So what you're saying is nothing has changed? Computers still cost around $5000 for the latest and greatest, they work randomly, and are the source of much hairpulling. The more things change, the more they stay the same. :)
I remember first going online. My cousin gave me a 1200 baud modem from the US and I attempted to convert its power supply to Australian 240v. I got it half powered up but not enough to get online. Was hooked on the very thought of being "online" so rushed out and bought a 2400 baud modem for something like $500 (I think?) and it sat behind my desk for the next 2 years working flawlessly. The door was open. My computer suddenly became useful. Been online ever since, theres no going back. That was on my Amiga 500, and even ran an Amiga BBS in Perth for some years. Fun times :) On Fri, May 25, 2012 at 7:12 AM, Greg Keogh <[email protected]> wrote: > Folks, it’s a Friday in late May 2012 and I just realised that this week is > the 20th anniversary of buying my first PC. It cost $5000 from Microway and > it had (I think) a 486-DX2 processor, 16MB of RAM a 240MB HD, two floppy > drives and a 14" monitor, nothing else. It came with floppy discs to install > DOS 5 and Windows 3.1, both of which had only just been released. > > > > Several weeks later I had my first encounter with the knuckle-whitening > frustration that would be a part of my life with PCs for the next 20 years: > I bought a Sound blaster card which was faulty. It randomly worked and then > didn’t, and it would popup "Error 2". After days of suffering I guessed that > it was a hardware fault and asked the Dick Smith store to let me try another > card, and it worked immediately. This was the first piece of hardware I ever > added, and it was cactus, what luck! Also, luckily a friend showed me how to > install video drivers and I managed to get the 640x480 display up to the > maximum of 1024x768 with high colour. > > > > I build a new PC for my wife last night and compared to my original PC it > has 500 times more RAM, 5000 times the disc space and the CPU is so much > faster and different that I’m not sure a comparison would be meaningful. > With SSD, memory sticks, LCD screens, disc burners, networking, Internet > etc, we’ve come a long way, thank heavens. > > > > Greg
