing wroing in that, of course, but then I saw the details - "encryption none, access control none". I also saw the name of the network device and sure enough there is someone with that name living locally. In fact there is only one entry in the phone book with that surname. Now, I ask you, how sensible is that? My router box is configured with a SSID that is neither the name of the manufacturer, nor any name related to my family. Not only is the access to my device encrypted. but it has a MAC address filter enabled as well. This means that only the devices that I have listed can gain access to my network.
May I humbly suggest that anyone who does not have security enabled get it set up as soon as possible?

scope creep

One of the major problems when it comes to planning a project is "scope creep". You have probably met this already, when someone says "by the way, whilst you are doing it, can you just add ...". It is those three little words "can you just". The speaker obviously thinks that what is being asked for is a small extension to what is already being done. What they may not realise is that their request may force a complete change to the design!
Scope creep is not helpful to those working on the project as it means more work within the same deadline, or else the end of the project is for ever being delayed (the never-ending project). Both of these lead to a demoralised staff.

are bloggers really bullies?

I read the other week that some TV critic had described those who write blogs as 'bullies'. Really? Do you (assuming anyone is reading this) think that my occasional thoughts and comments amount to verbal assault. I offer the comments in a spirit of co-operation and assistance, much like the help I give to colleagues at the office or email support.
Sadly there is still a large amount of misunderstanding, even mystique, surrounding computers, and I feel compelled as an 'insider' to spread knowledge about what computers can and cannot do, and also to look at the ways in which people (workers and managers) deal with writing computer programs and supporting them.
Does anyone care to offer a view on how useful, if at all, they find my sporadic comments?

Firefighting

The members of the fire service do a great job often in hazardous conditions, but in the computer community 'firefighting' has a somewhat different meaning. To a computer person, 'firefighting' is the activity of spending a lot of time fixing systems which have broken. It usually implies a feeling of frustration because of the almost certain knowledge that it will break again, either through a lack of maintenance, or because of much heavier usage than it was originally designed to handle. The problem is of course self-perpetuating because those staff who would be working on building a better replacement are spending their time 'fixing' the old system.

Firefighting comes about because of a lack of planning, resources or both. Maybe managers are reluctant to set aside money for additional machines to cope with future growth, or the growth comes faster or sooner than expected, or maybe it is having insufficient number of trained staff who can plan ahead. Whatever the cause, once in a firefighting situation, the only way out is to have more staff (even if only temporarily) so that some can keep fixing the current system whilst others design and build the replacement. A word of advice, however - do not leave all the existing staff to firefight whilst new staff are brought in to build the replacement. This will only lead to resentment. The existing staff must be given the opportunity to take some part of building the new system. If they are not experienced enough, then it should be seen as a training opportunity for them.

Procrastination - (more or less)

Joking aside, putting off a job until some other time (usually 'tomorrow') it one of the root causes of projects not being completed. This applies both at work and at home. How often have we said, or heard "I'll do it tomorrow"? Often, of course it then is a case that "tomorrow never comes" and the work does not get finished.
So how can we overcome this problem? Firstly by recognising that it exists, and then by planning. Maybe the person is overloaded and cannot do the work (perhaps being too tired). Or maybe there is little or no incentive to have the task completed. To find a solution, several options need to be considered. Is the work really required or can it be abandoned? Is there someone else who could possibly complete the work? Can the priorities of all the competing jobs be changed so that the job being considered becomes more important and so be done in place of other tasks? Is lack of progress a sign that training is required? If there are no competing tasks, then perhaps an incentive is needed to have this work completed.
When developing software using the Agile and scrum, certain principles are clear. Holding regular reviews of progress will show up those who are not getting work completed, and limiting a working week to 40 hours should mean that nobody becomes too tired to do their work.
These same principles can be applied elsewhere also - home, charity groups. Without setting goals and reviewing progress are needed in all activities. But a word of warning - do not let the setting and achieving goals become your only concern and distract you from seeing the 'wider picture'.

