I remember when home computers were just a far-off dream.
I remember 8” disks, 5 1/4” floppy’s and the amazing 3.5” ‘floppy disks.
I remember reel-to-reel tape drives (but not ticker tape, I’m not THAT old).
I remember getting our first ever home computer, which had 48Kb of ram, hooked up to the TV and used a normal cassette player to store and retrieve information.
I remember when Bill Gates said 1Mb of ram was more than anyone could ever need… and I wholeheartedly believed him.
I remember being envious of the people who could get 256Kb ram chips for their computers when all I could afford was a couple of 64Kb ones.
I remember 186’s, 286’s, 386’s, 486’s and the revolutionary Pentium class processors.
I remember making money building x386 PC’s at home and selling them through an ad in the newspaper.
I remember when Windows 3.11 was the most advanced stable operating system available on the mass market for home computers.
I also remember when Windows 95 revolutionized the world… and yet Windows 3.11 was still more stable.
I remember getting my first cell phone. The Motorola MR1 – it had a sim card the same size as a credit card and was about 3 inches thick.
I remember when my wife and I went to a computer fair in England and bought our first 1Gb hard drive. I couldn’t conceive how I was ever going to use that much space but it was way better than the 40Mb drive I had at the time and I managed to talk my wife into it. It cost us the equivalent of about $130.
I remember RS-232 ports, com 1 and com 2, the amazing parallel port.
I remember 3200 baud modems, and when 14.4k modems were lightning fast.
I remember meeting my wife online using a 14.4k modem, actually.
I remember green screen monitors and how the rich kids had ‘RGB’ screens while the rest of us had black-and-white.
I remember when a 14” monitor was incredibly big and SVGA was awesome resolution.
I remember when digital watches seemed like a good idea.
I remember my first smartphone, the original Orange SPV (also known as the HTC Canary). I was so excited I made up a song about my new piece of techno-wizardry.
I remember making up an even better song when I got the Orange SPV E500, which actually ran MS Windows!
I remember lots of things… and now I’m writing this on a laptop which has as much ram in it as all the other computers I’ve personally owned in the last 20 years put together and a hard drive so big everything I’ve ever written, and every digital photo I’ve ever taken are lost in it’s cavernous capacities. It’s incredibly fast and flexible and has a beautiful 15.4” monitor – and yet it’s way behind the times.
Hooked up to it, syncing information right now, I have one of the latest pieces of innovation, the iPhone 4 – a phone which some day I will look back on and laugh at its pre-historic inadequacies but yet right now is the most incredible piece of technology I’ve ever owned.
I remember where computer technology has come from and I will continue to do so as it continues to progress and evolve at a staggering pace but today I want to ask you:
What do you remember about technology?
Ah, yeah, I remember our Sinclair ZX Specturm. Loved that sound it made loading games, loved playing 'Thru the Wall', and loved (but only for a very short time) the fact that 'computing' back then was about programming, so I learned how to 'speak' very basic Basic and programme the computer to draw lines and circles and shapes and colour them any colour I chose (and learned that the colours, in computing terms, weren't called pink and blue, but magenta and cyan…)
I remember our high school having about 6 computers in a little make-shift area of the library which had once been a corridor. And I remember that only the girls who had no prospects and could only hope to become secreatries were taught to type. Why would the high-fliers ever need to know? Hence, I still have to look at the keyboard when I'm typing.
I remember at university having to type up my dissertation (all my other essays had been hand-written) and feeling very glad I had just won an electronic type-writer, otherwise where would I have had access to an electronic typing device? I remember trying to sell it 2 yrs later and finding it was already pretty much obsolete.
High school. hehehe. You're so American!
I still have to look at the keyboard a lot of the time and I only type with three fingers and one thumb!
I didn't realize you ever used the Spectrum!
Oh yeah, I loved that thing. Loved the feel of those keys, too. I guess they're probably not very good for typing, but they felt really nice!
I remember our home phone had a dial but the only thing needed was to dial 0 for the operator and ask to be connected, and at any given time if you picked up the phone you might hear others talking on the party line. In fact, children rarely used phones, it was something we looked forward to using when we were older.
I remember the first cellular phone I ever saw was in a big knapsack and it looked like it weighed a ton.
I remember having to go to the record store to buy needles for our phonograph in order to play our records…which my dad used to bring home from the juke box guy when he switched them out.
