I Don’t Need a Computer for
Christmas
Nobody is very serious over
Christmas break. At least I’m not. I’ve been trying to make up a Christmas list
for other people to buy me presents, but I can hardly think of anything I really
need that I don’t have already. One
thing I DON’T need is a new computer—I’ve had too many already. It occurred to me this week I’ve had more
computers in my life than cars. But they’re just as easy to remember. In fact, I think I’ve spent more time with
each of these computers than I have with any of the cars I’ve owned (indeed, a
few of them rivaled the time I spent with my wife during the time I owned
them.)
Well, this will not be very
interesting to most of my readers unless they owned some of these computers
too—but hey, most of my readers don’t read my column over Christmas break
anyway.
I have stayed married to the
same wife (though many different editions)
But I have had sequential
relationships with about ten computers
1980—Radio
Shack TRS 80 III
I bought my first computer in 1980 so I wouldn’t have
to type-and-retype a new book I was writing, Holiness
for Ordinary People. It had a
whopping 16K memory (that is not Gig, not Meg, but K). Loaded with Scriptsit
software, I could make several drafts of the manuscript without editing in
pencil then re-typing the manuscript. I gave the computer eventually to a
missionary in Colombia SA but kept the 5.25” disks. When the book went into the second edition my
publisher (along with Tandy® Corp) tried to access the data but never could—it
had to be all re-typed anyway (that was before scanners.) The news here for you young ‘ens is the price--$5200 and that’s
in 1980 dollars!
1982—IBM 5150 (the “first PC”)
I upgraded to a “real” IBM
5150 (“the first PC”--1981) in about
1982. I got a HUGE memory (256K ;-) about as much as I could ever imagine a
person needing, but no “hard drive” ye”—just a two 5.25 “floppy disk”
slots. This green-screen monster cranked
out all kinds of writing using the “Q&A” a combined database and word
processing software—but this software also let me save documents as text files
which I did so I am still able to resurrect them from the grave and revise them
when I run out of ideas for a column. I carried on a relationship with my 5051
for several years.
Image from PC
Museum
1985—Compaq Portable “Sewing
machine”
In the mid 1980’s I really got modern—with a
“portable” computer you could actually lug onto an airplane and write books
while traveling. It weighed 30 pounds, had no battery but you could put it into
an overhead compartment, take it to a motel in a strange city, plug it in and
write books and articles right in your hotel room! But the BIG advantage was a “hard drive” of
10MB (not gig, Mb—nobody had even invented the computer word “gig” yet) I recall thinking
“I could write daily for the rest of my life and never fill this up!” It cost about $3500 I think.
1986—1995
Various Relationships
After my Compaq portable I had a series of two year
stands with various nondescript IBM computers that I don’t remember very
well. I think one was called XP and maybe another called herself AT—and there was a series of numbers
after than—a 286, 386 and I think I even had a 486. I don’t remember them—they were
serviceable and they were costly (about $3000 new) though through the decade
they got cheaper. I used them but I never loved any of them. I also had a short fling with a used
thousand-dollar Zenith laptop
with its own battery power supply—you could actually write on the porch with no
electric cord! It that burned up while plugged in over Christmas break one
year. But this entire
string of computers were boring companions and I don’t even have
pictures of most of them though we spent quite a lot of time together. I only
remember one exciting time—when I got my first 300 baud “modem” in 1991 or 1992 and actually dialed up my friend
Nathan over my phone line and when he typed words on his keyboard they “echoed”
on my screen! We then hung up
electronically and dialed each other by voice to simultaneously exclaim, “This
is going to change everything!” (Little did we know!)
1995—Gateway
2000 “Tower”
By the mid 1990s I was ready for color and went in at
the top. At the time Gateway 2000 (they
dropped 2000 when approaching that actual year) was the biggest computer
manufacturer—the Dell of the 80’s. From
their Dakota field they “made me a computer” and I got the very best—I spent
almost $4000 on it. When it came
shipped in a series of huge boxes all painted up like
1998—HP 200LX Palmtop
In 1999 I canoed the entire
2001-Several
Tangent PCs
When I retied my Gateway tower I replaced it with an
obscure Tangent computer, then replaced that one with
another Tangent and these computers were the technological equivalent of a one
night stand with a generic person. They
were unsatisfying and eventually the company went out of business and the web
site is now empty—I couldn’t even find a picture for you but that’s OK I have
no happy memories of them anyway, mostly my wife got to know them since she
spent every evening with them. The new
Tangent cost me something like $900.
In 2001 when my wife Sharon began work on her PhD I was gently expelled from our home computer chair and banished to a new IBM Thinkpad . I think it cost about $1200 and it still is in use today as my “back porch computer.” I despise laptops, Still do. They are neither big enough nor small enough for me.
2005—Dell
Dimension 3000
I bought my most recent computer “at the end of the
cycle” this past year. Finally it had
sunk into my head that buying “the latest costs the mostest.”
I determined to get in as cheap as I could on the tail end of editions as they
were going out of inventory. I purchased
a Dimension 3000 this past fall that was four times as fast, with five times
the memory, six times the hard drive capacity and 12 times faster CD than my
last computer—for $299. Really!
From 16K memory up to a gig… and from $5200 down
to $299 in 25 years.
And we are complaining about
gasoline prices?
Merry Christmas!
December 20, 2005
Keith Drury