Procrastination

I thought I'd write a bit about procrastination, but I'm rather tired, so I'll do it tomorrow!

growth and change

There is no standing still. There is either growth or decay. When we plant a small tree, we support it by providing a post beside it and gently tie the young tree to the support. If there is no support we risk the young tree being broken before it is strong enough to survive on its own. But if we tie the support too tightly we can kill the tree by stopping it from growing.
In the same way we support our children by being there for them when they need us, but not being too restrictive. Sure we need to impose rules, but we must also allow them to make mistakes and still give them our loving support.

So when it comes to the world of work, how then do we expect to bring in new work practices without providing support for the staff who are affected? Training, support and care are just as much needed by adults as they are needed by children or plants.

Science and Religion

I am often asked, as a person who is trained in the ways of, and who follows science, how can I also be a believer in religion. To me the answer is clear and straightforward. I believe in gravity and the electromagnetic force, I can measure and observe their effects even though they are invisible. In the same way I believe in love, kindness and sacrifice and I can observe their effects on people. To me, those 'spiritual' qualities are just as real as the physical qualities of matter.
Science deals with the physical world and and religion deals with the spiritual world. They are not and never have been in conflict with each other. It is only people who do not fully understand either science or religion that have supposed a conflict.


"Weigh not the Book of God with such standards and sciences as are current amongst you, for the Book itself is the unerring balance established amongst men." (From the Baha'i Sacred Writings)

who is in control - us or Computers?

In speaking to friends who have worked in call centres, and in email conversations with Baha'is around the world, I am finding that call centre staff are for the most part not allowed to deviate from the scripts they are given. Whilst this is not really any great surprise to me, it does show how much we have given up control of our working environment to that we fit in with computers. And I thought that we invented computers to be our slaves, not for us to become their slaves!
In fact it really comes down to the lack of flexibility in the scripts, which after all were devised by humans. I differentiate those call centre staff who are just out to make a sale by calling you from those others whom we call when we have a problem to be sorted out. I think it shows a lack of knowledge on the part of the staff who are answering the calls, a lack of trust in those who manage the staff and a lack of understanding on the part of those who devised the scripts - all of which makes me less inclined to have any further dealings with such a company. Far from being a help, using fixed scripts is actually giving a bad impression of the company and ultimately losing its customers.

programming for posterity

(OR: how to write programs that can be easily maintained in the future)
I was reading today an article that lamented the skills (or rather the lack of them) exhibited by many who today call themselves programmers. The trouble, said the writer of the article is that programming in some common web languages such as PHP means that even untrained people are writing programs - programs that are later found to be hard to maintain and insecure. I agree. Like most everything else in life, programming requires skill and training, and no small measure of planning.

In Memoriam : Dr Ali Muhammad Varqa

Little known outside the membership of the Baha'i Faith, Dr Varqa passed away earlier this month. I met him on several occasions, and remember him as a quiet, self-effacing person, a true 'gentleman'. He was appointed one of the Hands of the Cause in the Baha'i Faith - tasked with spreading the teachings of the Faith. He was also responsible for Huquq'u'llah - a voluntary donation made by Bahai's. Unlike taxes or tithes in other religions, Huquq'u'llah is given only after basic living costs have been taken care of.

The Baha'i Faith has no clergy and has an elected administration at local, national and international levels. There are also positions of advice, guidance and counselling which are appointed but who have no administrative authority. These are the Hands of the Cause and the Counsellors. The first Hands of the Cause were appointed by Baha'u'llah the founder of the Baha'i Faith. Dr Varqa was the last surviving Hand, appointed by the Guardian of the Faith. I have met several of the Hands and without exception found them to be humble servants of humanity. Dr Varqa will be sadly missed.

So, who are you?

