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!
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