A Knight on the Keys...

Gracious Readers;

I admit it, I have a confession!  I have been looking over Ken’s shoulders for a while now and have learnt a lot.  I was not just chosen to be a Knight for my good looks, you know!  On top of my other excellent qualities, I am in possession of intelligence far superior to, well, my superiors. My superiors of days long left behind, that is.  I have, to date, led a very long and varied life. I have seen progress over the years (indeed, centuries!) that would be difficult to fathom for the most ingenious of minds. Yet I have experienced things. I have, over time, learnt. I have learnt many many things that, had I not seen the progress through my own visor, would not have believed possible. I have seen armies lost and Kings conquered. I have seen swords change to weapons capable of the most evil destruction.  I have seen the humble horse replaced by a mechanical carriage, which in turn has developed further still. I have seen women become the equal to men.  I have seen food heated up in machines and people transported from one end of the world to the other in a matter of mere hours.  Progress has been frightening in its speed.  It also means I know how to blog! So there you have it.  

 I was there at the dawn of the ‘’computer’’.  I was in an office in Germany, although the language spoken was English.  I adorned the office of a Colonel Hughes.  What a wonderful chap!  He spoke in a soft Irish accent and was very popular with his men (and women!  There are women in the military!)  He was writing a book on a battle on a remote Island far away.  He only had to tap on the board for the letters to appear in front of him on a large box.  He rubbed his eyes often after looking at the green lettering on the black background and cursed frequently ‘’Darned WordStar! A typewriter is far easier!’’.  His progress was slow as he tapped in each letter using only his forefingers.  Occasionally, the volume of his voice rose considerably as the computer ‘’crashed’’ (I later learned that this meant it ceased to function and had caused considerable loss of information).  I will always remember the painting on his wall – a picture of a soldier in red battle dress and, curiously, a small mouse close to him.  Anyway, that is where I learnt about computers.  The box was called a ‘’monitor’’ and the board a ‘’keyboard’’. That was a long time ago and it seems much has changed. Both keyboards and monitors have changed dramatically!  It appears there now also exists a thing called the ‘’internet’’, which is a place on the computer that holds all the information one could possibly imagine, and one can add to it and pass on information.  I was correct in saying that Ken was looking at a painting by a Dutch person, but it was just an image of the painting, not an original.  One can apparently create copies for one’s own walls by pressing a button and it appears!  Ken was also looking at a ‘’blog’’ which appears to be a diary one can keep in the ‘’internet’’.  As I did not want my experiences to just disappear and never be noted, I thought it might be interesting to write it down myself.  So, I watched and learnt. I decided to write the first instalment after the fact, but now will attempt to keep up to date and impart more of what I have learnt at every given opportunity.  Luckily, I do not exactly need much in the way of sleep, so can continue whilst the Chipman Hill office is empty.