In this ever-increasing online world, we are all told how careful we must be when visiting web sites and giving our personal data. Are we sure the site really is our bank and not someone trying to get our account details, etc.
For a membership system, I am looking at the reverse situation. How can I trust that the person who is logging in really is who they say they are? This has led me to the "web of Trust" started by users of the PGP encryption system. I want to make certain, or as certain as I can, that only those who have permission can view or update records remotely. Problem is that PGP signing is used on email messages, not to authenticate access to web sites.
So how do we check someone when we can't see them? Do you, dear reader, implicitly trust every email that you receive just because you recognize the sender's name?
This is ongoing research, and I have no final answers yet.

In praise of Open Standards

I am working with others, spread across the country, on a project. As it is for charity, we are all working in our own time on our personal computers, not all together in one office. Now, how are we to share information if someone works on Windows and another works on Linux?
Of course, there is OpenOffice - which I have used successfully for months to send documents to colleagues who only use Word. Now I have added to my list - GnuCash to handle accounts written with Quicken, MDB Tools to read and import Access databases into MySQL, and a diagramming package called Dia that works on both Windows and Linux.

Testing in an Agile development team

I have been reading up on Agile development over the last few weeks, and one thing that has concerned me when looking at Xtreme Programming is the apparent lack of dedicated testing staff. Indeed some proponents feel there is no need for any specialists at all. The view is that each developer tests their own unit of code.

But, there is much more to testing than testing individual units. There is integration and system testing as well as performance, resilience and load testing. However, the developers feel that they are not skilled enough to do anything except unit testing.

I was happy to come across a couple of sites that to me at least, put forward a more balanced approach to development and testing. One of them, testobsessed.com I have found to be particularly helpful.

burning the candle at both ends

Just sat watching the BBC news this morning and heard the item on the effects of lack of sleep. Must admit that I have recently been working late nights and early mornings (called burning the candle at both ends) especially with the unpaid work I have been doing outside of my regular employment.
Anyway, last night I went to bed earlier and clocked up a good 7 hours sleep, and must say I felt much better this morning as a result.
I notice in my reading on the Agile development methodology (philosophy/approach/paradigm?) that it is stated the team should not work more than 40 hours per week. And I can see why. Performance suffers when working longer hours.

But everyone uses Windows, don't they?

Well here's a turn-up for the books! I have been elected Treasurer of the local Interfaith Council. That is a meeting of representatives of all the different religious communities in the city - Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Baha'i.
I was told that it would be best to use a computer with (insert name of popular Accounting package) and when I replied that I had not used Windows system for over 10 years there was general astonishment, and a "well what else is there?". I explained that I used Linux at home for email, browsing the web, office matters like spreadsheet and document writing and I had no intention of going back to Windows just to run an accounts package. So of course, I looked for a Linux based package as soon as I got home. I have downloaded GnuCash and will be trying it out over the next few weeks. I'll let you know how I get on.

Data conversion woes

I needed to contact my utility supplier the other day. I could not get access to the web site as I hade done previously, so I ended up phoning them. The young man who answered could not have been more helpful, and more apologetic! It seems that they had moved to a new database system and this was linked to the web access. Now, with a supplier you can have a delivery address that is not the same as the address that you send bills to. It is reasonable that if one is blank then the same address is used for both.

However, the change to the web interface meant that access that was originally controlled by billing address was now controlled by delivery address, and in my case it was blank. That meant I could not access the web site until the customer support person altered the records on the database.

He said that they had spent a long time doing the change and testing it. But consider this - if you have 5 million customers and your data conversion process is 99.99% perfect that will still leave you with 500 customers whose records have failed in some way.

Never assume

I booked a trip to an indoor ski centre, for my first ever snowboarding lesson. Seeing that I am an absolute beginner, and the snow centre has a main slope and a smaller slope, I assumed our lesson would be on the smaller slope, or certainly at the lower part of the main slope. How wrong I was. The lesson was up towards the higher part of the main slope. And we started by learning to control ourselves using the toe edge of the board. That meant we were facing up the slope with our backs to the way we were travelling!

