This article was written by Don VanSyckel, the club president, as a part of "The President's Pen". This article appeared in the November 2008 WYSIWYG newsletter.
PCs are Everywhere
by Don VanSyckel
It's a sign of the times. I work for a company which like so many other companies is located where there is no parking other than what they provide. In addition, company security monitors and regulates whose entering the property. People entering the site are not allowed to bring laptops onto the property unless previously authorized. I recently had occasion to drive my wife's car to work and not being registered with the company, I had to stop at the entrance and get a temporary parking pass. When I entered the gatehouse to get the pass there were several people ahead of me in line. They were contractors who had come for the day to do various work. They were not together as they were from different companies.
In a couple of minutes the man at the head of the line was finished and one of the security people walked out with him. They went to his vehicle and the man fished something out of the cab and passed it to the security person. Since there really wasn't anything else going on most of us in line were watching. We could see the item was a laptop in a case. One of the others waiting muttered "What does a refrigeration guy need with a laptop?" I immediately thought well he could have PDFs of the manuals of the equipment he works on. I choose to stay quiet being the only one dressed to work in an office but it made an impression.
Later that same day after my wife dropped me off to pick up my car, I was coming home a different way than normal and happened to pull up at a light next to one of those special car haulers with the canvas sides because they haul either 'secret' (new model) or high end cars. I glanced over at it and noticed a laptop mounted on something where I supposed a passenger might have sat. My mind jumped back to the remark I had heard earlier in the day.
All I could think was a refrigeration man might carry a laptop to use a GPS and maps to get to his job and then once there use the laptop to view manuals and other information to do his job. It's a sign of the times.
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