You can do ANYTHING!

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I first became interested in computers when I was about 40. In those days a personal computer was practically unheard of. There were people (we call them 'nerds' today) who were beginning to build their own and even to buy what was then essentially a research tool.

Around that time hand held calculators were just coming into the price range of the average man in the street and very soon afterwards Clive Sinclair introduced a 'personal computer' that was less than £100 (quite a sizeable sum in those days).

I didn't buy the ZX-80 but I finally got a ZX-81. It had 1kb of RAM (yes, I am not jok

ing!) but you could expand it to an enormous 16kb (even an empty Word document today is bigger than that!) To make it do anything useful, you had to type in a program using commands in a language called BASIC ("Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code").

Sir Clive claimed in his advertising that, with this little machine (which you had to connect to a TV to see what you were doing) it was theoretically possible to control a power station! I never heard of anyone who did, though I believe that there were people (more 'nerds') who hooked it up to their model railways and made their trains run smoothly. May

be Network Rail or Amtrak could use one of those early machines which are now gathering dust in attics!

After a year or so of playing with this little toy, I finally bought one of the earliest PCs, an Amstrad 1512. This didn't have a hard disk. Instead it had two floppy drives, each of which held a 5 1/4" floppy disk, which WERE fairly floppy in those days. One of these contained the Operating System (DOS) and, often, any program you wanted to run and the other was for storing data. Windows hadn't yet been invented but many programs had a menu system. There was no mouse and you were limited to (I believe) 16 colours - if you were lucky! Many monitors were just white/green and black. With t

his amazing machine, I was able to begin to do many of the things that we use computers for today: Word Processing, storing and organizing information in a database ... and, of course, playing games.

Well, to cut a long story short, I became so intrigued by this new technology that I decided to take a course in "Computer Studies" and one thing led to another. By the time I graduated (when I was 50), I had given up my job selling second-hand books and had become an IT support person ... and had already been made redundant from that! There followed several similar jobs in the next few years until I realised that, though I understood it, the technical stuff wasn't really me and that what I wanted to do - and was

good at - was to show people that 'IT' is not half as scary as they often seemed to think! My last job, before I retired, was spent training 'mature students' to use a computer so that they could get jobs in a world that had gone computer mad since they last worked.

As you can see, I am reasonably 'computer savvy' but not nearly as much as you might expect. There is still stuff to learn (a

nd new things come along every day). The REAL secret is knowing that if someone made something and understands it, then you can understand it too - there is nothing magical about computers! You may not want to bother with all the detail, of course, and that is your choice - you don't need to know the theory of internal combustion engines to drive a car but if you own one, it's a good idea to know something about the way it works, even if it's only so you can avoid being ripped off by a mechanic!

Everyone has a modicum of common sense and the ability to think logically and learn. There are many things that people can do to keep their computers running sweetly that they don't do simply because they are afraid to. Once you realize that fear of the unknown is unreasonable and that it is the ONLY thing holding you back, you can do ANYTHING! (Well, almost, he says with a wink!)

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I wrote this originally as a response to a discussion in MyLot. MyLot is a forum which pays you for participating. If you enjoy discussions and lik e to 'have your say', you can join us at MyLot. It's free to join and fun to meet people at! In some respects it's a 'Social Site' ... you can have a list of 'friends' and can Private Message them. In other respects it's an open 'Discussion Forum'. You can create discussions and respond to them and your activity on the site is rewarded. The site is funded (as many such sites are) by advertising and it shares its revenue with its members based on the quality of the contribution - on the whole, the longer and more descriptive, the better.

There are other factors too, including a rating system which takes into account how other users rate your contribution. It's impossible to say, with this system, how much you are paid for each post but it is of the order of 2 cents for each discussion or response.

Writing - and writing to a discussion - is just one of the things I enjoy doing. I used to be active on Yahoo! Answers and then found that I could do much the same thing on other sites - and get paid!

I have been a member of MyLot for two years and have found them to be a site that has good and sensible rules (and enforce them), a sound business model and a regular and reliable payment system. It isn't ... and I should stress this ... a 'living wage' but a hobby is a hobby and, if one can pick up a few pence for doing what you like to do, then I see no reason not to!

If you are reading this and are not already one of the 145,000 (and growing) members, then do come along and give it a try! Use this link, please ... I get a little something for my recommendation!

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Do you pledge to fight 'blue sky thinking'?

August was a washout, September looks like getting half its rainfall in the first week! - Yes, I am talking about Britain here! 

There have been days this summer that caught us unawares and were warm enough for shirtsleeves. Days when the topic of conversation among strangers was 'how warm it is' (with surprise and pleasure). 

Oh, I am not really grumbling. I enjoy the rain, actually, especially good hard, lashing rain such as we have had tonight. Here in the dry East of England, that sort of rain is not as common as it is in the West. I have even been known to enjoy holidays in Cornwall and Wales when it seemed that the rain was set for a week. Sailing a small boat in the rain has a charm all its own ... the feeling that you can't get any wetter than you are already makes capsizing less of a disaster and baling does keep you warm. There is also the thankful knowledge that a bright driftwood fire will be burning in the grate and hot soup and wine are on the menu when you have dragged the boat up the shingle to its resting place by the wall. 

