Linux went first!
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| tuxchick Jun 09, 2009 4:22 PM EDT |
This is cool. USB is cool. Younguns don't remember the bad old days of 5.25" floppy disks, 3.5" diskettes with whopping 1.4 megabyte capacities (yes children, megabytes, not gigabytes, and even gigabytes are becoming quaint), but at least those were pretty much universal. Then came the Dark Years of Zip disks, super-floppies (OMG, 2.88 screamin' megs!), and CDs, all of which had serious drawbacks as nice easy portable media. Wanna connect peripherals? Parallel port, serial port, IDE...no parties there. Now everything is USB, and it keeps getting better, and I like it. |
| bigg Jun 09, 2009 4:31 PM EDT |
Windows just doesn't support the latest hardware. |
| caitlyn Jun 09, 2009 4:52 PM EDT |
Some of us remember 8" floppies, big 20MB hard drives in huge round plastic cases that had to go around the X-ray machine at the airport, cassette tape drives for computers, Hollerith cards and mylar or paper tape, waiting for time at one of the terminals at school, going to the computer center to pick up the output of that program you keypunched onto the Hollerith cards, and so on. I'm old enough that my entire education and the first year of my professional career predate the PC. Yes, things get better and better and we've never had it so good. |
| Bob_Robertson Jun 09, 2009 5:49 PM EDT |
I worked as a computer operator in 1981, threading 9-track tapes, changing "huge" 5MB disk packs, and one job still had to use punch cards. Yes, push the big buttons to bring main memory off/on line. Reboot with the following switch sequence..., etc etc etc. ...on a machine absolutely BLOWN AWAY by my now 6-year-old laptop. So many folks have no idea how fast computer hardware has evolved. And, as the Linux kernel shows, software is doing exactly the same thing even if we cannot see it as clearly. |
| herzeleid Jun 09, 2009 6:31 PM EDT |
I just missed those days - when I took my first programming class at Cal Poly Pomona, they had just switched from punch cards to terminals after the previous quarter. |
| Steven_Rosenber Jun 09, 2009 7:04 PM EDT |
I miss my clay tablet and stylus. |
| tuxchick Jun 09, 2009 7:20 PM EDT |
whippersnappers. My mom still has my childhood petroglyphs. |
| Bob_Robertson Jun 09, 2009 9:00 PM EDT |
Steve, there are those in the Society for Creative Anachronism who use bees-wax tablets for that "authentic" feeling. They're actually quite useful. http://www.sca.org |
| gus3 Jun 09, 2009 9:11 PM EDT |
Going the other direction: Last month, on Towel Day, I did take a small towel with me. Douglas Adams was right. The towel was awesomely useful, all day. |
| caitlyn Jun 09, 2009 9:12 PM EDT |
While I remember the past when it comes to technology these are the best of times. My inexpensive little netbook is way more powerful than what filled a room at the start of my career. Maybe several rooms. To quote the line repeated over and over in "Einstein On The Beach"... "These are the days my friends and these are the days my friends." |
| Sander_Marechal Jun 10, 2009 4:30 AM EDT |
Quoting:there are those in the Society for Creative Anachronism who use bees-wax tablets for that "authentic" feeling. You're in the SCA? Cool :-) |
| Bob_Robertson Jun 10, 2009 9:38 AM EDT |
In the Roman Bath betting scene in _Ben Hur_, when the antagonist puts his ring to the wax tablet to seal his bet, I have a stab of nostalgia for Pennsic. I agree with Caitlyn, however, that nostalgia is fine, but keep in mind just how much better things are now than then for everyone. Yes, everyone in pretty much every way imaginable. |
| jacog Jun 10, 2009 9:45 AM EDT |
Pffff, I remember when hardware-based DRM was invented... they called it a Lenslok :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenslok |
| hkwint Jun 10, 2009 3:35 PM EDT |
No, Lenslok didn't run with Linux I guess. |
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