Back to writing basics…
My first computer wasn't technically even a computer. It was a WYSE Unix Terminal that logged onto a remote server. It was 1992, I was working at Sun Microsystems at the time, in the very un-technical position of switchboard operator/receptionist. Computers were starting to become more common in the workplace, but I had zero computer skills and it wasn't part of my job description. There was a Unix terminal at my desk, but I was never expected to actually use it, which was fine with me. My purpose was to route phone calls, take messages, greet visitors with a smile and provide a 'professional front office appearance.' It wasn't a very taxing job. I spent much of my day sitting alone with the potted plants adorning the lobby, and when things were slow it could get downright dull. On the plus side, I had plenty of time to read, enough to burn through a novel or two a week. And on one particularly slow day, having polished off yet another mystery, I asked one of the technical support guys if he had anything laying around for me to read. He passed me a Unix manual, chuckling to himself as he headed back to his desk.
I read that manual cover to cover, and I taught myself Unix. Perhaps not true Unix, but enough for me to start playing around with that terminal I'd been deliberately ignoring. It was actually rather fun. Page by page I devoured that manual and followed the examples, fascinated by the way I could manipulate the softly glowing green letters suspended within the screen's inky blackness. It wasn't long before I discovered that magical terminal was connected to something called the internet. Back in those days going online wasn't exactly point-and-click: it took some working knowledge of Unix and VI Editor. Needless to say, I was amused to find myself in online conversations with techies at places like AT&T, MIT and NASA. And when I remarked that a system like that would be wonderful for writing at home, my manual-donating techie friend at Sun even bestowed me with a mothballed terminal, a keyboard and a remote log-on to the server for my personal use. I had my first word processor!
It's been years since the days of that old terminal, (centuries, if you calculate it in technology time) and many computer keyboards have passed beneath my hands. Operating systems have come and gone, screens went from monochrome to color to LED/LCD. Where once I dialed up on a modem like the one in War Games, now there's WIFI and Bluetooth. Mice came to be, then evolved past wires to touchpads and touchscreens. It leaves me to wonder where technology will be in years to come. And last week, as my laptop, still running XP, began to act a bit too flaky I decided it was time for a newer machine.
So here I sit, writing this now on a sleek new laptop with all the current bells and whistles. It's truly amazing what computers have become, and equally amazing what the internet has grown into as well. But there's a downside to all these advances… they're potentially massive distractions. Which is why, when I write, I find it effective to go as back to basics as possible: I set the computer to emulate that old terminal. No fancy Word utilities or tabs and formatting ribbons. Just a plain, classic 'console' font in that familiar shade of green on a full screen of blackness. Writing, pure and simple.
Now, if only it was that easy to configure the distractions out of everything else in life!
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