As a techno-geek, or so I said in my personal website’s About page, I never realized that since I blogged, I never archived my personal history with computers. As far as I remember, this is how computers affected my life.
1986: The Age of XT Personal Computers
This dated way when I was 3 years old, almost 4 in fact, when I was first introduced with the term MS-DOS, piles of 5.25″ floppy disks, and the fact that computers only have puny RAMs. That was the old days. I remembered that back then CPUs are humongous and horizontally placed, with those monochrome monitors on top of them. They also electrocuted me sometimes because the casing was made from pure metal. Softwares was simple at that time, although starting them out was not. Kids nowadays don’t have to struggle with DOS command lines like we did in the old ages.
1992: The Age of AT Personal Computers
I believe it was 1992 when Dad first introduced me to Windows 3.1. And yes, I never had the chance to feel what Windows 1.0 and 2.0 was like. I remembered that I used to have this 33MHz 386DX PC, the box where we played Solitaire, Ski, and Chip’s Challenge for hours.
1995: The Age of Windows
Three years have passed, and Dad bought me a new computer, it was a Pentium 120MHz PC. This was the time when the Start button came into my life, Microsoft Plus! was the hippest thing around, and Desktop Themes are there serving as collectibles. This was also the year I started to use the Internet, and learned HTML from scratch. Back then, Netscape Composer was a divine tool for me.
2000: The Age of Windows Part II
Another five years have passed, and my computer was due for an upgrade. I took a leap from a Pentium machine to a Pentium-III machine, with 600MHz to be spoiled, and a 32MB video card do vigorous (at that time) gaming. Also in this year, I also took the leap from Windows 98, to Windows 2000, to Windows XP.
2001: A Glimpse of the Other Side
I was on the eleventh grade, and I remember that a friend of mine, Jan Knut, was the only living person I know, by the time, who owned a green iMac G3. I can’t remember if his iMac was running OS 8 or 9 by that time, but it wasn’t Windows. It was so refreshing to see a trendsetter in real life.
2002: The Age of Windows Part III
Two years have passed and it was time again for an upgrade. I moved on from a Pentium-III machine to a Pentium-IV machine, but still on a Windows XP. I moved on from a regular CRT monitor to a flat-screen CRT monitor. And I also moved on from a 20GB hard drive to an 80GB. I also had a Toshiba Portege R100, which proves to be more of a burden although it was less than 2 kilos in weight. It was simply slow.
2005: The Dawn of the Mac
Three years have passed and my PC have constantly failed itself on me every 6 months, every 4 months, and eventually every 3 months. 2005 was the time of change for me, a time where I ditched the PC for my first Mac ever. It was my iMac G5, still running healthy, even until now, and I was a real deal Mac user ever since. I remember meeting Bibin in a computer expo, purchasing the computer for USD 1.900. It was not cheap, but it’s worth it.
2006: Mobile Mac
I decided to sell my Portege and convert everything that I use into Macs. This was when I got myself my last generation 12″ iBook G4.
2008: The Mac Age
It is time for another upgrade. After three years, my iMac G5 have served me well, but with the constantly changing technology, it is obviously getting slower with newer softwares. Thus, the 24″ Intel iMac was worth the upgrade, and I’m officially a Leopard user. This was also the year I procured my iPhone.
2009: The Future
What can I predict for my future with computers? One thing for sure is to retire my old PC and replace it with a brand new Mac Mini. I would probably retire my iPhone and get a new iPhone 3G, and if I’m lucky enough, a brand new MacBook by the end of the year, and to try Snow Leopard when it came out. And even though I despise Vista, I am looking forward to try Windows 7. Who knows? Maybe it is better than Vista.
