The capriciousness of modern technology

I got an early mark from work today because our server (or the Internet connection in our building) (or whatever) packed up for no apparent reason, leaving me unable to do a damn thing. If I'd been translating I could at least have kept on with that, as all it requires is a functioning computer, the appropriate software and a file saved on your hard drive. At present though I am covering for our proofreader and editor, who is off on three weeks' holiday, so it's basically endless days of combing through contracts for typos, abused prepositions and missing articles, and this depends largely - indeed entirely - on files being sent to me by project managers and translators. However, whatever it was that was down being down meant that I could neither send or receive in-house email nor contact anyone via MSN or Hotmail. I was completely cut off.

It got me to thinking about a conversation I had the other day with Evelin, who I share an office with, in which we both said how lucky we are to live in this modern age of translating, where everything is available at the click of a button - online dictionaries, reference material, existing translations to compare against, and a whole host of people to check things with. Imagine what it must have been like, and how much harder and more drawn-out it must have been, we said, when none of this was available. Well, today made me realise that we are entirely at the mercy of that one little button: despite the age we live in, if it's not working, we are probably worse placed than those who made do perfectly well without it in the past. Are we really so useless in the face of digital whimsy?