Long, but fun.
Posted on 06/03/2009 6:34:36 AM PDT by ShadowAce
Long, but fun.
Lord, am I getting old! ;-)
Seriously, it has been one hell of a trip from the four-function calculators that couldn't replace my Post Verslog and CRC Math Tables in undergrad school to the laptop my son takes for granted now to do his high school homework and research!
That’s the world of personal computing today. It doesn’t matter if you’re running Windows, Mac OS, or Linux. Your machine is almost certainly using Intel chips at its core and almost everything else is fairly generic—even the world’s greatest case mod with water-cooled dual-Xeons and quad-SLI graphics is just a really fast PC.
Interesting article but I don't really buy the analogy. Their 'diverse' computing world would be if everyone had different vehicles - that each had different, incompatible propulsion methods. Gas-engined vehicles would need to scope out an appropriate gas station, hydrogen vehicles the same, electric vehicles would need a power station, and the like.
We have plenty of different models of computers that all have features in common (x86) that allow us to run many varieties of software and operating systems with very little inconvenience.
It's a great time to be in computers!
Me too. While I graduated high school later than some of these machines, my first computer was a TRS-80 Model I with 16K of RAM and a cassette drive.
I've watched the progression of computers since the late 70s and am still amazed at what they are capable of doing.
Yes, memory lane.
I had a much modified Trash 80, full compliment of memeory 64K on mother board by strobing stacked chips. No hard drive, and twin 5-1/4 floppies. Long term storage was a magnetic tape drive.
Terrible RF generator. Could not have a radio within 50 feet of the unit, even with a RF suppressed home brew power supply.
I was pretty good with DOS and Basic then. Oddly, still use some of those skills. Pretty comfortable with command line.
PC’s have always been “another tool” for me, have never got into having the latest just to have it. Utility user.
Interesting, but devoting an entire museum to computer history is a little too geeky for me.
I think I have owned a least half the PCs listed here...
In some ways it was easier then to master the art of being in what would become IT...
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
My camera has 20X memory than the first mainframe I used in my first job. The mainframe fit into a room the size of a large classroom. The memory for my camera is the size of my thumbnail.
Even the world's greatest McClaren, with water-cooled dual turbos and four wheel drive is just a really fast car.
Great memories... Thamks for posting!
I worked for a company that manufactured disk and tape drives. The mainstay was a drive that was the size of a washing machine, that had a removable stack of 12” platters that sat on top, and could hold a total of 40mb of data.
ping
We had those on our Burroughs 6800 mainframe. I think we had about 20 of them in some type of RAID config.
When the company I worked for finally stopped using what seemed like acres of those machines, your company probably went bust.
Once again, the way-ahead-of-its-time Commodore Amiga machines are left out of a "history of the personal computer" bit.
All the powers-that-be scoffed and ridiculed the Amiga for capabilities we all have come to expect in a PC today.
Geek power!
Great addition! Thanks!
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