One perk (or bad habit) of being
in your late 50's is to look back at where you have been. It can be
fascinating to do that in regards to computers. The first computer
operating system, or the master program that instructs the computer
what to do, I ever used was on IBM mainframes. Of course, then it
was all about running “Jobs” on the system to calculate values,
or update life insurance policies or some-such. When I bought my
first personal computer, it seemed nothing short of miraculous. My
very own computer! The first was a Radio Shack Color Computer. It
had some kind of resident ROM compiler. You could type your own
Basic programs, and run them or save them. Or you could buy ROM
cartridges to play games and such. There was really no interaction
with an OS. You either did one of a narrow set of things, or it
didn't work – period.
My next computer was a bit more
friendly. Purchased in the late 1980's, this one was an
IBM-compatible Laser system, complete with a screen and a printer.
But no internal hard disk. The OS was DOS 3.3, and it ran on a 5 ¼
inch floppy drive. The second, identical floppy drive was to copy
programs onto. There was no Internet to play on, no streaming video
anything. Just type some stuff with a word-processing program that
set me back around 30 bucks. Or play a primitive flight simulator
program. Or play around with DOS a bit. Yes, there was by then
some substance to the OS. Not much, but some. I think I sold it at
a garage sale a couple years later, for a big loss.
In any case, I always wanted
another, but never got one until 1991, in Florida. I charged one on
a credit card, and installed it at the beach house near Largo. I had
a lot of fun with it for a couple of weeks, until I sold it. That
system did have some kind of hard drive, and ran Windows 3.0 . It
had a built-in modem, and I got onto a primitive BBS called Prodigy.
Still, I did enjoy reading some messages on different forums. Did
not last long, since I had to sell it for moving cash. But for some
reason I was always having to reboot that system – it seemed to
lock up a lot.
My next computer ran much better.
Running Windows 3.11 (My first NOS) It was a 486 DX2-50 Ambra. 8
megs of RAM, and a hard disk with 420 megs of ample room (for the
time). And a 14.4 modem built in too. I got on AOL first, then
poked around on that for a time. And from there, it was a short hop
to BBS's, and finally, the Internet. I dialed an 800 number with Win
terminal to a computer in Des Moines, and accessed the Internet
through that. I also got on some BBS's in New Jersey and San
Francisco. Those were amazing days. I would grind through a long
workday cleaning offices. Then go home, and roam the world through
my phone line. Get on Gopher and hop through universities, or Lynx –
text-based web, and hop anywhere and everywhere. One time I finally
downloaded a .9 beta version of Netscape, and then the Web really
came to life, pictures and all. From then on, I never looked back.
But another move prompted the sale
of the Ambra. My next PC was a Packard Bell 100 Mhz Pentium,
purchased in 1995. With that machine, I used to sit up and surf the
net until late into the night. I got on Common Link local BBS and
chatted some, and AOL chat rooms. I actually met a few new friends
that way.
The 100 MHZ was sold after a
time. My next computer didn't come for another year. It was an
Apex system, with a Cyrix/AMD processor, 166 MHZ, and Windows 95.
By then I was studying DOS books. So I got much better at copying,
moving and organizing my text files. (I even started an online
'zine, and put out 8 or 9 issues of that, posting it on Usenet
Newsgroups.)
I found that the more I learned
about PC's, the less I realized that I really knew. It would have
been better to focus on one narrow discipline in the computer field.
But I wanted to know it all, at least for a while. I did learn
some about assembler language, visual basic, and a bit of C. And
some Unix/Linux commands, as I was installing various flavors of
Linux on later PCs.
After the Apex 166, I purchased a
house with a spare bedroom. Now I had a dedicated computer room.
And bought a 200 MHZ DIT, a 300 MHZ Gateway laptop. And finally, a
500 mhz Ohio Scientific. I just couldn't get enough of computers.
I had them all networked, and was copying files from machine to
machine. It was great – until my money ran out. Then, I was
turning around and hocking them all. For a while I learned quite a
bit about network operating systems and the like.
But filing for bankruptcy, and
moving into a guys living room does play havoc with your computer
budget. Somehow I managed to purchase an Emachines computer. The
Emachines had Windows ME onboard. Buggy – the thing crashed a lot.
But it served me well for a few years. Until I got some credit
back. Then purchased a Windows XP system – a Dell. It had 2
gigabytes ram, and a decent enough HardDrive – probably 250 GB.
With a 3.00 ghz Pentium processor. It had a great flat screen on
it, and I really enjoyed it. Downloaded music, played around with
web pages. And tried my hand at some creative writing. I always
retained my ability to use PCs, even on my down days. But some
career instability made it tough to hold onto anything. Finally
learned that it is best to hang onto PCs for longer than one or two
years.
After the XT system crashed and
burned, I bought a little Netbook computer. Bare bones, Linux OS.
But after getting sick and tired of that, I went back to Win-tel, and
bought a Dell laptop – on credit, of course. My last two PCs, one
Dell-AMD with Windows 7 on it, and one a knock-ff with Windows 7
also, were bought with help from the inheritance I got from family.
I still have those. If I ever buy another PC, it will most likely
be using a credit card or account. I sure know a lot about PC's –
have forgotten more than many know. But it has cost me dearly.
There are some benefits, sure. But could I have done nearly as well
by, say just using a free library PC and a Yahoo or Gmail account?
Probably. At least I have produced a lot of writing projects, and
gotten things published, by virtue of having home PCs and a printer.
I doubt I would have gotten nearly as much material put out by trying
to use a library computer. Such is life.
I recently met a friend whom I had
not seen in 30 years. It was fascinating talking about the changes
wrought in 30 years. But most everyone is computer literate now –
we have to be, to get on the internet, do our banking and pay our
bills etc. And programs are all moving to mobile platforms now.
Smartphones are pushing PCs out of the mainstream of “computing”
and this has been underway for quite some time.
A “Motorola Razor” flip-phone
was the first color-screen phone I owned. I was able to e-mail
myself photos that it took, and pull a stock quote from the Internet
with it. This was an advance over the monochrome Nokia phones so
popular a couple of years previous. My present phone is a 6-year-old
Iphone imitator. Cannot now afford to buy the very latest phones –
Like the PC in earlier days, they are very expensive. Unlike in
earlier days, I don't want to go broke trying to own one.
But my PC's do so much more than
that first Color Computer ever could. I take it for granted that I
can remotely connect with thousands of websites, download pictures,
videos and complete books. Or stream movies and TV shows right to
my Smart TV. The future has arrived, and in many ways it is pretty
darn good.
As a song once said, “What a long,
strange trip it's been.” But in many ways it was exciting and
wonderful, too. Who can say what the future holds for computing and
communication devices. But I hope it is cheap, whatever it is – I
want in on it as long as possible.
