I have been sorting out some old papers and stuff. I had kept an insert from The Age’s Good Weekend magazine dated 21st January 1995. This was no doubt a reference to help us when we bought our first pc.
Here are a few gems I found.
“By 2000 we reckon that 60% of Australian homes will have pcs.” Perhaps correct in 2000.
“If space allows, try to give the computer it’s own room where the children can fully explore it’s educational benefits”. Now days the advice is to keep it in public area where you can see them searching for big boobed Betty and chatting online to Daddy46.
“Programs may only need 386 processor, but they will run considerably better on a 486”. Imagine the potential of a Pentium 5!
“The ideal starting point is 8mb of ram”. I think our present one is 512mb or close to that.
“Hard disks are getting larger and cheaper and most retailers recommend no less that 400mb for a pc”. Our present one is 80gb, that is over 160 times that size. But for once, I think it might be enough for a long time to come. Only because you cannot trust a pc, so must burn stuff onto cds and so reduce what is stored on your hard drive. Now when the have crash free, loss free pc, then we will need even bigger hard drives.
From The Age Extra in December 1994, Charles Wright, who still writes a computer column in the Green Guide, suggests that the amount of information on the information super highway is immense. I wonder if he has an adjective for what is on the net now?
“A 14,400bps modem will transfer a 200kb file in 2 minutes”. That is just one picture folks and not even a very big one. Imagine sitting there for two minutes waiting for a picture to download…………umm, we did, head, chest, navel..............
“To enjoy the new range of games and information programs on CD ROM, you will need at least a double speed CD ROM drive”. I think our present one is 40 speed.
I have never really been a pc game player, but for those of you who are, perhaps you remember some of the advertised games. Killing Moon? Theme Park? Outpost? Myst? Air Warrior?
Lastly, the top selling CD ROM for 1994 was Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia. I had that CD, but when Windows 95 was reloaded onto our first pc after a year of use, it would no longer work. No matter, the net quickly did away with the need for it.
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My, how quickly times change.
ReplyDeleteIn 1994 I was 34 years old. I recall things like landline and vinyl records.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it's good to be reminded how far we've come. I worked in offices before fax machines and before a computer on every desk. And I worked with all that "new" stuff. Now I'm just glad to be home and working in no office except my own, here replying to my favorite blogging friends. Smile!
ReplyDeleteOur first was an Amstrad in 1989, We hated it.
ReplyDeleteBy 1991 began my love affair with Apple. Continues to this day. We are unashamedly an Apple household and run iPads iPhones and an Apple computer . Uncomplicated and does not require too much brainpower
In my working life when Microsoft software driven computers became mandatory I had to use whatever the government provided,, so I had to rally my brain to work with it.
I absolutely love technology and I rely on it for banking , bill paying etc More particularly you have an instant research tool without stepping out of the house.
What a fascinating time capsule—your reflections perfectly capture how quickly technology has evolved and how our expectations and habits have shifted with it.
ReplyDeleteI can remember hearing a work mate (single mother) mourning that her funds didn't allow her to purchase a PC in the early 2000s. She was certain that her child's schooling would suffer. She was right and I, dismissing her concerns, was wrong. I am appalled at how dependent we have become on them. And yes, our current PC is oodles more efficient and has bigger storage than the first.
ReplyDelete1995? It was a whole 13 years before I was online. Obviously, one party I was very late to. And then I only went on it because I was out of work and more and more jobs required online applications. Yet when I finally did make the plunge, I caught on to it easy enough (even if to this day I can't define many of those terms you mentioned) and even started a blog shortly thereafter.
ReplyDeleteInteresting walk down memory lane. Thank you, Andrew
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what RAM or GB I have in my laptop but I know it's a lot. The little sticker under the numbers section on the right has had the info worn off over time. I'm not a gamer at all, but a couple of grandsons were and their equipment was quite fancy. I remember the days of Dial-Up and the "forever" of waiting for things to load or download. Huge thanks to whoever invented wi-fi.
ReplyDeleteSo interesting to read what was Andrew. The requirements today are so different to what we need back then when pc's were so new to all of us.
ReplyDeleteTechnology has advanced so much in the last few years. Wish our internet in Australia (or maybe it's just Perth) was a bit faster. Well, we are getting "Fibre to the premises" sometime in the near future, which will improve our connection.
ReplyDeleteI think the most awe inspiring moment was when I walked into my son's bedroom and there on the screen was a kitchen in Ghana with the tap dripping. He had been on zoom with his friend in Ghana. All those miles just for a dripping tap. It was weird.
ReplyDeleteThe speed that technology is developing is mind blowing.
ReplyDelete1995 would have been about the time we first went online at home (dial-up.) I started law school in the fall of 1996 and bought my first computer. High Speed cable internet access started that year. I remember installing the ethernet card in the PC. I have almost a terabyte of photo files today.
ReplyDeleteTechnology has certainly advanced. Who knows what the next decades will bring?
ReplyDeleteI remember those days. I had an encyclopedia on CD, and my friend gave me a Monty Python computer game that I could never get to work on my Packard Bell computer, which did indeed take forever to download a single photo over a dial-up modem connection.
ReplyDeleteI came to computers late and went to Macs almost immediately. So many changes through the years, Andrew.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reminding me of Pentium and Celeron. How time flies!
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