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I am old enough to remember when computers were mystic machines housed in air-conditioned rooms with hordes of operators beavering away at machines which produced the punch cards which told the computer what to do. Then came the first desktops, primitive by today’s standards but still needing protection, they were housed in rooms where no one could smoke, eat or drink. Now we have computers so powerful that we have to produce complicated computer games in order to exercise them! To the older generation they are a marvel, to the middle generation a means to an end, to the younger generation, a toy! As an engineer I like to understand how a thing works. The mechanical and electrical parts of a computer I can cope with, but the software! That’s another story. I have never understood programming and probably never will, after all, if Microsoft needs thousands of software engineers to produce an operating system, what chance do I have! No, the fun is in using the programs, not producing them (although a certain friend of mine would probably disagree). It’s a steep learning curve (and you never stop learning!). I can recall a time when a friend of mine had to drive over to show me how to install a stick of RAM! Now there are few things which fox me for long. I have built (and updated) several computers. This is because, like most people I have firm ideas which are the best components and you simply can’t buy a computer which contains all of these. In addition, building your own allows you to specify exactly what you want (or more likely—what you can afford). Once I had four computers (one for my wife, one for my son and two for me) I had to network them. Later I added an Officejet multifunction printer and this too is networked. Over the years the network hardware has been upgraded to cope with higher speeds (and wireless in the latest router). Of course all this sophistication comes with a price, not just financial but maintenance-wise. With four PC’s, my son’s laptop, two printers and a scanner, a cable modem, a router and a switch there is always something which needs attending to. It’s like painting the Forth bridge, there is no end to it.
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A modern PC case with side window and internal lighting-not everybody’s taste! |
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A modern hard drive |
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Few products can claim to have revolutionised civilisation in the way that the PC has. From the preserve of the high-tech research laboratory to the table top of the majority of homes in the land, the computer has not only eased our workload, it has entertained us, educated us and provided us with a method of spending endless amounts of money (upgrading).
To say we would be lost without computers is understatement, in my opinion civilisation would crumble! |
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