Ten Years in the Digital Era
Somewhere in the middle of 1998 I got my first computer at home. Which means 2008 is the year I complete 10 years being a part of the digital revolution. Like almost everyone who’s been a part of this since the early years, I love looking back at those early days and recalling how the journey has been.
I remember playing cricket outside my house with friend’s when someone came to deliver our first desktop computer – an HP Vectra machine. I dropped everything I had in mind and ran towards my house in maddening excitement. A cool “HP” branded desktop, sparkling white with (Genuine) Windows 95, 16 MB RAM, 133 MHz Intel Pentium Processor, 2.1 GB hard disk and a 14″ color monitor was jaw dropping. One of my first questions to the “engineer” who came to install the computer at my house was “if we save a file to the hard disk, do I need to remember where I saved it to be able to access it again?”
Next year I upgraded to 32 MB RAM, 266 MHz processor and somehow convinced my dad to move to Windows 98. Software was moving quickly and applications for Windows 95 were getting harder and harder to find.
Somewhere around that time I started buying computer magazines, mostly for the free CD’s that used to come along, containing games as big as 100 MB. “Chip” and “Computers@Home” were my favorites. CD’s were the one and only source of gaming. My dad gifted me a Cricket 97 CD on my birthday and I can hardly under emphasize the countless number of hours I spent playing that. Soon after, I laid my hands on Need for Speed High Stakes, which added many more hours of fun and games after school hours.
In a few months time, the Internet made way into my home, with a “cool” 3Com U.S. Robotics 56kbps voice modem. I was regularly visiting sites like Hotmail, AltaVista, HappyPuppy and many other sites which were a rage that time. It was not long when I made my own web-page using a text editor I installed from one of the “free” magazine CD’s. By year 2000, I had my own website on the web. One of my first web pages had a bright blue background and text in yellow containing a recipe of an Indian sweet dish. I advertised the URL wherever I could. I even spammed a few high-profile guys to force them to see my website (yeah, I was really really proud of it!) which ultimately caused my website to be taken down by my web-host where I was hosting for free.
Getting into college marked the next big move- a mobile phone, a cheap but popular Nokia 3310. Not to mention, I fell in love with brand Nokia instantly, although I hated it initially.
It has been a journey ever since- today I own multiple dual-core CPU based portable computers, over a 1000GB of permanent digital storage, satellite radio system, ultra high end mobile devices which are more powerful than the first desktop I owned! Whew!
I don’t know how long the journey will be and when humanity will reach it’s ultimate limits, but till where we’ve got so far, it has been pretty exciting! I am sure a lot of you have similar stories to share. I would love to hear them from you.
Update: A humorous video on those times:
My first computer was a Zenith with an Intel 80286 processor, black and white EGA monitor and a grand 40MB hard disk with a high density 5¼ It ran MS-DOS 3.3 and Windows 2.0.
My first games were Pacman, Digger, Round42 and Moonbugs!
My first computer was a Zenith with an Intel 80286 processor, black and white EGA monitor and a grand 40MB hard disk with a high density 5¼ It ran MS-DOS 3.3 and Windows 2.0. My first games were Pacman, Digger, Round42 and Moonbugs!
I went 10 year back at your home. A nice journey has begun and i wish your journey will be keeping ahead.
I went 10 year back at your home. A nice journey has begun and i wish your journey will be keeping ahead.