понедельник, 8 октября 2007 г.

golden_meliades: Cool, cool, cooooool!

Well, some of it.

First thing this morning I read an article on technology that is due to be released in the next 4 years, and people, we are living in the future that people in the 70's actually fantasized about...if you look at it from a newcomer's viewpoint rather than that of someone who has seen the technology come on step by step.

My family (my dad was responsible) was...what's the lingo?  We had the technology but ignored the terms...early-adopters on almost everything computer-related between...ohhhh...I guess it would be 1986 to 1996.  That means that we were using technology that came before the youngest members of my flist were even BORN.  (I think y'all know how old I am but for those of you who don't, I'm hardly ancient.  I'm 29.)  I started using a computer when I was 8, which was VERY EARLY in 1986.  The vast majority of people didn't even own a computer, then.  We started with a Tandy 1000...an IBM type.  The only operating system back then was DOS.  Computer memory was not measured in gigabytes...gigabytes didn't even exist in reality yet.  It didn't even have megabytes.  I believe the Tandy started with 640k.  And that was fast, at the time.  Not a joke.

Bet you've never even heard of one ;)  (Unless you happen to be one of the three members of my flist who is actually older than me.  Or is it four, now?)  The first computer games I played where in CGA.  No, not the one that came before VGA...the one before THAT.  Then was EGA. :)

My family was hooked to the internet before most small organizations in the region were.  For example, we had it before any of the schools or libraries, etc.  We were the first to install a CD drive, back when people were still marvelling at CDs (they used to go into computers via caddies...anyone remember that?) for being all rainbow-shiny and future-lookin'.  When I started using a computer, the only information-input device was a floppy disk.  That's right, back when it was still spelled with a K.  And when I say a floppy, I MEAN a floppy.  Back then, the little square hard items that came to be called floppies were called hard-disks, and the larger disks we used to begin were ACTUALLY FLOPPY.  Remember those?  We still have some with King's Quest I and II on them.  And Bubble Ghost, a game which was not playable once we upgraded the computer because the graphics suddenly went SO FAST that the little ghost instantly rammed himself into the far wall at the other end of the screen, and died.

We had dot-matrix printers, thermal wax printers, bubble jets, ink jets, and finally laser printers.  We even have  CammJet.  Dad was crazy about upgrading his printers, more than anything else.  Everyone in school was always dying to see a print off our latest machine.  Well, maybe not dying...but they were all 'ooh' when I brought them in to show to my very enthusiastic Communications teacher, a cute little man who looked like a cross between a trout and Dexter from Dexter's Lab.  Sorta.  More trout than anything.

The only thing we NEVER ever cared about was cell-phones.  I don't own a cell-phone and have never felt a need for one.  My parents only finally updated the one they had last week...their cell phone is...gosh I dunno.  Seven years old?

Somewhere along the way, we got as caught up as we wanted to be, and stopped grabbing up all the latest inventions for home computing.  The new releases stopped being such HUGE leaps in technology and my dad saw them as a waste of money, really just a bit of silly glitz.

But guess what's happening now?  THE BIG JUMPS ARE COMING AGAIN.

Here's the article: Your PC in 2008 and Beyond.  ROLLABLE VIDEO DISPLAYS!  POCKET PRINTING!  TABLETOP COMPUTING!  EEK IT"S ALL HAPPENING AGAIN!  (And admittedly I really WANT some of those items.)

Computers are taking over EVERYTHING, and even as an oooooooold PC-addictee, I say WHOA!  And I say it both in the WHOA that's so cool! way and the WHOA SLOW DOWN YOU CRAZY IDIOTS! way.  Computers and internet will soon take over everything.  By the time I'm 80, I expect people will be immortal because they will have come up with a way to turn themselves into data and insert themselves into android bodies.  But it's the 'smart homes' and things like that that creep me out.  We use too much energy and aren't coming up with better solutions as fast as we are coming up with things to use even more of the bad and/or dying resources.  One day EVERYTHING will be dependent on computers, and one blip, and it's doomsday.

Creeeeeepy.  Y2K didn't worry me, but then I wasn't concerned about a computer controlling the electricity in the house.

As for jewellery supplies...little break today, sorta...here's a picture of an item I'd LIKE to buy...but never will, because the cheapest you can POSSIBLY get it is 22 dollars per bead.  Without a discount you pay $36.  It's hand painted and beautifully Russian, but still.

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