by David Sparks

 

RSS Sponsor:

Search
« OS X Glass Folder Icons | Main | Airport N and G Games »
9:03AM

40 Years Young

800px-Birthday_candles.jpg


Recently I turned 40. I wasn't planning on posting about this but I decided whenever you add a zero to your age, it is probably noteworthy.

The funny thing is I remember when I thought 40 was ancient. Now I feel like I'm just getting started. I'm very fortunate however to be passionate about many things: my family, my clients, music, and (of course) my mac. With so many interests, I'm simply too busy to feel old. It doesn't prevent me, however, from being reflective about technology.

I am fortunate to be the first generation to grow up with computers. The first computer I worked on was a Radio Shack Color Computer.

320px-TRS-80_Color_Computer_1.jpg


It had 4k of Ram. Not 4 Megs. Not 4 Gigs. 4k. We used to program little basic programs in it and the save medium was a cassette player. When they came out with the 8k model we couldn't figure out for the life of us what you would ever need 8k for.

After that came some fun with the Atari series (first an Atari 400 and then an Atari ST)...
atari400a.jpg


Hours upon hours in my college computer lab on Macs that I couldn't afford....

macintosh-128k.jpg


and then 20 years of forgettable PC's leading up to my late switch to OS X. Over the course of my life computers have changed our society in just about every way imaginable from curing disease to playing games (not to mention a little thing called the Interweb). So in addition to celebrating the fact that I have yet again cheated death for another year, I look forward as I get older (remember, only the good die young!) to see just how much better things get.

Reader Comments (5)

Happy Birthday!

February 7, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterPaul Sullivan

Have you have a very, very Maccy Birthday!

…watch out for your eyebrows on those birthday candles ;)

Darren

February 7, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterdarren rolfe

Your brief personal computer retrospective gives me an idea for a timeline. Happy Birthday and have a great year.

February 7, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterAnthony

Thanks everyone for the well wishes.

@Anthony - I want to see that timeline. Grin.

February 7, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterMacSparky

Happy Birthday david and have a good next year.

Okay, I feel suddenly weird as not being able to recognize any of the photos above as an machine I've actually ever used. Guess I'm not very in depth with every pre 486 computer.

February 7, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterMartin Hauser

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>