The Fun They had Isaac Asimov

The Fun They Had

Isaac Asimov

Margie even wrote about it that night in her diary. On the page headed May 17, 2157, she wrote, "Today, Tommy found a real book!"

It was a very old book. Margie's grandfather once said that when he was a little boy his grandfather told him that there was a time when all stories were printed on paper.

They turned the pages, which were yellow and crinkly, and it was awfully funny to read words that stood still instead of moving the way they were supposed to--on a screen, you know. And then, when they turned back to the page before, it had the same words on it that it had had when they read it the first time.

"Gee," said Tommy, "what a waste. When you're through with the book, you just throw it away, I guess. Our television screen must have had a million books on it and it's good for plenty more. I wouldn't throw it away."

"Same with mine," said Margie. She was eleven and hadn't seen as many telebooks as Tommy had. He was thirteen. She said, "Where did you find it?"

"In my house." He pointed without looking, because he was busy reading. "In the attic." "What's it about?" "School."

Margie was scornful. "School? What's there to write about school? I hate school."

Margie always hated school, but now she hated it more than ever. The mechanical teacher had been giving her test after test in geography and she had been doing worse and worse until her mother had shaken her head sorrowfully and sent for the County Inspector.

He was a round little man with a red face and a whole box of tools with dials and wires. He smiled at Margie and gave her an apple, then took the teacher apart. Margie had hoped he wouldn't know how to put it together again, but he knew how all right, and, after an hour or so, there it was again, large and black and ugly, with a big screen on which all the lessons were shown and the questions were asked. That wasn't so bad. The part Margie hated most was the slot where she had to put homework and test papers. She always had to write them out in a punch code they made her learn when she was six years old, and the mechanical teacher calculated the mark in no time.

The Inspector had smiled after he was finished and patted Margie's head. He said to her mother, "It's not the little girl's fault, Mrs. Jones. I think the geography sector was geared a little too quick. Those things happen sometimes. I've slowed it up to an average ten-year level. Actually, the over-all pattern of her progress is quite satisfactory." And he parted Margie's head again.

Margie was disappointed. She had been hoping they would take the teacher away altogether. They had once taken Tommy's teacher away for nearly a month because the history sector had blanked out completely.

So she said to Tommy, "Why would anyone write about school?"

Tommy looked at her with very superior eyes. "Because it's not our kind of school, stupid. This is the old kind of school that they had hundreds and hundreds of years ago." He added loftily, pronouncing the word carefully, "Centuries ago."

Margie was hurt. "Well, I don't know what kind of school they had all that time ago." She read the book over his shoulder for a while, then said, "Anyway, they had a teacher."

"Sure they had a teacher, but it wasn't a regular teacher. It was a man." "A man? How could a man be a teacher?" "Well, he just told the boys and girls things and gave them homework and asked them questions." "A man isn't smart enough." "Sure he is. My father knows as much as my teacher." "He can't. A man can't know as much as a teacher." "He knows almost as much, I betcha."

Margie wasn't prepared to dispute that. She said, "1 wouldn't want a strange man in my house to teach me."

Tommy screamed with laughter. "You don't know much, Margie. The teachers didn't live in the house. They had a special building and all the kids went there." "And all the kids learned the same thing?" "Sure, if they were the same age."

"But my mother says a teacher has to be adjusted to fit the mind of each boy and girl it teaches and that each kid has to be taught differently."

"Just the same they didn't do it that way then. If you don't like it, you don't have to read the book."

"I didn't say I didn't like it," Margie said quickly. She wanted to read about those funny schools.

They weren't even half-finished when Margie's mother called, "Margie! School!" Margie looked up. "Not yet, Mamma."

"Now!" said Mrs. Jones. "And it's probably time for Tommy, too."

Margie said to Tommy, "Can I read the book some more with you after school?"

"Maybe," he said nonchalantly. He walked away whistling, the dusty old book tucked beneath his arm.

Margie went into the schoolroom. It was right next to her bedroom, and the mechanical teacher was on and waiting for her. It was always on at the same time every day except Saturday and Sunday, because her mother said little girls learned better if they learned at regular hours.

The screen was lit up, and it said: "Today's arithmetic lesson is on the addition of proper fractions. Please insert yesterday's homework in the proper slot."

Margie did so with a sigh. She was thinking about the old schools they had when her grandfather's grandfather was a little boy. All the kids from the whole neighborhood came, laughing and shouting in the schoolyard, sitting together in the schoolroom, going home together at the end of the day. They learned the same things, so they could help one another on the homework and talk about it.

And the teachers were people...

The mechanical teacher was flashing on the screen: "When we add the fractions 1/2 and 1/4..."

Margie was thinking about how the kids must have loved it in the old days. She was thinking about the fun they had.

Written in 1951 for a syndicated newspaper page, 'The Fun They Had' was later published in Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine.

Summary: The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov is a story where Tommy finds a book and together with Margie, they compare and contrast their present school with school from the past

Characters:

    Margie Jones - 11 year old who's fascinated by the book on school that was printed on paper

    Tommy - 13 year old who finds the book about the "old kind of school"

    County Inspector - evaluates, adjusts and fixes "mechanical teachers"

    Mrs. Jones - Margie's mother

Blackberry

The History of Blackberry

By Emily Beach, eHow Contributor

The Blackberry is a portable hand-held device used to perform personal and business tasks on-the-go. It is used for email, faxing, phone calls, and a variety of data and communications services. The Blackberry was developed by a company known as Research in Motion, commonly referred to as RIM. Since their initial release in the late 20th century, the Blackberry has become a common work tool for professionals in a wide variety of industries.

