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Thread ID: 141558 2016-01-10 23:17:00 How has your computing changed over the time? Nomad (952) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1414316 2016-01-14 21:15:00 Have just unearthed a 64MB Lexar Jumpdrive bought in the early days of usb thumb drives.
It cost me about $30 Austalian dollars which at the time probably equated to NZD 40! 		bonzo29 (2348)
1414317 2016-01-14 22:19:00 I had a lot of fun with the Commodore 64. Ran a spread sheet, and had an amazing word processor called "Busy Bee". Had speed up cartridges which also enabled you to freeze a program & save it. Used to hire games and then freeze them. Hacking 5.5" floppies was a challenge as they included errors which rattled the drive. It certainly wasn't cheap. I paid $700 for a single 5.5" drive, can't remember what the C64 cost. mzee (3324)
1414318 2016-01-14 22:36:00 I wrote my own database program for my music collection and another one for printing cassette tape labels on a dot matrix printer.
Wrote both in STOS which was an atari ST specific version of basic designed to make creating games easier. I had a couple of aborted attempts at writing games as well.

I enjoyed the experience and was quite impressed with myself until I discovered excel a few years later, it does both jobs 10 times better and wasn't really designed for either :) Of course now I just rip my entire CD collection to the hard drive and don't need a database or labels.

I guess that's a big change though, in the early days of PC's if you wanted to do something you didn't have software for creating your own was a common thing to try for many enthusiasts. Now like many others I'm just a user and wouldn't dream of trying to write software, even Excel macros stump me at times.
There is so much software available now there's very little need to write your own. 		dugimodo (138)
1414319 2016-01-16 08:52:00 Wow, arn't we showing our ages!!!

I started on CPM machines - Wordstar, Calcstar.

Then moved to DOS and Rbase
Yes pent a lot of time on autoexe.bat and config sys and fromating floppy disks that never worked!
Then to Windows 3.11
486, Pentium, AMD, AMD, AMD

Now, like most of us here running 10 (or 7) and just using it for work and hobbies. 		Digby (677)
1414320 2016-01-17 22:45:00 Wow, arn't we showing our ages!!!

I started on CPM machines - Wordstar, Calcstar.

Then moved to DOS and Rbase
Yes pent a lot of time on autoexe.bat and config sys and fromating floppy disks that never worked!
Then to Windows 3.11
486, Pentium, AMD, AMD, AMD

Now, like most of us here running 10 (or 7) and just using it for work and hobbies.

Yeah remember running autoexe.bat and config sys, and to attach the dongle when about to run another program. And to use a utility to split/recombine program across floppy discs. The used the external jaz drive... 		kahawai chaser (3545)
1414321 2016-01-18 19:35:00 For me the big change has been the all encompassing database of drivers that ship with Windows, or are installed online as needed.

It used to be that setting up hardware (or command line options) required some skills. Setting up addresses and interrupts, knowing how to configure memory.
Now all that is history.

Operating systems have dummed things down to suit an average or below average set of user skills.
Ultimately this is a good thing, but it has removed the edge and the passion that used to be needed.

Now the biggest challenge is simply in researching how different hardware components function or are best picked to interract most efficiently (ie understanding your MOBO, GPU, RAM, CPU), or simply knowing the difference between a router and a network switch.

Likewise, I no longer see a need (or feel a desire) to read any computer magazines. They only serve as a marketting platform for the latest hardware anyway. Too much on printers and phones. Too bad if you don't want a printer or a phone. 		Paul.Cov (425)
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