Being Comfortable
It is rather comforting for this old man to be back in the universe of Microsoft. Writing in word and calculating in Excel. The addition of the company’s AI tool has rounded out the package. I was late to the company’s initial offerings, but like the virus in Pluribus, eventually they assimilated the competing word processing and spreadsheet offerings in the early days of computing and became universal in the business world of my youth. I learned to love and use its tools. We were peaceful and happy.
In retirement I tried out the tools of Google and Apple, but cloud computing makes me feel as though I’m working on documents through the sort of glovebox you find in labs. Detached. I like my software on my computer along with my documents where I can actually touch both. Although, truth be told, I’m probably more connected to the cloud than I like to admit. Microsoft is constantly encouraging me to use OneDrive, its cloud storage option, and I haven’t really tried using Word and Excel when I’m not on the network.
Of course, having been born into a world of pen and paper I’m always left to wonder how many people realize how much will be lost when they turn out the lights and the computers stop humming. The information destroyed will dwarf the burning of the library of Alexandria in 47 BCE. But that’s me being pessimistic, and it probably won’t happen in my lifetime. So, I’m going to enjoy my software, the interconnected world in which we live, and CoPilot my new assistant who can automate tasks, and write kick-ass macros at my command.