RIM History 

The history of the Blackberry dates back to the founding of RIM in 1984. This technology company that would one day revolutionize wireless communications was created by a 23 year old named Mike Lazardis. Lazardis was pursuing an electrical engineering degree at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, but dropped out before graduation. Using money borrowed from friends and family, he founded RIM to develop industrial automation technologies. That same year, he secured a contract to perform work for General Motors of Canada. By the end of the 1980s, the company had reached over one million dollars in sales.

The First Blackberry

In 1996, the company released the Inter@ctive Pager, also known as the RIM 900. This two-way pager was the very first Blackberry model, and featured a full QWERTY* keyboard and small black-and white screen. The pager was based on RIM's own wireless networking technology. The radio-based modem allowed short messages to be sent, and could store contacts and other data. In 1998, the RIM 950 was introduced. It cost about one-third of the price of the 900, and could send email and faxes. The 950 operated on a more advanced RIM wireless system, allowing for faster service and more advanced features.

Blackberry Goes Mainstream

In 1999, RIM introduced a new wireless technology known as the Blackberry Email Solution. This system was designed to "push" email from personal computers and network servers to a wireless hand-held device. At the time, the company marketed this technology to work with the RIM 950. Sales of the Blackberry technology, coupled with increased use of the RIM 950, helped the company reach $47.5 million in sales in 1999. In 2000, the Blackberry 5790 device was released, and was the first RIM hand-held to bear the Blackberry name. It had a much larger screen as well as an expanded memory.

New Developments

Since the first Blackberry was released, RIM has continually released new models with updated features. In 2002, the 6710 and 6720 were introduced. These models were the first to feature speakers, microphones, and walkie-talkie features. The addition of speakers and microphones allowed users to make phone calls on the Blackberry. By 2003, a variety of cell phone carriers throughout the world were distributing the device on their networks. By 2003, consumer-friendly models of the Blackberry were introduced to appeal to non-corporate customers. The company added a large color screen, as well as international roaming capabilities. In 2006, the introduction of the Blackberry Pearl helped capture a wider cell phone audience. This slimmed-down model featured a track-ball, along with a modified keyboard, making it more convenient for one-handed use.

*QWERTY  is the most common modern-day keyboard layout. The name comes from the first six letters (keys) appearing in the top left letter row of the keyboard, read left to right: Q-W-E-R-T-Y. The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to Remington in the same year, when it first appeared in typewriters

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Ray Bradbury

Author Ray Bradbury dies, aged 91

Los Angeles at the age of 91.

His daughter Alexandra confirmed that her father died on Tuesday night in Southern California.

Bradbury wrote hundreds of novels, short stories, plays and television and film scripts in a career dating back to the 1940s.

His most famous novels include Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes.

The writer's grandson, Danny Karapetian, said: "He influenced so many artists, writers, teachers, scientists, and it's always really touching and comforting to hear their stories.

"His legacy lives on in his monumental body of books, film, television and theatre, but more importantly, in the minds and hearts of anyone who read him, because to read him was to know him".

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“

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He was one of those few people who actually exceeds your expectations”

Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat

• Read Joanne's tribute to Ray Bradbury

Tributes have been paid by famous fans of the writer, Moon director Duncan Jones mourned "another amazing sci-fi visionary gone".

Bradbury was born in Illinois, and as a teenager moved with his family to Los Angeles.

For three years after leaving school he earned a living selling newspapers, writing in his spare time.

From the early 1940s, his short stories started to appear in magazines like Weird Tales, Astounding Science Fiction and Captain Future.

In 1947, he married Marguerite 'Maggie' McClure and published his first book, Dark Carnival.

Three years later, Bradbury began to establish his reputation with The Martian Chronicles, a collection of stories about materialistic Earthmen colonising and ruinously exploiting Mars.

His most celebrated novel, Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953, depicts a future society in which books are banned.

The story, which gets its title from the temperature at which paper supposedly ignites, proved to be uncannily prophetic - the characters are addicted to television soap operas, while miniature headphones, known as "ear thimbles", provide a constant stream of music and news.

Bradbury preferred his work to be called "fantasy" rather than "science fiction"

A film version, directed by Francois Truffaut, was released in 1966.

For years, Bradbury tried to prevent the publication of Fahrenheit 451 as an e-book. He told the New York times that electronic books "smell like burned fuel" and called the internet "a big distraction".

"It's meaningless; it's not real. It's in the air somewhere," he said.

But he relented in 2011, when his publishing deal was renewed. His agent said: "We explained the situation to him, that a new contract wouldn't be possible without e-book rights. He understood and gave us the right to go ahead."

Bradbury also wrote several works for film and television. He wrote the screenplay for John Huston's film Moby Dick and scripts for many TV series, including Suspense, The Alfred Hitchcock Show and The Twilight Zone.

Bradbury was passionate about literature. In 2008, he told The National Endowment for the Arts: "If you know how to read, you have a complete education about life, then you know how to vote within a democracy.

"But if you don't know how to read, you don't know how to decide. That's the great thing about our country - we're a democracy of readers, and we should keep it that way."

The author had four daughters - Susan, Ramona, Bettina and Alexandra. His wife died in 2003.