In 1960 I was dating a cute Cal Tech student. One evening he came over all excited because he had access to look at the computer that Cal Tech had just acquired. He wanted me to come with him to view this wonder of new technology. He was thrilled to be able to get up close to this machine that filled the entire room that housed it. This wonderful new machine was filled with vacuum tubes and was programmed with punched paper tape. It looked like a bunch of over-sized filing cabinets to me. I was not too impressed. He was in awe of it's 24 kilobytes of memory that served the entire Cal Tech campus. That computer cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In 1980 that cute student had become my husband. We had four children, a mortgage and just enough money to pay most of the bills. He wanted to buy a computer. I said there was no way we could afford the $4200 a computer would cost. We fought about it, but he finally convinced me that this was something he really needed. He would be able to use it to do contract work and earn extra money. We took out a loan to purchase this wonderful machine with it's 128 kilobytes of memory. Later he framed a copy of the first check he earned using that computer. He wanted to demonstrate that the computer really was a good investment.
Today we have a home office. In this office we have a network of three computers, each having over 600 gigabytes of memory. My husband also owns a laptop with a memory of more than three hundred gigabytes. Each computer cost a few hundred dollars. I long ago quit arguing about whether or not we need a new computer. I love my computer. I love the world wide web and the access it gives me the world.
Can you imagine living without computers?
La Liga là gì? Lịch sử hình thành giải đấu
1 year ago
5 comments:
I remember back in the 70's,my neighbor got this amazing new machine.
We'd sit for hours huddled around it,challenging each other to excel...It was 'Pong'.
I've been hooked on the technology since,and can't rightly function without it.
I remember wondering what all the fuss about the internet was over. I mean, big deal, people can host information for others all over the world to see. Some visionary I was.
I remember my son getting a Vic something...120? I have been using computers for what seems like forever....but I still wonder what people in Wal Mart did before cell phones....how did they manage to get their shopping done without calling home to be sure what they bought was OK?
Does he still have that first computer? That would be cool.
I CANNOT imagine being without a computer. I'm addicted to blogs, Facebook, and e-mail...how would I survive?? *smiles*
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