opinios

Google Is My Memory Bank

With the development of my company's web page in Japan, and my other little recent web projects of late, I have had to get back into the programming a bit lately (there is some freelance web design work coming up that I might even get paid ok for!) And re-entering the geek world I have come to realize a few things about the process I go through when I work:

I am incredibly reliant on Google.

Having a full time connection to the internet is something that I took for granted in Tokyo (I am still struggling with dialup speeds until we get our ADSL connected to our new apartment). Now I am really missing it - the ability to look up anything at anytime makes programming for the web a breeze. It really is like you have a wealth of experts in the room with you! Any time I get stumped, an intelligent choice of search keywords in everybody's favourite search engine is guaranteed to find the answer. Somewhere, some time, some body has encountered the same problem, asked about it on a discussion forum, and had it answered. Or written about it on their personal site.

How the hell did IT professionals get any work done before the internet? Companies used to worry that providing an internet connection for their employees would serve as a distraction - and I acknowledge that in some instances perhaps it can.

But there's no denying it can make one more efficient as well. With Google I can accomplish things in technologies that I have never put my hands on, just because I have the resources at my fingertips for finding out how to do it.

Basically I feel a helluva lot smarter knowing that I have Google to back me up when my memory or inexperience isn't up to the challenge...