Sunday, March 29, 2009
Computer history for Ryan Boylen
My first computer was an Acer computer that my family bought when I was a freshman in high school. The computer was slow and constantly was getting confused when you'd try to complete tasks. The computer wasn't the greatest thing since sliced bread, however, it did open up a whole new world of word processing to me. When I went to college, my parents bought me a Compaq Presario and that was a dramatic upgrade at the time. The Presario had it's own issues but for the most part it was a fairly fast computer for the day and allowed me to do much of my work at home vs. spending my nights in the computer lab. I bogged the computer down easily while in school with all the information I had saved to the computer, however, as time went on and the advancements fo computers became more and more prevelant, I was able to upgrade the computers memory capabilities and have since replaced the hard drive, added wireless internet to it, and made several other upgrades. This has allowed me to keep the computer relatively current to the point that I still use this computer today as my desktop computer. Since this computer I have moved on to bigger and better things and actually use workstation computers now to house my many graphically demanding programs but for the day to day operations, the old Compaq remains a decent computer despite a couple of real scares. In all, I'm not sure where my life would be without the advent of the personal PC, as my job relies on them, but one thing I do know is that they have made my life so much easier and more efficient and anything that can do that for me I love.
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I couldn't imagine how our lives would be without the computer. I have grown up with it and rely solely on it. I was pondering last night about what life would be without online banking. Most people live these days using this banking and I don't think any of us want to go back to driving to the local branch to transfer or pay our bills.
ReplyDeleteRyan,
ReplyDeleteI would love to give you a shot at my IBM Aptiva that is currently stored in the basement. I spent a significant amount of money on this computer but now couldn't pay someone to take it off my hands. Perhaps you could bring the old horse some new life with your special brand of TLC. If I am lucky, the computer will actually load properly. If the planets align, the computer will actually logoff and shutdown. I do have some files on the computer that I made when I first started teaching. For nostalgic reasons, I would love to be able to transfer these files to a workable computer.
Being a bit older than you, I was not exposed to the computer in the capacity of an enhancement tool until I went to college. Being somewhat sadistic at the time, I enjoyed the fact that I could freeze everyone's computer by shutting down without properly logging off. Even with the power of technology at my fingertips, I was more interested in creating havoc for others. Fortunately, I have grown out of that stage and regret my naughtiness.
But now I agree that computers are essential to our lives. It would be interesting to see what would happen to us if technology let us down and no longer functioned properly. Cities would be reduced to ash and a revolt would arise if people were asked to go back to a life without technological tools like the computer.