In between the showers, there is sunshine painting the clouds a dazzling white and bedecking every wet blade of grass and flower and iron railing with diamonds fit for a queen's tiara. 

Now, the clouds ... they are a sight to behold! I am thinking of joining the Cloud Appreciation Society whose manifesto states: 

"We pledge to fight ‘blue-sky thinking’ wherever we find it. Life would be dull if we had to look up at cloudless monotony day after day." 

Here in England, when we see a sky without a cloud, we become suspicious and wary and even shifty! Without clouds (in the daytime, at least) it is almost as if someone has taken the lid off our box and we have no way of judging the height of the ceiling. 

The Manifesto of the Cloud Appreciation Society avers that clouds "are Nature’s poetry, and the most egalitarian of her displays, since everyone can have a fantastic view of them ... They are for dreamers and their contemplation benefits the soul. Indeed, all who consider the shapes they see in them will save on psychoanalysis bills." 

Do you love clouds (and rain)? Do you pledge to fight 'blue sky thinking' ... even if you are a member of the Woodcraft Folk, whose common greeting is "Blue skies!"? 

What do clouds mean to you? Have you looked at them from 'both sides, now, from up and down and still, somehow ...' you 'really don't know clouds at all'? Do you see your dreams ... and fears ... embodied in them - ever changing - as they march by?

(Cloud Appreciation Society Manifesto)

"Congratulations! You have won a free holiday!"

... so the recorded message said when I picked up the phone this afternoon.

It seemed that some time about 5 years ago (because the address they had for me was old), I may have filled out a form somewhere on the Internet giving my name, address and phone number.

I keyed in '1', as instructed, and was connected to a very pleasant sounding lady with a strong Indian accent who assured me that I had won a free 14 day all expenses paid trip to Cancun, Orlando and Daytona Beach for me and a partner! Surely the trip of a lifetime!

She introduced herself as 'Rachel Adams' (not a name I would naturally have associated with the accent) and told me that she was calling from a company called 'Resort Vacations' based in Orlando, FL (and she gave me a full address and a website). She outlined the basic details of the package (6 days in Cancun, 5 days in Orlando and 3 days at Daytona Beach and she gave hotel names but I didn't catch them).

Then she passed me to a gentleman named 'Jeff Palmer' - again a name I would not naturally associate with the accent - who asked me if I was over 26 and had a Visa or Mastercard. He explained that, for security reasons, they could only offer this holiday to those who qualified. I confirmed that I did. Then he said that I would be receiving a package through the post which would allow me to accept or reject their offer within 30 days. It was at this point that I felt it necessary to distinguish between 'package' (as in holiday) and 'package' (as through the mail) because now he said that it was necessary to charge me £298 registration for this 'package', though I understood him to say, quite clearly, twice, that I would not be charged NOW.

He then passed me to a third person (whose name I didn't catch but I think it was 'Cindy' ... again with an oriental accent) who wanted the verification code on the back of the card. At that point I said 'Oh no you don't!' and hung up!

Jeff called me back and reassured me that I was not going to be charged now, they 'just needed the verification code so that they could make the charge when I had decided'. Can you get rats in telephone lines? I began to smell one, anyway! I could see that, when the charge appeared, it would likely take me more trouble than it was worth to refuse their offer and get the charge cancelled!

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Half an hour on the phone (OK, it was their bill)!

I checked on the address they gave and came up with something interesting.

3956 Town Center Blvd, Orlando, FL 32837 DOES exist and it is a huge business block with numerous suites. Suite #416, I found from a 2007 directory, is occupied by:

The Entrepreneur Authority
of Central Florida Lic. Franchise Advisor
Brian Watson (owner)
3956 Town Center Blvd. #416
Orlando, Florida 32837
407.354.4450
email: bwatson@eAuth.com
www.eAuth.com/Watson

"TEA Consultants are the industry leaders in matching high caliber people with proven business models. Through our Franchipreneur 100TM listings catalog, we provide a superior selection of franchise opportunities. Many of these opportunities are exclusive listings that we alone can offer. In 2006, TEA was awarded the Chairman’s Award from the American Association of Franchisees and Dealers (AAFD) right here in Orlando.
Our proven, industry award-winning process:
· Educates you on the finer points of Franchising
· Clarifies your entrepreneurial goals
· Advises you in selecting a good business “fit”
· Guides you throughout your validation process
· Refers you to valuable small business experts
Our monthly seminars are open to the public and free-of-charge. "

This doesn't sound to me like a 'Package Holiday' company and the website I was given ( http://www.resortvacationsvip.com ) has a completely different address!

That, too, it turns out, is part of Perfect Travel Promotions (PTP), which is a division of Perfect Communications and Promotions, Inc. and is the "in-house Travel Agency of Direct Mail Express (DME), one of the top Direct Marketing companies in the country."

It began to look very much as if my "free" holiday was going to start off costing me £298 for a pack of information including a promotional DVD. I suspect that the 14 days in three resorts would probably involve compulsory attendance at some very hard marketing seminars aimed at extolling the virtues of buying time-share rooms at certain hotels with the glittering option, no doubt, of selling the unwanted time I had bought at a very attractive-sounding profit.