Skip to main content

Keyboard Shortcuts & Me

I've been involved in many computer courses, as a participant and also a facilitator.  Sometimes when I step into a roomful of ICT-aware young so-and-so's, they look at me and immediately dismiss me as an 'auntie' who probably needed to be taught how to hold a mouse.  Auntie ah, the mouse you right-click and left-click like this one...

Ah but sometimes I do get my revenge.

You see, the kids nowadays learn computers from the cradle but their computers have mice and trackballs and joysticks.  The computer I learned how to use way back when only had a keyboard.  Mice back then were animals you chased with a broomstick..or a parang. 

The first computers I used didn't have Windows.  They had DOS.  For those young 'uns out there, DOS has C prompts and A prompts and strings of code people memorized.  When we migrated to Wordstar and Wordperfect, we also had to memorize commands such as CTRL-TAB or CTRL-F.  If you mastered Wordperfect, you were almost a demigod because there would be nothing for you to use but a totally blank screen and the keyboard.  Years of using such commands have made it almost second nature for me to use keys as shortcuts.  Such as using CTRL-i to italicise this sentence.

But back to my revenge....ah yes... imagine a non-functioning mouse and a deadline in ten minutes.  Suddenly auntie can save the day.

CTRL-P....!
Labels:

Comments

Kef-Nurechor said…
Keyboard shortcuts FTW!
I used to be so proud that I could navigate windows 3.1 entirely on keyboard shortcuts :p hahahahahaha~ a bit harder with xp/vista though :/
2:32 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Royal Commonwealth Essay Competition 2009

Another great opportunity for our young people to show what they can do! The Royal Commonwealth Essay Competition has four different age bands, 'Classes'. Each Class offers five topics, plus the Commonwealth Question and the Charlton Athletic Community Trust Question. As we hope to reach a diverse student body across the Commonwealth, there are options for both academic and creative minds.  The Competition deadline is 1st March 2009   CLASS A - Born 1990-1992  1400-1750 words  All questions can be answered by writing an essay or a story which explores the topic in an interesting and relevant way.   Can I help you?  Bullying is an issue which concerns young people throughout the Commonwealth. Why does it matter and what can be done about it?   It is 200 years since Charles Darwin was born and 150 years since the publication of "On the origin of Species". In your view, what evolutionary developments are neede...
24 comments
Read more

Friends That Last The Mile

I have friends who have been with me from schooldays or campus days.... we've been through happy times, stressful moments... even anger and long silences. But when I think of them, I feel a warmth deep inside my heart for they have lasted the mile.  After all these years, they still want to be my friends :)  I told a friend once that when you put your trust in a friend, you are giving that person a knife, which he can choose to put away and never use.  Or stab you in the back.  But I didn't tell that friend that it is possible to survive stabs in the back and still remain friends with the other.  It takes time for the wound to stop bleeding and the heart to forgive, but it is possible. --------------------- There's X, who shared many adventures with me, even though there were points of friction between the two of us.  But I would like to think that deep inside, both of us see beyond those points of conflict.  I appreciate her for being willing to share many enterprises ...
8 comments
Read more

How Challenging Teaching In Sabah Can Be

As a teacher, I have had many memorable experiences but one of the most fascinating has got to be observing my colleagues from other states as they deal with their first days in Sabah. Born and bred in Sabah, I never really had much reason or opportunity to question what sort of image Sabah presented to the outside world (which includes other states in Malaysia) until I went to university in Kuala Lumpur.  And, of course, when I began working as a teacher. My first inkling of how 'scary' Sabah can be to outsiders came during my third year in university.  I had coursemates who quickly got married ... it was the first time I had ever heard of 'nikah gantung'.  Apparently, they could get married but it was a sort of 'marriage on hold' (if such a thing exists..).  What mattered was that they could get a marriage certificate that would help 'save' them from the jungles of Sabah and Sarawak.  Then, during the briefing I attended to receive my first posti...
7 comments
Read more