Working on a system the other week, I decided to use only one of the two application servers, since they were identical machines with the same software loaded, and I only needed one machine for the test. I checked the settings, the test script I had written, the processor load and the network connection, but all to no avail - the test always failed. Over a week later, I tried the other machine and the test took just 2 seconds to run correctly. The machines might have been identical, but one of them had a hardware failure!

And I tell my students always to list their assumptions, and always check that the assumptions are valid. Now I have slipped up twice within the same week. One of the principles of the Baha'i Faith is "Independent investigation of the truth".

Where are all the scientists?

As has become a habit over the last few years, the release of the GCSE results has been accompanied by comment in the media on the decreasing numbers of students taking mathematics or science.

Personally I am not surprised. What role models do our youngsters have? What is portrayed in the very media that bewail the lack of science students? It seems to me that the only role models portrayed are the sports personalities and the celebrities of the showbiz world. Whenever scientists appear, they are often portrayed as badly dressed, speaking words that most people do not understand and frequently lacking in social graces.

Also, perhaps, our concern for the safety of the pupils in schools has led to the curtailment of many experiments in classrooms. Science is now seen by many as 'boring' as much content is conveyed by watching videos. Gone are the times when pupils were let loose with geiger counters and radioactive materials (even though they were less active than the luminous paint used in the wrist watches of those days!), microwave transmitters (er, what about the mobile phones most youngsters now carry in their pockets?), static electricity generators and reactive chemicals. They were the things that excited me and instilled in me a love of science. How do teachers convey the excitement of science, if all the pupils can do is sit and watch?

Marriage is like team work

One of our team left for his annual holiday the other day. Except that it is actually his wedding and honeymoon. As my wife and I have just celebrated our wedding anniversary, it put me to thinking about marriage in these modern times.

Our team had a monthly meeting and the team leader, when asked to nominate the best worker in the team, said "everyone". I had to think a bit about that, as we are so used to picking on one individual that we have elevated it to the "cult of the celebrity" and forgotten, in my view the need for true team working.

Marriage and team work are quite similar in many ways. Both take individuals who have different abilities and outlook on life and put them to working together. In each case, the individuals must learn to sacrifice part of themselves in order to achieve something greater. Otherwise the team will not survive. The common term today is "my partner", but married couples are partners too. In marriage, though, the partnership is made within a very public commitment.

Capacity planning

Two news items caught my attention this week. One of them was a report of a court case in America where, if I understood correctly, internet providers were being asked to keep a copy of every email and web page that passed through their systems. This put me to thinking about what that would mean in storage requirements. You see, testing a program does not just mean checking that the right text, icons and graphics are displayed, and clicking an icon performs the required action. Non-functional testing is looking at reliability, speed, and capacity.

So I started to think what is the storage requirement if an internet provider held a copy of all their traffic.

For one small provider with just two 64Mbit links, assuming that those links are mainly for business users (that is, traffic mostly between 8am and 6pm) with the links at just 75% of their capacity, then in one week the total traffic would be 64 * 0.75 * 3600 seconds in an hour * 10 hours * 5 days in Megabits. That comes to 8640000 Megabits (864 Gigabytes) per week. Of course, if the provider has a few hundred or thousand individual subscribers, each downloading emails, software and music files, and browsing the web looking for maps, video clips, reading and contributing to blogs, and so on every night then that figure could easily rise to double or triple that original estimate of 864Gb per week. Taken over the course of a year it approaches something of the order of 100 TerraBytes required for the storage.

If that is the figure for one small internet provider, just stop to think what the storage requirements will be for some of the larger providers who count their customers in the hundreds of thousands.

As you can see, bandwidth capacity and storage are important points to consider in planning any new service, or when upgrading an existing one.

Back in the thick of it

Or should that be, back in the thick of *I.T.* ? I have been away from all things technical for the last two weeks - mostly walking, with a bit of surfing and swimming. Leave behind the computer, the phone and all that sort of thing. "What is the weather going to be" was answered by "are there clouds or blue sky on the horizon"!

