Wednesday, April 27, 2005
The Short History of (my) Computing
Duane wrote an article about his introduction to computers. It sounded a bit familiar, so I had to write one too. I first started computing when I was tiny. I don't actually remember specifically when we got our first computer, but I remember what it was. It was a VIC-20. This computer came out in 1981 and is the precursor to the Commodore 64. I remember being thoroughly entertained by this computer. Copmlete with a BASIC operating system and game cartridges I spent a fair amount of time getting to know that machine. Even learned how to change the fuse at age 9.
However, school was a different matter. Apple has always made an effort to market to schools and thus I was an avid Apple user by age 10. A friend had the Apple IIGS and most schools had a MacIntosh. My parents begin dabbling in Zenith computers, but these were of little interest to me, because there were no good video games and spreadsheets weren't a big attention holder. Although the amber monochrome monitor was cooler then standard green found elsewhere.
Soon, mom was talking about buying a computer for the family. I assumed she would be buying an Apple. After all, it had great games and I was quite familiar with it. But she brought home a 100% IBM PC compatible. Heh. They didn't call them "PC's" They were 100% IBM PC compatible. By this time (1986), IBM had a stronghold on the business market and the PC XT and PC AT models were quite successful. But IBM (unlike Apple) had open standards and encouraged third party companies to make equipment, thus, the clone market exploded. Companies were making "compatible" periphial equipment for the IBM machines and soon companies made complete machines that were "100% compatible" to an IBM PC XT/AT.
So here it was an old 286-12Mhz, 40MB hard drive and VGA monitor. This was a fine computer, but I was devastated. This thing was not an Apple. But alas, the VGA monitor made for some REALLY nice graphics and soon mom showed me how to use the modem to call a BBS. These Bulletin Board Systems were orginally designed to just share communicaiton and data, but software is expensive and so many people started posting "free" shareware software also. This changed my world. I became a PC die-hard from this point on. I had discovered the way to continue to expand my computer for free. If a game got old and boring, I just downloaded a new one. If I wanted to tweak my computer I downloaded software. It was almost addicting it was so cool. BBS's and IBM PC's were hugely popular and the free software available for the PC compatible was easily 10 times that of Apple.
Afterwards, BBS's became a bit of a mainstay and I had online friends. I upgraded to a 386 40Mhz, which was my first AMD and a move away from Intel, which remained permanent. Somewhere along the way my HD finally expanded to 170MB also signalling the first dramatic shift in storage requirements for me. All of this downloading had strained my hard drive and stash of floppy disks. Besised those stupid disks kept going bad. Nothing worse then losing a great game because of a bad disk.
I have always been slow to upgrade my computer, mostly for financial reasons, but also because it has always "worked well enough". I skipped the 486 and first generation of Pentium processors going straight to the AMD K5 75Mhz. This was a hot machine and I had just started college and needed some extra gaming power...you know for studying. Somewhere in here my HD expanded by another order of magnitude going to 1.2 gigabyte. This was around the time that the Internet had become fully rooted, although not nearly as useful as it is now.
I've only made two major jumps in processor technology since then, once to the AMD K6-2 266Mhz towards the end of college and finally to a AMD Duron 700Mhz five years ago. Though my dad graciously upgraded me to an Athalon 1.33 Ghz just recently. I've roughly kept a five year span between upgrades, because like I said earlier, "works well enough". One thing that has been troublesome still: storage. That 1.2GB drive is long gone and after two more upgrades each being an order of magnitude, I'm still bumping my head on a 250GB ceiling. Time for another order of magnitude, bring on the 1 terabyte drive!
Well, I've left out some details (most of you are saying, "Thank you!"), but it was fun reminiscing. Computers have been a pleasurable part of my life. Video games aside, they seem to do something for me. I guess it beats TV. Maybe.
However, school was a different matter. Apple has always made an effort to market to schools and thus I was an avid Apple user by age 10. A friend had the Apple IIGS and most schools had a MacIntosh. My parents begin dabbling in Zenith computers, but these were of little interest to me, because there were no good video games and spreadsheets weren't a big attention holder. Although the amber monochrome monitor was cooler then standard green found elsewhere.
Soon, mom was talking about buying a computer for the family. I assumed she would be buying an Apple. After all, it had great games and I was quite familiar with it. But she brought home a 100% IBM PC compatible. Heh. They didn't call them "PC's" They were 100% IBM PC compatible. By this time (1986), IBM had a stronghold on the business market and the PC XT and PC AT models were quite successful. But IBM (unlike Apple) had open standards and encouraged third party companies to make equipment, thus, the clone market exploded. Companies were making "compatible" periphial equipment for the IBM machines and soon companies made complete machines that were "100% compatible" to an IBM PC XT/AT.
