From: Michael Almquist Subject: MISC: I've seen a 1,000 years of HISTORY! Date: Wed, 24 Jun 92 07:10:55 -0700 Sometimes to see where we are headed we need to look back and see where we've been. This article was originally "I've seen a 100 years of HISTORY!" first appearing in NANO, Winter 1990, Volume II, No. 3. NOW, this revision has been retitle to "I've seen a 1,000 years of HISTORY!". A matter of two years has added another "0". We are accelerating. I hope you enjoy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I've seen a 1,000 years of HISTORY!" Michael Almquist (aka. squish@hitl.washington.edu) WHAT? How can that be? I'm only 24. Well, if you deal with computers than I'm sure you can understand what I'm talking about. My love of computers started about eleven years ago at the age of 13. My elementary school had a 16K PET computer system. Including a `state-of-the-art' tape drive unit! I was in heaven! Then the unfortunate happened. I graduated. BUMMER. No more PET. Little did I know that I was moving up in the world. My junior high school was fortunate enough to get one of the original BLACK case Bell&Howell APPLE computers. BOY, was I mistaken thinking that the good old PET computer was the computer of my dreams. I can't remember how I managed it (probably with a lot of screaming and begging until my parent's couldn't take it any more) but my GRACIOUS parents bought me a `state-of-the-art' APPLE II PLUS! Not just an APPLE II but a PLUS! 64K of RAM, only uppercase, 40 column screen, 80 key keyboard, a jury-rigged monochrome TV set (yes, a TV set), and two monstrously HIGH capacity 160K floopy drives. WOW! Mom and Dad can be nice people too. I remember ostracizing myself to the backroom; never to come up for air unless it was dinner time or if `Speedracer' was on! This went on for months until my grandparents came to visit and thought my new love of computers was a bad thing - maybe even demonic. From that point on I was forced to behave like a normal little kid and go out and play with my friends. BUMMER. Despite all this, it was too late. The computer bug had biten me and biten me HARD (Dad was to complain about this in the future)! My life had be changed permanently. Only the future will tell if this change was for the better or the worst. The next stage I went through was the great IBM-APPLE debate. Things started to heat up between the two companies and their owners. I almost beat up a kid at recess for calling my computer a "STUPID" computer. I was having the best time of my life programming, dissecting (at least when dad wasn't around to freak out), and learning all I could about my computer. When I entered high school, a winner between the two warring tribes, IBM and APPLE, emerged. Out of the rubble of the APPLE LiSA and the new unaccepted Macintosh line, IBM ermerged slightly victorious. Now that I was in high school and college was coming around the corner, it was time to invest in my future. I twisted dad's arm, enough to get at his wallet, and bought a new computer. My years as an APPLE owner had scarred me. I couldn't bring myself to buying an IBM (despite the fact that they were $1000.00 more expensive than other computers on the market) and instead settled for a KAYPRO Turbo-XT! WOW! 640K of RAM, uppercase and LOWERCASE, 80 column screen, 84 key keyboard, a monochrome AMBER monitor that displayed strange graphic images, and two HUGE capacity 360K floppy drives. This was my newest toy and my newest obsession! I went off to college with my new computer and an eager spirit. Freshman year was fun but disappointing. My programming courses brought me into contact with HP2621, Z19, GP29, and Z29 terminals. BORING! My computer could display pictures better than they could. I was disappointed. So, this is a mainframe (little did I know it at the time `that there was life after the IBM mainframe and x-edit'). There weren't even any `neat-o' graphic games. Well, the summer came and my craving for a `better, faster, bigger' computer hit! I had gotten money from my grandparents for high school graduation and had saved money from my summer jobs. Despite this, it was a long fight to convince dad I needed the new computer. I gave dad my old computer and purchased a FASTER KAYPRO Turbo-XT! WOW! 738K of RAM, 101 key keyboard, a SUPER fast 20 meg hard drive (60 ms access time), and an EGA COLOR MONITOR! WOW! I had broken the black and white barrier!! This dream machine kept my computer love burning. My craving for speed transformed my lust for a new machine into an obsession! I WAS POSESSED! A