Rex Kennedy
I’ve worked in the field of Information-Technology for 25 years now and feel fortunate to have had ring-side seats to actually witness the evolution of computer technologies from where it was a quarter of a century ago to what we have available to us today. In many respects it is the equivalent of learning to drive in a Model-T versus the newest BMW. For those of you who may be reading this who have no idea what kind of car a Model-T is, think of a very old car with a zero-to-sixty speed of “never”!
As an I/T professional here at WOW!, my team is committed to using the latest technologies to both enhance the customer experience and to make the company’s operations as efficient as possible.
On the personal side my wife and I live on a small farm northeast of Denver where we are raising our 3 kids as well as horses, grass hay, and mini-donkeys (which are for amusement purposes only!), as well as an odd mix of other animals and assorted island-of-misfit toys type characters.
Last week I addressed the best way to determine what is going to be the best computer technology for your individual needs.
This week we are going to take a look at those “winning” computer technologies of the past that, for whatever reason, have either evolved way beyond what we remember or have disappeared altogether.
So just for fun, let’s take a stroll down computer memory lane to reminisce on “winning” technologies of the not-too-distant past…
For starters how about the relentless pursuit of disk storage space in the mid 1990’s and what that brought us? If you guessed Zip drives you would be correct! Those babies were $200 for starters and the 100 MB cartridges sold for $20 bucks apiece. Seems ludicrous now but that was better than using a stack of 100 disks to swap in and out of your computers floppy drive. And speaking of which, I can remember way back in 1984 (yep, I have been around for a while) when as an entry-level programmer I had a chance to see the new IBM mainframe data storage unit that held a whopping 5 GIG! And it was the size of a refrigerator! Back then that was an amazing piece of equipment. Now you can get an 8 gig thumb-drive as a giveaway at your kid’s school carnival fundraiser. It is unbelievable really where we are with data storage today.
How about 1200 baud dial-up modems that were the size of a large shoebox? Of course that would be a shoebox that was made out of steel and weighed 10 pounds. You could probably paint the screen with a crayon faster than that dial-up speed could but it allowed us to have network connectivity at home and we were thrilled that it even worked at all!
Speaking of dial-up, who can forget those endless AOL floppy disks and CD’s that would show up unsolicited in your mail or on your doorstep and would fill-up the trashcans at your local post-office? AOL must’ve sent out about a billion of them (literally)! That little memory (nightmare?) should give you an even greater appreciation for having WOW! Internet services available to you!
I could go on and on about 35 pound “portable” computers the size of a sewing machine but now I’m beginning to sound like that old-guy character from “Saturday Night Live” commiserating about how good “you kids” have it today compared to what “we” had way back then…
Anyway, good luck in your research for what is going to be best for you and bear in mind as soon as you buy it and get it home and the timeframe has passed where you can still return it, it will already be cheaper somewhere else and that specific technology will already be on the path to obsolescence…enjoy that piece of gear nonetheless and drive it like you stole it!
In: Technology
March 3, 2010 at 8:06 am
From the standpoint of what is the best consumer computer technology today for any one individual, there isn’t one. What you need may be different from what you want which may be different from what is even available to you. Then there is the age-old (at least in computer years) MAC vs. PC debate which if anything has given all of us computer geeks some great material to philosophize and deliberate about over the years.
Buying a new computer system or adding a new component can be a daunting task considering the speed at which technology is evolving and how quickly computer equipment today can become outdated. Since picking a new computer system or add-on is hopefully something one does only every few years the choice you make needs to be well thought out to insure it is going to meet your needs.
The best advice I can give you if you are looking to upgrade or add-on to your existing set-up is to find a good source you can rely on for reference and reviews on what you are looking for. A few that spring to mind are pcmag.com, macworld.com, consumerreports.org, or cnet.com. Even better, find a user-community or discussion-group that shares your same interests or needs and find out what they are recommending (or sometimes even more importantly NOT recommending).
That being said, always keep in mind that today’s “winning” computer technology could be tomorrow’s “worst use of landfill space” technology.
This is the first part of a two part series on this particular topic. Next week we are going to take a trip in the way-back machine and look at some of the computer technologies from the not too distant past that seemed like real winners at the time but now exist only in our faint memories (or on the back shelves of thrift stores where they have been marked down to pennies, or less, on the dollar compared to what they cost new).
Talk to you next week…
In: Technology
February 24, 2010 at 8:00 am
Loading ...