When I was growing up oh so many years ago, I was lucky to have a toy that could think. I could turn it on and off when I felt the need to process some words or to listen to the dot matrix printer peck away on some paper. Waiting for the 64KB of RAM to load up with the familiar “Okay” signal meant anything and everything was about to happen. Well, so long as anything and everything fell into the category of simple noises from an internal PC speaker and about 16 different colors on the screen. Then Microsoft’s Windows came along.
I often wonder what it was like before everyone had a car or a phone or even a television, but that’s usually while I’m fast forwarding through commercials. I also wonder what children being born today may think about the GUI (Graphical User Interface) we’re all used to. A GUI has made the computer the most diverse tool for most if not all modern computer users. Clicking and dragging an object is such a common task that it’s hard to believe there once was another way of doing it. Plus, the idea that you’re allowed to undo just about any mistake you may have made? No longer do you need a daisy wheel and white out, you’re able to copy and paste entire documents with just a few clicks and ticks (I guess clocks don’t tick too much anymore).
What has offered me a rather entertaining 20 years or so is an idea that no matter how fast computers get, they need to be a bit quicker. After figuring out how to perform a specific task and realizing some part of the machine is slowing me down, I replace it. Something newer, beefier, faster. I then get bored with the same old process and figure out a new trick which then takes about the same amount of time to process. Something new is needed again. This cycle has pushed the home computer from being a simple step up from a typewriter mixed with a calculator to a multimedia powerhouse.
About Ian: Ian is a Photo Editor at ScanDigital and joined ScanDigital with more than 10 years of digital editing experience. Prior to joining ScanDigital, Ian worked as a digital editor of photography and video. He also was involved in production work for major motion pictures such as The Longest Yard, Span’glish and The Italian Job.