An Ode to the Way We Used to Think

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Dec 20, 1999 | by Stephen Goode, | Timothy W. Maier

It is not surprising that the technological revolution has elicited nostalgia for the way we were before we all began spending hours perched in front of computer screens, drifting in cyber-space. The following poem was sent for the people's way, via the Internet of Course:

   A computer was something on TV
   from a science-fiction show;
   A window was something you hated to clean
   And ram was the cousin of a goat.

   Memory was something that you lost with age,
   A CD was a bank account;
   And if indeed you had a floppy,
   You hoped nobody found out!

   Compress was something you did to the garbage,
   Not something you did to a file;
   And if you unzipped anything in public,
   You'd be in jail for awhile!

   Meg was the name of my girlfriend
   And a gig was a job for the night;
   Now they all mean different things
   And that really mega-bytes.

   Log on was adding wood to the fire;
   Hard drive was a long trip on the road;
   A mouse pad was where a mouse lived,
   And a backup happened in your commode.

   Cut you did with a pocket knife,
   Paste you did with glue;
   A Website was a spider's home,
   And a virus was the flu.

   I guess I'll stick to my pad and paper,
   And the memory in my head;
   I hear nobody's been killed in a computer crash,
   But when it happens, they'll wish they were dead!