MAN ON A MISSION! I `begged, pleaded, etc.' but my dad wouldn't budge. We bought a 286 Turbo Accelerator card. I was happy. But for how long? Not long! School was a bad influence on me. It didn't really teach me much scholastically but it did cause my possession to become an OBSESSION!! I had the chance to `touch' a SUN Workstation. OH BOY! `Was dad in for it now'. After many arguments and pleas, I sold my trustworthy machine last summer. With the money I got from it and some money I save up from the summer, I went out looking for a NEW machine. I strayed into a computer store one day and was offered a job. Little did I know it that this job was going to open a new door for me! The door of `at cost purchasing!!!!!!' With all my computer knowledge, I was able to piece together a lean-mean-computing-machine! I built myself a 25 MHz 386 speed demon, with SUPER VGA color graphics, an optical mouse, two HIGH density floppy drives (a 1.44 meg and 1.22 meg floppy drive), and an amazing 122 meg high speed hard drive! NOW?!! Where to go from here? After my last purchase I stopped to think about just how far I had come. The scary thing is that our professors go back even further. `Some of them are perhaps a MILLION YEARS OLD!' I'm scared. Where do I go from here? A Cray? A SparcStation? Advancements in computer hardware are starting to take off exponentially! I don't see any end in sight. Although, I might fear the future of computer hardware, I can rest assured that I will have a job. They're going to need me and others like me to keep their machines going. Software development MUST now catch up with the hardware advancements. That's our task! This is our future! -- so concludes the initial story circa 1990 -- What has happened since then? One taste of UNIX was all it took. Soon I was going to the computer lab to just log in so that I could get that UNIX fix and check my email. I craved for more and more and more! In an insane fit I put MINIX on my PC hoping for BSDish UNIX. Fighting with MINIX brought me close to dispair. What was I to do? About that time SUN was announcing great educational discounts. Could I? Could I dare dream of owning a SparcStation? In 1990 this was the impossible dream - but now in 1991 it was a possibility. This time dad was removed from the loop. He had given up. My continual begging and pleading for more and more had made him deaf. The door was wide open!! SO, I ran out and purchased an IPC with 8 megs of memory and a 424 meg hard drive. It was a monochrome system but I could live with X and UNIX. I had finally reached my dream!!!!! My personal X/UNIX workstation!!!!!!! Not to mention the amazing - unheard of audio capabilities. Little was I to know that it was too late ... my OBSESSION had grown worst and SUN wasn't helping me. SUN made a promise to bring out a new system every 16/18 months. They haven't faltered yet. Out came the IPX, ELC, Sparc2, and soon the Viking systems. What was I to do? Fall behind the times? MORE SPEED! So I upgraded to an ELC. Finally, a machine that I don't need to wait for. It can compile almost as fast as I can think leaving me with 0 wait states. What more could someone want in a computer? Damn VR! I was happy with my SUN and then VR came along. I needed better sound! Better graphics! Faster faster faster! I easily filled up my SUN's 424 meg hard drive. I needed more!!!! I am now happily contemplating an upgrade to an SGI Indigo. I need 16bit CD-quality stereo sound! I need color graphics and the GL graphics language! I need more disc space! I need more speed! I need NTSC output for the HMD goggles! AND, I need more purple (eer, INDIGO) in my life!!!!!!!!! Dad had fallen completely behind and spends most of his time wandering around muttering to himself, "No money this time . . . the computer got his soul . . . where did I go wrong". So, is the Indigo a plateau in my computer ownership frenzy? Eeeck! I've warned my friends to seek professional help for me if I sell the Indigo in a time span less than a year and purchase yet another better faster machine. Hopefully next time I'll just have to purchase an Indigo CPU upgrade board and not another machine. Where am I headed? Where is the industry headed? I joked back in 1990 about having a cray on my desk - I'm not laughing now! >From an Apple to a high end PC took approximately 9 years. Then from a high end PC to a high end UNIX box took 2 years. As an owner, the price and performance is dropping daily. When I revise this story 2 years from now what will I have? - Mike (aka. squish@hitl.washington.edu)