Computer technology is so much a part of our daily lives.  So much so that the fact that it is such a huge part is almost always taken for granted.

There must be a universal truth, some sort of cosmic law that says the previous generation can’t understand or comprehend technology today.

My Dad was one of those people.  He was from a past generation, one where long distance telephone calls were a luxury, and the most essential items in an office were paper clips, a typewriter and a calculator.

It took me a while to get him “into” the current technology.  Months passed by until he could, without worry, type and print his memo’s and letters on MS WORD.  (I was of course on-hand to help out)  It took several more months to get him comfortable with E-Mail.  I do remember however that he wasn’t too fond of the idea of being so easily reached.  If I remember right to him it seemed to lessen one’s private time and made it harder to avoid certain parties one wanted to avoid.

But despite his ineptness in most things computer-related, he was always in awe of them.  He was amazed at how fast information could now be spread around the world.  I would talk to him about the newest chips from Intel and AMD and he smiled as he tried to grasp the idea of Gigahertz vs. Megahertz, and laughed at how his laptop (which at the time was a 600Mhz Intel Celeron) was suddenly obsolete when the first Gigahertz processor was released.

Computers and technology was a part of life, I’m sure he realized, but something he always said was more for us than him.  He was happy with his typing and e-mailing and was content to let me worry about rapidly changing hardware and software.

When my brother left for Vancouver with his wife and kid, we missed them of course.  But my Mom and Dad always got a kick out of receiving new pictures of their grandson growing up in Canada.  Even though they were miles apart they could share with his birthday cake, his dolphin costume, and his growing Thomas The Train fixation.

True to the hypothetical universal rule I mentioned above, my nephew, at five years old, is constantly kicking his father off their PC so he can play his games at PBSkids.org.  I didn’t start fiddling on a PC till I was around 12.  I guess this means he just made me obsolete.

However, I have never appreciated computers and related technology more than I did a few weeks ago, and that’s saying a lot since I work with computers everyday.

We had recently gotten PLDT DSL installed on the laptop at home.  While DSL is undoubtedly useful for e-mail and surfing for movie trailers, the main purpose was to have a dedicated line to my brother in Canada.  It was cheaper to chat and see each other through the webcam than it was for him to call us.

My father was diagnosed as having pancreatic cancer seven months ago.  A crisis such as that is a time for family members to come together.   My brother came back twice since, but understandably more frequent trips would be a financial strain on him, to say the least.   We’ve been able to keep him and his family close by, in good and hard  times, with DSL.

The day my Dad passed away, last November 25th, the first thing my brother told me to do after I had called him up to let him know was to open up MSN and get on Skype.  For those who don’t know, MSN is Microsoft’s Instant Messenger, and Skype is a free software that allows two people to talk to one another through the computer.

While online it was like having him in the same room with us.  He was able to watch and exchange comforting words with us, and was even able to follow along with the prayers because, with Skype and MSN, my brother could see and hear and thus follow along.

I realized later how neat it would all be, under different circumstances.  I’m sure up above where Dad is it isn’t lost on him how the technology he was so in awe at was the same thing that brought us all together when we most needed to be together.

I also think that Dad now knows more about technology, and everything else, that I ever will.