Sometimes it pays to see just how dependent we have become on technology. It seems many of us could not function at all without it. Of course, there are those like myself whose work is based on computers, whether that be administering them or programming them. I am thinking more of how we seem to 'need' technology for entertainment. Gone are the days for most people (did they ever exist for some?) of gathering together to talk, tell stories, sing or dance, or enjoy walking in the countryside.

In a couple of weeks I am taking our family to an Open Air concert, complete with full orchestra, singers and a firework finale. We shall go with a picnic meal and (given that this is England in summer) raincoats.

I will 'escape' to the country whenever I can. How about you?

"The city is the home of the body but the country is the home of the soul" (Baha'i writings)

Requirements Gathering

Requirements gathering is the first step on the "traditional" process of designing any new piece of software, and involves asking detailed questions regarding what the expected users of the system want to see in the finished product.
I have found, working as a systems or process analyst for some years, is that the end users rarely have a clear view of what they want and certainly not in precise details.

I have worked with many people over the last 40 years and I would put them into two broad groups - those that go for the "details" and those that go for the "big picture", or "helicopter view" as one Managing Director once described it to me.
Computer programmers tend to be in the "details" group, whilst managers tend to be in the "big picture" group. This is just by the very nature of the jobs, they attract people with that type of view. Of course, neither view is any better than the other, as both are needed.

The difficulty for requirements gathering then, is that of getting the requirements in enough detail to allow the programmers to write the code, without the managers or end users losing patience or retreating from the project.

I am prompted to muse on these thoughts as I prepare to become involved in "SCRUM" and Agile.

Energy saving, who me?

So, the Live Planet concerts have come and gone, with all the controversy regarding the 'carbon footprint' of the participants. However, I don't think that was the point. It has made people think more about energy consumption, conservation and so on.

Of course, those of us who surround ourselves with technology use quite a lot, so who am I to talk of energy saving? After all, I have a network of computers at home and all the other usual gadgets. Well I regularly switch off all the devices that are not in use. But that is nothing to do with any new "green movement", it is the way that I was brought up by my parents. I travel by public transport whenever I can (every day to work, apart from when I cycle), have energy saving bulbs throughout the house, and recycle all paper,cardboard, tins and plastic.

Some time ago, I replaced the old computer that was running my firewall (you do have a firewall, yes?). It's power consumption was concerning me, and the fan was getting noisy. So I went out and bought a new router device that has a 4-port hub and wireless device combined. Very easy to plug in and get going and it saves me having two separate devices (hub and firewall) as well as consuming over 300 watts less power.

Two laptop computers have replaced the desktop computers, again with a saving in power, and the family share one printer.

Will I get a new flat screen TV? Nah, they are wasteful on power and would only see my electric bill rise again. Now, a combined DVD and video player, that is a thought. Let's get the booklets out and see their power consumption. can I save anything by getting one device to replace the two of them?


"Be anxiously concerned for the age in which you live and centre your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements" (Baha'i Faith)

Education, Education and yet again - Education

"Man is a mine rich in gems of inestimable value, lack of a proper education hath deprived him of that which he doth inherently possess." (Baha'i Writings)

This week has been all about education for our family.
Our daughter went to an end of year party for those leaving school; my wife attended a party at the school she taught at which was celebrating 40 years since the school opened; and I spent several days on a training course for Software Testing.

There are some who thing that once they leave school, that is the end of their education. I disagree, as do many more. There are training courses for adults on many different aspects of life - whether it be through employment training, religious groups running (Baha'i 'Study Circles', Christian Bible classes and so on), or through a club such as sports training, learning a new skill or hobby.

Every day is an opportunity to be a better person than the day before. Kinder, gentler, more compassionate, more skilled - that is what we all need to become. Go to it!

Discussion and Consultation

On a training course in Software Testing, and the topic came round to how testing staff should handle the process of informing the developers of the faults that had been found.

Suggestions ranged from "Here, you idiot, look what I've found in your code" to a more diplomatic "I have found a problem here and I am not sure if I have done the wrong thing in my test or there is a problem in the code. Can you help me?"

