How far we've come

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Steve

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OK, I got my first computer in about 1996, when I was about 11 (I'm 23 now).

It cost £1200 (clearly i didnt pay), had 133MHz processor, 1.2GB HDD, and 16MB RAM. It was the beez neez at the time. :LOL: It could even play CDs!

The PC I'm on now, i built myself, cost less than £800 (would be cheaper mass built), has TWO 2.13GHz processors (in effect) (32/64 fold increase), 830GB of HDD space (691 fold increase) (plus 80GB external), and 2GB RAM (125 fold increase). It can also play HD movies, and download a song in 5 seconds.

What made me think of this is I saw a memory card (Micro SD) in the shop the other day, it can hold 8GB of data, yet it is no bigger than my thumbnail. I realised how amazing this is, considering up to 5 years ago we were still using 1.44MB floppy discs - 20 times bigger and a tiny fraction of the capacity! Now (almost) all PCs and laptops ship without Floppy drives.

Its also so incredibly flexible - I now have a USB plug which takes a Micro SD into the back of it to make a USB memory pen, so the same SD card can be used in PCs, cameras, phones etc, its just so incredibly versatile! I remember the first Sony digi cameras, they had floppy drives in the side!!! At today's resolutions they'd be useless!

I remember my first venture onto the internet, I checked a weather forecast then my mum told me to stop hogging the phone line cos her bill would shoot up. A few pence per minute for a 36Kbps connection. Everyone marvelled at the sheer speed when 56Kbps modems were unveiled, and then realised most of the population could only achieve 36k on their ****ty twin copper wires.

Now I pay ZERO for an 8 megabit connection which is always live. That is incredible IMO. :LOL:

Its amazing how far we've come.

Lets get all nostalgic
 
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Started on a ZX81 and got my first 'real' pc in 1995.
A Compaq Pressario with 514 mb hard drive and 16mb ram.
Thought it was the 'bees knees'.
 
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Our first pooter was an Atari ST
AtariST01.jpg

dont remember how much it cost but it was an arm and a leg to us at the time, no screen, we plugged it thru the telly and mostly played "Bubble Bobble " 22yrs ago I think.
 
I became computer aware roughly the same time i joined diynot.

I had never used a keyboard or a p.c. prior to this.

:oops: :oops: :oops:

Now look at me!!! :rolleyes:
 
I used to have an Atari STe 520 many moons ago - probably about 16 years ago :eek:
 
My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81, funnily enough, in 1981.

An 8 bit computer, it had a truly massive memory of 1K.

No floppy (linked to a cassette recorder), no VDU (plugged into your B&W TV).

The casette recorder was infuriating! You had to have the volume just so otherwise the system would not receive all the instructions from tape. This usually happened in the last few seconds of load-up.....

It was later supplemented by a spark printer (you'll like this Steve, it was like a till roll but wider!) that produced very odd smells (ozone, I think) and a monumental 16K add-on memory pack, which plugged onto the pcb at the back.

Unfortunately, Clive didn't design it quite right, so when you hit the keyboard, the dodgy mempack moved and the thing crashed...

One of the most exciting games you could play on it was the wall block demolishing game. In order to make the most of the huge 1K memory, the game (like a lot of them, I suppose) was written in machine code.

You could squeeze quite a bit out of 1K, by an odd quirk of design, if you kept the text to the top left of the screen. Don't ask me how, but it worked!

The ZX81 came in a kit form (solder it yourself!) for £50, I remember, but I got my poor old Mum to get me the ready assembled item at £70.

The printer was £50 and the 16K memory pack I think was around that price too.

Those were the days!
 
Acorn Electron back in 1983

best game was Vindaloo - yes you guessed it the owner had eaten one too many curries and had to get to the loo down about 14 floors!
 
Since my first PC, I have noticed that error messages appear much quicker these days. :rolleyes:
 
I am more suprised to find out your age Steve, from your posts I though you were about 45.......... :LOL:
 
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