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The world is passing me by

_mac1stOh, how I yearn for the good old days, when getting through an airport security line wasn't such a hassle, when a 250 Mb hard drive was considered huge, I didn't have lymphoma, the dollar was still king, and the US actually made stuff.

Last week was Digital Process Data (DPD) training week at work. Now for those who don't know what DPD is, basically it's the computer data (software) fed into numerical controlled (NC) lathes used to machine parts into complicated configurations. It's also used in the design and inspection of those parts.

Now that, in and of itself, isn't difficult to understand or deal with (at least it's no more difficult to understand than all the computer graphics we are subject to on TV and in the movies now a days), but without going into any great detail of everything else involved, i.e. controlling, disseminating and validating the software, suffice it to say it's a lot more complicated than it sounds. And it's especially more complicated when you can remember what it was like only a few short years ago.

It reminds me of a saying by Eric Hoffer,
In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.

And what I came to realize this past week was, the world is changing [rapidly], and I'm just not sure how interested I am in trying to keep up with it any more.

Maybe that's why I like riding my bike so much!
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