I've been musing about tablets, the Fire and computers

[KlondikeGeoff]

My wife has an iPad and I have the Fire (and also the Kindle1). Before that, I had the first Sony reader, and before that the old Rocket eBook. Also, I have been using computers since 1981, when a good CRT monitor of 12 inches was all there was. And, of course, in monochrome.

Now, I muse that if tablets and smart phones were invented before the nice 21 inch and larger LCD monitors, people would rave at how wonderful that large screen was, instead of having to squint at the tiny little displays on phones and tablets.

Oh, yeah, and if devices that permitted texting came before Mr Bell invented the telephone, and then a device came out that actually let people talk to each other, how amazing that would be, eh?

(From an old fogy of 85 who has seen it all.)

[Jessica Lares]

I have been using computers since about 1991 (I'm only 23...). I remember using computers my dad used to bring home with the big floppies, and then some others with the standard. Started with an Apple, got to mess with MS-DOS, and Windows 3.1 onwards, and am now back to Apple now that I can actually buy them with my own money.

And yes, CRT monitors are amazing. The only one I have that works is the one in my iMac G3 though. I had two go pink on me in the past.

640x480...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by KlondikeGeoff

Oh, yeah, and if devices that permitted texting came before Mr Bell invented the telephone, and then a device came out that actually let people talk to each other, how amazing that would be, eh?

I'm not sure if you're being serious or not, but there was of course such a device - the telegraph.

[sirmaru]

My "miracle gadget" was that old TRS-80 from 1979. Mainframe users considered it a toy and now there are no main frames left, only server packs.

The first computer I used was the Rand 6 story, vacuum tube, "super computer" in 1943 to spin out artillery tables with far less memory than my Kindle HD 7 32 Gb eReader due by the end of October.

[covfam]

my miracle gadget was my Commodor vic-20 computer in 1980 when my father bought one for the house and i learned to use it to make art, then in 1982 he bought a commodor 64 for me for my 9th birthday and my first Computer role playing game was Telengard, wich further opened my eyes to Ultima,Bards tale,Wizardry,Might & magic. from that day forward i barely watch tv/movies my primary form of entertainment is computer games, book reading, and swimming,

[DustyDisks]

Still have my two ZX-81's

Both built from the kits that were offered...For a grin, I hooked them up about a year ago, and they still worked as good as ever. Got them before Timex got involved. That was my introduction to using "Basic".




Slight bend!

[Doc109]

"My friends are knocking down my door... to get to my Commodore 64!" Those were the days.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMvhSwwsrik

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Doc109

"My friends are knocking down my door... to get to my Commodore 64!" Those were the days.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMvhSwwsrik

That was my first computer too!
My first PC was a IBM 8086 PC
My first Windows PC was a IBM 486DX.
I still have my floppies and hard drives!
I then got a HP Pavilion Pentium III 866mhz
My next one I built myself it was a 1.6ghz Celeron processor with 2GB of Ram. It still runs when it's not crashing.
I now have a old Gateway DX 4710 2.40ghz Quadcore. 6GB RAM It's time to upgrade again but I have no clue what I am going to buy.

We just junked two perfectly working CRTs 19 inches. It was taking up too much space!

[robertc88]

I was more the video game junkie.

Atari, Sega Genesis, and the like. Those older dinosaurs gave me hours of fun!

[obsessed2]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

My "miracle gadget" was that old TRS-80 from 1979.

I used to love messing with the TRS-80 Level I. Peek, Poke, cassette tapes for storage, keyboard bounce like crazy.

I did receive a Fire HD quick charger today. Only six more weeks to wait for the 32 GB model and the case. Hopefully Amazon will give us an October surprise.

[obsessed2]

Originally Posted by robertc88

I was more the video game junkie.

Atari, Sega Genesis, and the like. Those older dinosaurs gave me hours of fun!

My first video game was Coleco hockey / tennis which my parents bought from the Holiday gas station. I'm pretty sure my Mom still has it and I think it works.
I still own an Atari 2600 along with a couple of bed boxes full of games. Got the Genesis too. My favorite game was Lethal Enforcer. Good times.

[Jessica Lares]

Sega Genesis is THE BEST. Those Gameboys too.

[Hope]

Originally Posted by covfam

my miracle gadget was my Commodor vic-20 computer in 1980 when my father bought one for the house and i learned to use it to make art, then in 1982 he bought a commodor 64 for me for my 9th birthday and my first Computer role playing game was Telengard, wich further opened my eyes to Ultima,Bards tale,Wizardry,Might & magic. from that day forward i barely watch tv/movies my primary form of entertainment is computer games, book reading, and swimming,

My husband in 1980 bought the Commodore Vic 20 for our oldest son...10 years old at the time and he learned to do a little programming on it. So for Christmas we handed down the Vic 20 to son #2, 8 years old, and got son #1 the Commodore 64; Granddad got them used desks and chairs to go with the computers. They just had a ball with those things...especially after we got modems for them.
Today those two boys have PhD.'s...youngest of them has one from Harvard (and now teaching at Harvard).
We often wonder how the boys would have turned out if a co-worker of my husband's hadn't told him about this wonderful "Vic 20" he was getting his son for a gift inspiring my husband to do the same.
A vivid memory for me is the huge fights that used to break out over using the phone line when each would try to get online at the same time.

[wizwor]

I bought a 486 in 1993. I went all in because, with our first on the way, I didn't expect to buy another computer -- ever. If you count tablets, I have 22 computers in my home plus two more at college. Life is good. Among these are six Atari computers. Atari computers were my miracle machines. Not only did these machines bring the arcade into my home, but they helped me do a lot of tedious tasks better. My 'moment' happened when I was in college. I was proofing a 27 page paper. On page six, the last paragraph was unwieldy. There were no errors, but I had a better way to make my point. I opened the document, edited the paragraph and reprinted all the pages starting with page six. Loading each sheet of paper into my 1027 printer, I was really appreciative of not having to retype 21 pages. No way I would have retyped that paper to better express myself.

I think tablets are now where Ataris were then. They are pretty useless, but we are still very interested and a little amazed. Printing is difficult, communication is limited, and the user interface is imperfect, but we are thrilled to have them.

I say we sit back and savor the moment. I think my Fire will someday sit next to my 1200XL on that special time travel desk in my bedroom.

[TimW]

Originally Posted by wizwor

I bought a 486 in 1993. I went all in because, with our first on the way, I didn't expect to buy another computer -- ever. If you count tablets, I have 22 computers in my home plus two more at college. Life is good. Among these are six Atari computers. Atari computers were my miracle machines. Not only did these machines bring the arcade into my home, but they helped me do a lot of tedious tasks better. My 'moment' happened when I was in college. I was proofing a 27 page paper. On page six, the last paragraph was unwieldy. There were no errors, but I had a better way to make my point. I opened the document, edited the paragraph and reprinted all the pages starting with page six. Loading each sheet of paper into my 1027 printer, I was really appreciative of not having to retype 21 pages. No way I would have retyped that paper to better express myself.

I think tablets are now where Ataris were then. They are pretty useless, but we are still very interested and a little amazed. Printing is difficult, communication is limited, and the user interface is imperfect, but we are thrilled to have them.

I say we sit back and savor the moment. I think my Fire will someday sit next to my 1200XL on that special time travel desk in my bedroom.

The 486 I got didn't have a modem in it. Why, who in the world would need an internal modem?