So here it was an old 286-12Mhz, 40MB hard drive and VGA monitor. This was a fine computer, but I was devastated. This thing was not an Apple. But alas, the VGA monitor made for some REALLY nice graphics and soon mom showed me how to use the modem to call a BBS. These Bulletin Board Systems were orginally designed to just share communicaiton and data, but software is expensive and so many people started posting "free" shareware software also. This changed my world. I became a PC die-hard from this point on. I had discovered the way to continue to expand my computer for free. If a game got old and boring, I just downloaded a new one. If I wanted to tweak my computer I downloaded software. It was almost addicting it was so cool. BBS's and IBM PC's were hugely popular and the free software available for the PC compatible was easily 10 times that of Apple.
Afterwards, BBS's became a bit of a mainstay and I had online friends. I upgraded to a 386 40Mhz, which was my first AMD and a move away from Intel, which remained permanent. Somewhere along the way my HD finally expanded to 170MB also signalling the first dramatic shift in storage requirements for me. All of this downloading had strained my hard drive and stash of floppy disks. Besised those stupid disks kept going bad. Nothing worse then losing a great game because of a bad disk.
I have always been slow to upgrade my computer, mostly for financial reasons, but also because it has always "worked well enough". I skipped the 486 and first generation of Pentium processors going straight to the AMD K5 75Mhz. This was a hot machine and I had just started college and needed some extra gaming power...you know for studying. Somewhere in here my HD expanded by another order of magnitude going to 1.2 gigabyte. This was around the time that the Internet had become fully rooted, although not nearly as useful as it is now.
I've only made two major jumps in processor technology since then, once to the AMD K6-2 266Mhz towards the end of college and finally to a AMD Duron 700Mhz five years ago. Though my dad graciously upgraded me to an Athalon 1.33 Ghz just recently. I've roughly kept a five year span between upgrades, because like I said earlier, "works well enough". One thing that has been troublesome still: storage. That 1.2GB drive is long gone and after two more upgrades each being an order of magnitude, I'm still bumping my head on a 250GB ceiling. Time for another order of magnitude, bring on the 1 terabyte drive!
Well, I've left out some details (most of you are saying, "Thank you!"), but it was fun reminiscing. Computers have been a pleasurable part of my life. Video games aside, they seem to do something for me. I guess it beats TV. Maybe.
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Well, it was great you had such a privileged childhood. What you forgot to leave out was your tyrannical rule over what was supposed to be the FAMILY computer. While you were so generous to teach me how to get on the BBS when I was 12 or so (only after I kept bugging you), you then promptly took the whole computer setup into your room so that you could maintain your authoritarian regime over me. I remember having to fight with you for access to the FAMILY computer for every homework of my eighth-grade year. While you had 24-hour access to it, it seemed anytime I wanted to use the computer I was in violation of some unwritten and unspoken law. By the time I turned 14, you were long gone as well as the FAMILY computer. Luckily, Mom bought ANOTHER computer...but then I soon found myself under her oppressive rule. I was fortunate enough to have a subversive (Lam) introduce me to the Internet around 1995 and I was enthralled. I immediately saw the beauty of freedom and information in the warez chat rooms of IRC and advertisement-free websites. Except Mom was convinced that such a democratic and free system was dangerous and a threat to her conception of the computing world. When I was BANNED from BBS's and the Internet (due to excessive use)...Lam taught me how to splice phone cords so that I could create a 50ft super-cord to reach from the living room to the computer room (they had disconnected the phone outlet in the computer room to thwart my thirst for knowledge). Of course after months of covertly using the computer while nervously watching out for parents, I eventually slipped up and my violation of house laws was discovered. There was continuous battles over the Internet till I was at least 16 or 17. Although I later escaped and became an apprentice of Lam...learning how to construct my own computer and access unlimited sources of illegal software...I have become entrapped again in an oppressive regime of information control: China. For the last year I have battled one-on-one with the Chinese government over Internet censorship...fighting to keep my free access to information and even surviving a threat to cut off my lifeline to the CS server back at the University of Washington. My history of computing has always been a warzone....a struggle for freedom, a struggle for independence. And now today I am on the verge of receiving my computer science degree. It's no wonder that I am the first person of the family to throw off the shackles of the Microsoft imperialists and become a Linux revolutionary. In addition, my recent battles with the Great Firewall of China has renewed my spirit to spread the word about open source software, wikis, and blogging. Yet, my revolutionary talk has been dismissed by the other family members as too idealist and impractical. I am marginalized yet again....ai, although I have become accustomed to it, I have not given up. My struggle for freedom of information endures...
# posted by 
: 8:25 AM
: 8:25 AM
Do you know if anyone has written a history the BBSes in Vancouver in the early to mid 1980s? I'm trying to reconstruct a few things for a memoir. Thanks!
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# posted by : 6:52 PM
: 6:52 PM << Home
