There's an app for that ...

I have a love/hate relationship with my computers. In this I am, I suspect, not unusual. My life seems to be infused with computers these days and it sometimes worries me. My desktop PC, my laptop, my iPad, my iPhone, my iPod(s). Then there are all the little computers in the electricity-run appliances all over my house and in my car. There is even a little computer on each of my bicycles. Because I grew up in an era in which we actually learned to write with pencils and pens, and we learned to do research with real books with actual paper pages, I sometimes assume the smug attitude that "kids these days" don't know the "real" way to do things. I suspect that coopers, wheelers, smiths and thatchers probably thought the same thing in their day.

While the intricacies of working in a computer-driven world often escape me, I think I am less goofy about it now than I was even a few years ago. I used to live with Someone who appeared to know all about things computerly, and I allowed myself to become almost totally dependent upon his ability to set things up and to straighten out my messes. An early purchase after his departure was a new computer; I wonder if this was some small act of reclaiming myself. The boffin who made the computer for me and transfered what I deemed essential from the old to the new suggested that I keep the old one for a bit "just in case I needed to take something from it and put it on the new one." You know, that old computer is still taking up house space and I don't think I've ever had need to move anything from old to new. So, it's probably time to wipe its little memory clean and consign it to the big Small Electronics box at the recycling center. Just as it's probably time to properly inventory the garage and get rid of all that stuff I moved with me to my New Life and haven't looked at since. But I digress (which is something I do well ...)

I have, in my dotage, discovered the world of applications, or "apps" in kid-speak, for my portable computers. I can check on all sorts of things without stirring from wherever I happen to have alighted. While there is no guarantee of the accuracy of any of the information I am pulling from the ether, it seems rather mighty and amazing to be able to do so. While I'm waiting for something to happen (an occupational annoyance in my line of work), I can alter a photograph, read a book, check the news, look for recipes for dinner, and all manner of unrelated and joyful nonsense. This greatly appeals to my magpie brain, but I'm not sure how much more productive it makes me. I will note, however, that the day I got half-way to a rehearsal and recalled that I had forgotten to stick the tuner and the tuning wrench in my harp case, the next thing I did was buy an app for a tuner so I know I always have one with me. Small victories, but victories nonetheless. There is a room in my house with bookcases on all the walls and much information for the taking. So much is on the computers these days, though, that I'm not sure when I last purchased a paper-paged book that wasn't a cookbook (they're just not the same on an e-reader). I have hundreds of e-books and lots of apps that take me to news sources. I have to wonder, though, if I have lost something in not reading more paper books, newspapers and magazines. I suppose the readers of the time thought the same thing about Herr Gutenberg's monstrous machine.

Alas, I see that all of my Apple products have now finished synchronizing themselves with each other. How lovely to have family. However, this also means that it's time to stop maundering on about things electronic and get about the business of the day. Surely there's an app for that ...

"I love a bit of anarchy, so long as it doesn't harm the undeserving." (Christopher Fowler)