We all agreed that the more diplomatic way was best, as irritating the developers would not be the way to get their cooperation. I fell to thinking at the lunch break that this is not limited to dealings between developers and testers, but is applicable to all human interactions. I read a book some years ago called "Consultation" by John Kolstoe where he dealt with this and other aspects.

If in a discussion, the people offering the suggestions then detach themselves from those ideas, they will not become offended when the ideas are challenged. In that way it should be possible to reach an agreement without anyone being upset. It is only by holding on to "my idea" that I would become annoyed if it was not accepted.

What a busy life!

Progression and advancement at work - I have been asked to take on more responsibilities, joining a working group to develop and improve our software testing methods and systems, and to become a mentor for some of the less experienced staff.

Together with unpaid voluntary work designing membership systems, it has left me with little time spare this week.

There is a danger that I will neglect my family, but I am determined that should not happen, so for the last two nights we have removed the table cloth and been doing a 1500 piece jigsaw puzzle. Many years ago as a teacher I first became aware of 'latch key kids' whose parents were so busy making money that they had no time to share with their children.

We all live in a world where the pace of life seems to be getting faster and faster, yet the quality of life is not improving.

I am reminded of the poem by William Henry Davies -
"What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare. No time to stand beneath the boughs and stare as long as sheep or cows. ..."

Have a nice day

Today has been a good day. Email support has resolved my computer problem - and now I have the machine up and running again, with email, printing, browser and database all OK. I'm now running Ubuntu.

Cycling in to work and back again was good, going past those cars that were stuck in the traffic. OK, if it rains tomorrow I will go by bus. Whichever way, I am saving lots on not driving a car, am healthier and much more relaxed.

Met new colleagues at work today - three people from Russia over on a temporary basis from one of our contracting 'partner' companies. We shared stories of our families at lunch time. I have found on my travels that humans the world over are not so different from each other.

"The world is one Country and Mankind its Citizens" (From the Baha'i Writings)

Recovery from disaster - part 1

Well, I finally decided to upgrade the operating system in my laptop computer today. First step was to archive off all the files I wanted to keep onto a few CDs, and then make a paper note of basic things like internet settings, firewall passwords, and access details for the important websites I visit regularly.

All in all that little lot took a couple of hours to complete. Why bother, you might ask? Most folks would just plough straight in and do the upgrade. A foolish action that I caution against, and events have proved me right. The upgrade failed just after it had wiped my hard disk!

So, I started my backup plan - get computer running on CD only, then use webmail to contact support desk and continue reading my messages, editing this blog and so on.

Just goes to show, planning is important in all things.

Our consumer society

I am saddened, but not surprised, that so many people seem intent on ruining themselves and those around them. This was brought home to me yesterday by two things that I saw. The first was a set of comments by motorists who feel that the way (ie speed) they drive or the petrol consumption of the vehicle they choose to drive is of no concern of any one else.
The second was a trip I made to a local electrical store, looking for a new hi-fi unit as the one we have has finally broken down. I was shocked to find that most units had a power output well over ten times the value of our current system (and even that I have never turned up to top volume in our large living room)!

I was brought up to think of the consequences of my actions, and to think of other people before myself. Am I in a minority, then? If so, what hope is there for our planet?

Begin Annotating

Annotations - comments in the margins; additional, amplifying explanations; added as and when needed.

This is just a series of comments on life in general, from the viewpoint of my being both a member of the Baha'i Faith, and a computer programmer/analyst/database designer. (For equal lengths of time - 37 years to date).
I have been involved with the internet from way back in the mid 80's, devising a simple set of markings to use between my employer and translators across Europe, and using email to send out the press releases to journalists.
Recently I have been asked to write reviews of some computer books, and just last weekend to 'appear' on local radio to review the Sunday papers (as a 'representative' of the Baha'i Faith).
Today I was asked to help out explaining some computer programing for one of my colleagues. Wonder what tomorrow will bring?