One of the things I like collecting is old Reader's Digests - the older the better! For one thing it is fun to look back and see how wrong or how right, the articles were. I also love looking at old ads.There is a block of units near me and every now and then they leave a pile of old Reader's Digests on the garden wall for others to take. I have picked up a few from the late 90s, but yesterday I had a bonus. One was dated Nov 1985 and another January 1986. It was in the latter edition that I came across this advert for an IBM JX personal computer with a 16 bit processor!
Twenty two years ago, how many of us realised how far personal computing would go. In many of the schools in Sydney it is compulsory for each pupil to have a laptop - even those starting school. Twenty two years ago I would have thought a laptop was something different entirely! These days I wouldn't mind owning either!
Up until a few months ago I had a 1995 business magazine advertising a state-of-the-art NEC computer with "an amazing 4mb RAM". It doesn't seem so long ago that a client in Utah proudly told me she had invested in a PC with 64mb RAM. At that time I had just upgraded to 16 and thought that was sufficient.
Makes you think doesn't it. As far as computers are concerned, where will be twenty years from now?
Probably sitting there saying "come on, open you bloody thing" like so many of us do now!
Wherever you may be - be safe
