deCaffeinated B

Every once in a while I get this feeling that I don’t belong, that I am working in an industry that I have no interest in.

One of my early childhood memories was visiting the local computer shop to pick my first computer. It all started after my mother had been told by a gypsy tarot card reader that I was destined to make my fortune with a keyboard. Not wanting to inflict the life of a musician on her first-born (or I suspect the family in general) she decided that the gypsy, obviously a seer of the future, had mean’t one of those new-fangled computer thingies, and so on my 8th birthday my father and I were despatched to the store.

Of course, back in 1983 the computer shop was actually a store selling primarily fridges and washing machines. But right at the back, they had a shelf holding their entire stock of 6 machines. Below that they had set up 2 display models each with huge 12 inch televisions. It is here, I feel, that the direction of my interest in computers took it’s first step.

The decision had to be made: A ZX Spectrum or an Oric-1? The sales person (in truth the shop owners 15 year old son) gave us a quick demonstration of both machines and took a great delight in highlighting the much better sound of the Oric-1. “The games for this one will be a lot better because of the dedicated sound chip” he remarked, a large grin on his face and the look in his eyes of someone who knew just what an 8 year old boy wanted to hear.

I chose the Spectrum, and never really looked back or regretted the decision.

Shortly afterwards I signed up for my first magazine subscription. It was for a weekly booklet called “Input” which, over the course of 52 issues, aimed to teach it’s readers how to program little applications and, in later issues, games - though in reality those later “program listings” consisted of typing in hundreds of rows of hexadecimal characters to produce a game that you couldn’t complete because you mistakenly typed “AE 3D” instead of “A3 ED” on line 21308. It was the programming of the computer that interested me, getting it to solve a problem or accomplish a task.

So, how does this choice have a baring on my current feeling? Well, even at that young age “playing” on a computer didn’t really interest me.

Let me try to explain… I spend a large part of my day, practically 7 days a week, sitting in front of my computer. I need to because my work requires it.

When I have completed a piece of work, or have decided to call it a day, the last thing I would imagine doing is spend more time in front of a computer for fun.

Whether it is the same machine I have just finished using for work, or a different one specifically used for playing games, the idea of spending more time interacting with them seems rather strange to me.

I see a computer as a tool to accomplish a task, much as a mechanic would view a very expensive spanner. It exists to allow me to get my job complete in the fastest and most efficient way possible, and then stop.

At this point I am sure that a few people, especially none gamers, have similar thoughts about wasting their lives trying to collect little bits of coloured light in the shape of a shield, but I fear I go a stage further.

The majority of my work revolves around a piece of software called WordPress. I generally have the source code for it open most of the day so that I can quickly look up a function or method.

A lot of people develop software and design themes for WordPress. An even greater number of people build websites about WordPress. A much greater number of people subscribe to these websites and read them daily. I am not one of those people.

I see WordPress in pretty much the same way as I see a computer. It is a tool that enables me to accomplish a task, switch off my computer and get on with my life. I have no interest in shaping it’s future, I don’t want to read about it in my free time and I am certainly not interested in what the developers are up to (in much the same way I am not interested in what graphic card is in my computer). If it didn’t exist then I would use something else. If it stopped being developed then I am pretty sure that something equivalent would come along to replace it. If not, then I’ll go back to building from scratch.

So I sit here bemused and confused. What is exciting about a new trash setting for posts, or image thumbnails?

I was sent a delightful email this morning from WordPress (well from Automattic really) informing me of the exciting news the WordPress 2.9 beta 2 was now available with the above two new features. I’m not interested. When it’s ready I’ll download it and take a look, then I’ll wait a few weeks for the regular bug-fixes and security releases before moving my code across and continue on as before.

No doubt the world of WordPress will then start getting excited about what is new in version 3.0.