Being there...WITHOUT Being There??

Since it moved from the office and business and educational sites, and into our homes and now on our smart phones, the use of the computer has changed our lives in many ways. Our banking habits, how we do our research, call a cab, or the route we will use in driving our cars are many of the uses, that are often performed....sometimes daily.

January 1983...Who knew how much it would change us

This was not always the case. For $1.50 the January 3, 1983 edition of Time magazine, changed history. Instead of a MAN or PERSON OF THE YEAR, they proudly proclaimed the computer as the "Machine of the Year". Yet, as the years have passed...the growth, access, size, power and acceptability of these machines has changed exponentially. This has affected us in ways that we often forget and has lead to a whole generation or two that have never known anything different.

I have a deep interest in technology...I always have. Part of the reason I entered the Medical Xray profession was the rapidly changing field that was explained to me on during a tour to the St.Catharines General Hospital Xray Department while a grade 13 student...many moons ago. Tony Stechyshyn, the Chief Tech and my tour director, helped to show me how my interest in photography could be loosely integrated into the rapidly changing focus of knowledge, skill, and equipment needed to perform the radiography examinations aiding in the diagnosis of patients. 

Upon acceptance into the School of Radiography at SCGH, I can remember the encouraging words of Leonard Sibley, my homeroom teacher that year. He also was a "techie" before techie was the term. Wearing a lab coat with a white pocket saver in his upper left front pocket while in his chemistry classroom, he was encouraging...even emphatic that it would be something I would enjoy. How prophetic he would be.

Commordore 64, 1541 disk drive and 1701 monitor, my first computer
The C-64  was the world's largest single model
sold with estimates ranging 10-17 million  

My introduction in 1983 to the world of "personal" computers changed my life as it also changed our world. The demonstration of an Apple II at Mohawk College followed by home acquisition of a COMMODORE 64, within the year, meant new challenges and applications. A whooping 64K of built-in memory. The 5 1/4 inch floppy disk, double notched so we could use both sides...170 kB on each. Originally, a backup would take 10 minutes using their operating system on the 1541 drive but took the disk 6 minutes each side to make an archival copy...at the end of its life about 10 years later. Nothing had changed except the software.

Connecting to the outside world consisted of using a 300 baud modem on a dial up line. High speed was a few years later when we catapulted to 1200 baud, then 2400. It took hours to download a program and digital images were screen savers, as long as someone in the house didn't lift an extension phone. If that happened you started all over again!

Such is not the case today. Our high speed internet dedicated access allows us the extensive use of YouTube and its vast collections of videos, music and helpful clips of information amongst other digital storage "farms". A whole host of topics is available utilizing the experiences of others to improve our personal efforts. Whether setting up a home wifi network, fixing something around the house, or assembling the latest acquired RC flying model, we have instant access to "experts".  

Our access to data has changed

Years ago a network of friends, also involved their friends and contacts who knew how to do something or could  provide the "services" when we required...in other words we knew someone, who knew someone, who knew someone. What has followed, is that the easy "access" has lead to less need for our personal knowledge experts and has resulted in the demise of clubs dedicated to advancing a hobby or skill...or at least has modified how those organizations operate.


If you feel so inclined, you now just post a question on your Facebook page and suddenly your social media network gives you advice...many times whether you want it or not. The whole thing is surreal...but an everyday occurrence. The use of Google to check out and verify information allows everyone to be an expert...to not just retain information...and we can do it with our cell phones!  

The Street View digital recording vehicle in Niagara Falls.

This summer I was driving through a plaza in Niagara Falls and there parked outside a TD bank sat the Google Street view photo car. I snapped a photo...not realizing its importance at the time. If you've ever travelled into a "new city" and want to feel comfortable by recognizing landmarks buildings, and streets....one has only turn onto the internet. Double click on Google Earth and once you've highlighted the street of interest...you can watch and learn and suddenly you are there. Instantly you are teleported to a new environment. The learning occurs, the method is completely different to what we experienced years ago.

Last February, on my return to Rankin Inlet, I was able to quickly become familiar with the community having been there in 2008. It took only a few minutes of the drive from the airport to once again recognize and remember the sights around town..and it saved hours of walking in below freezing temperatures. While Google Earth can show me the streets (but of course, cannot help with those street name pronunciations), the actual street view function does not work. 

Of course, the capital city of Nunavut Territory has made its presence on Street View and you can view Iqaluit any time you wish. I was aware that Google had streetscaped small villages in Africa and parts of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. I never imagined that Cambridge Bay had also had the privilege until I tried it...and it worked. To virtually "visit" one of the outside smaller Nunavut communities is really quite unique.

Imagine my delight, when doing some research for my upcoming locum, that I was able to discover that this hamlet of 1800 people has been discovered world wide. I have been able to walk down to the dock...at shore's edge, travel through town, check out the Post Office and Royal Bank buildings. All this and I have 30 days before I actually physically arrive. The secret is that CAMBAY as it is affectionately known, has had the distinction throughout Nunavut of being one of the first communities to have been digitally recorded. 

2012 Google Earth trike records the Street View landscape in Cambridge Bay

The Google Street View option works for this hamlet due to a couple of factors. The Google people, always adept at modifying their techniques, designed a vehicle that could be shipped at reasonable cost to a remote locale. Now, this digital record could really only occur in the summer months...but it could be recorded day and night at that time of the year. 

How did they choose this community? Well, the story goes that several years ago, one of the residents in town wrote to those fine folks in California and complained that there wasn't enough knowledge on the internet about the Arctic and suggested that they could change that with a trip to CAMBAY to document the town....so they did. It was an event for the entire community and the result is available for all the world to see.

So, it seems in the past month, I've already been to Cambridge Bay a few times and I'll visit a few more times before I leave Niagara...so much has changed since since those days in 1983, 32 years ago, when I first viewed the Apple IIe and the Commodore 64. The scenery will be slightly different from those early summer views as they are in the midst of winter weather. They have had snow, gusting winds at 9 km/hour and have a scheduled high today of -29C (-20F). 
   
With Google Earth remaining an easy way to visit somewhere without being there physically, I got to wondering this morning. Given recent information, the new movie "The Martian", continuing discoveries by the Mars landing explorers and ongoing public interest, perhaps it won't be long before we hear the announcement of a new product...Google Mars. Any volunteers to record it?

Screen capture of the Google Street View near "Killik Iliakvik School" in Cambridge Bay