Awesome. We still have an old rotary dial phone but it's not on a party line, and you don't have to dial 0!
I think I only ever once changed the needle on a record player, but I still love the sound of records!
Thanks for sharing!
The Brick Phone! Man, that thing was a beast!
Now I'm picturing Zach from Saved By the Bell!
Hmmmm, I'm 54 and I remember that the only computer I had was my brain. I'm hoping that it remains more stable that any Windows version!
54? Wowser… so do you remember when the abacus was invented?
🙂 Sorry, i just couldn't resist that!
At least with your brain you don't have to upgrade it every couple of years!
Oregon Trail….
We played it on the computers in grade school.
Oregon Trail is still going strong: http://oregontrail.org/
dude, that's crazy. thx for the link.
I just discovered you can get Oregon Trail as an iPhone app…
I remember 8-track tapes. In 1984, my first desktop computer arrived at work – an IBM 284 (with 5 1/4" floppy disks). In 1988, we bought our first home computer – an Apple II GS. I resisted the cell phone craze until around 1991, when my boss insisted I ahd to get one. And now I lead an online communication team at work.
Until 1991? Oh geez. Try 1998 for me! Even then, it was roughly $1,000 per minute and reserved only for emergencies. I got a decent one somewhere around 2000!
I remember when starting up your computer was a multi-step process. It was honestly a lot to remember!
My first phone was in 1994 or 1995, I can't remember which.
I actually still have the same phone number!
Glynn, you bought an Apple II? My uncle used to sell those things!
Still to this day I have never seen a working 8-track!
Lainie, I also remember when certain people refused to use twitter…..
Low blow!
I still think it's dumb.
Wow, I thought our first computer was awesome, but it did not use cassette tapes. That's vintage. My dad got our first computer – a 286 IBM. It made this horrible screeching sound when it came on, but you could sometimes get it to stop with a couple of firm slaps to the CPU. Man, I played the games on that computer so much. It was awesome, and they displayed in glorious yellow and black. Anyone else miss DOS? Also, my Dad had a "car phone" which was a cell phone that was literally attached to the car by a cord. That was awesome too. But he had the equivalent of bluetooth too, with a "hands free" speaker hooked up in the car too. Neat stuff.
I remember having to slap computers a couple of times to get them to quiet down!
I miss DOS so much! You can still overawe people by opening a command window and typing a few simple commands!
Car phones… oh, those were the days!
Ha! You made me feel young today. Thanks!
You are young, Mr Scott.
Do you remember the days before blu-ray?
Hey! I do! I feel so old.
Are you old enough to know what Betamax is?
Our family came late to the computer thing. I don't think we had one in our house until I was 16 or 17. We used AOL dial-up to connect online and I can still hear the screeching and whirring as it tried to get us there. Needless to say, you remember a heck of a lot more than I do. 🙂
Ah, AOL. You've Got Mail!
Those were the days!
I remember pay phones.
I haven't seen one of those in ages…
I used to use pay phones a lot… I wouldn't even know where to begin looking for one now!
I remember rotary phones. My mom still owns and uses one.
I still prefer rotary phones…. but probably just for the nostalgia!
I remember carrying around a Walkman when I was in college. I bought lots of cassette tapes thinking I was making a very good investment. After a few years, CDs came out and all my collection turned obsolete! I still have hundreds of them at home gathering dust in the shelf.
I remember my college thesis that was almost wiped out by a virus in the only floppy disk I owned. I was making some revisions in a public computer rental when I saw my Word files being deleted by a fast moving cursor. It was the time when I haven't heard of the ueber-techie word "backup."
I remember the sense of wonder I felt when I first used ATM!
I loved my walkman,,, and then when I got my first Sony Discman I thought I had reached heaven already!
Problem was, if you used your discman while you were walking, the bouncing around made the disc jump.
Viruses on Floppy's were horrible… because wherever you went with that floppy, the virus went with you!
Thanks for sharing, Jojo!
Speaking of reaching the high heavens, it was iPod that made me feel like that! When I first wore my iPod Nano, I thought I was the coolest, most good looking guy in our block! lol. When the iPod with video came out, I felt obsolete!
Hi Peter – I've been sending you some emails, and wondering if you are getting them? Please check your spam box or whatever. (You can see my email address here, though no one else can, I assume?)
I remember walking to were the person was, that I wanted to talk to! Ha! Ha!