Prehistoric Technology

Prehistoric Technology / Regina Coyula
Posted on October 9, 2013

The so-called digital natives are those born after 1970. Not only am I
not a digital native, but I must wait for citizenship because I was born
much earlier and come from a disconnected planet. In Cuba that date must
run with generosity to the late '80s because of the Blockade and the
Imperialist Threat (and rumor has it also because of our former Sister,
which bet the future entirely on socialism and not on the technological
revolution).

But all mixed together, we Cubans in general came to familiarize
ourselves (from afar) with personal computers from the '90s: before
that, some demigods called "micro operators" were the only ones with
access to those machines of the dark green screens, there were some who
experienced a Caribbean television as a screen.

My first encounter was in 1987, a NEC with a floppy disc reader. As the
micro operator of the NEC of my account was my "team" and in the interim
I married and went on maternity leave, I learned the management of the
exclusive apparatus and when Ana Gladys was absent, Regina took command,
most royal at the helm of an ocean liner. In addition, in this office of
the micro, the air conditioning never failed, as it was said that the
machine could not live without it.

Ana Gladys and I could have a conversation in front of anyone, others
would think we were speaking another language: "The command is
control-alt-M" (or it seems, but I've already forgotten MS DOS), "I left
the program on the floppy," what do I know, things like that.

At that time I did not need to study anything, I learned the commands by
heart, and printed for my colleagues some precious theses with an
academic program; not forgetting the variety of sources that came later.

A clever technician working in Copextel put together a Frankenstein. It
was 1994 and the boy did not charge me, preferring to climb on a raft in
the summer of that year. An XT with the text editor Wordstar or
Wordperfect that my husband, the poet Alcides, didn't touch for fear of
the electricity.

It wasn't until 1995 that we bought, secondhand, a 486. With Windows cam
happiness. I convinced the poet that a PC was much better for his work.
With more fear than conviction, he clung to his old Underwood, claiming
not to know that symbiosis with mechanical apparatus, but as the
immortal Stevenson said: Technology is technology, and I managed to
convince him to step forward, to modernity. He is not a seasoned user,
but he bangs on the keys and his drafts are flawless, an argument that
was like a coup de grace to decide it.

As in this world of technology obsolescence is relentless , the 486 did
not break, but it was incompatible with many peripherals, and in 2004,
through the son of a friend (ooops … also today in exile), we bought a
Compaq Pentium 3! brand new in its box and continued with the
magnificent Magnavox SVGA monitor we "settled" for the 486. Alcides
worked with him until four months ago he lost his memory (not Alcides,
he enjoys an excellent memory) , and I have a friend from Miami engaging
in archeology to see if he can retrieve it, because here the old RAM is
more expensive than if it were new. I would prefer it not appear, so
Alcides doesn't regress to Windows 95.

Faced with the possibility of being left without work, I connected the
keyboard and monitor (of the LCD) to a tiny Lenovo that I won in a
contest on Twitter. At first , this was a disaster, because jumping from
Windows 95 to Windows 7 for him was a leap of faith, but he has grown
accustomed, and sometimes whole days pass without hearing that deep
Rrregina … when the PC locks up.

The Internet has been an experience apart: familiarizing myself with
browsers, optimizing the little connection time, getting into social
networking, dealing with the downloading and installation of software.
Much studying of booklets, manuals and tutorials, the years do not go
for nothing; now I challenge myself to learn how to make a webpage from
WordPress. In the end, more than curiosity, I think what keeps me
studying like a madwoman is the fear of losing my memory, not just the RAM.

7 October 2013

Source: "Prehistoric Technology / Regina Coyula | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/prehistoric-technology-regina-coyula/