Did the invention of the pc change your life?

[+ Charlie]

Thirty years ago today, my spouse came home with an expensive, heavy little box called a Mackintosh, and told me it would change our lives. However, he never found any regular use for it except to play solitaire. Today his desktop is dominated by a huge iMac, but he still rarely uses it for anything but playing solitaire. When the Internet became popular, a good friend of ours bought a big computer, but only used it to send emails, and when it stopped working after a few years, he saw no reason to fix it, and it sits on his desk gathering dust.

 

It did enable one important change in my life, but it took twenty years: as I approached retirement from my full-time job, I was also working part-time as a consultant for a major academic organization. When they announced that they were putting all their work online so everyone could work at home, I realized that for the first time in my life, I was no longer tied to living in a particular place in order to be employed. As long as I had a computer and an Internet connection, I could live anywhere! Within a year, I had left snow and ice behind forever, and moved to sunny Palm Springs.

 

Did the pc change your life in any important way, for better or worse?

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

In 1990, none of the business professional for the corporation I worked for had computers - only the "secretaries" had PCs which allowed them to type and save documents on floppy discs. I bought my first PC for personal use in 2000.

 

Day 1 - call cable company to add internet connection

Day 2 - set up email

Day 3 - on-line straight porn

Day 4 - bi-sexual porn

Day 5 - hello gay porn!

 

I honestly think without the internet, I would still be in the closet.

[+ deej]

Did the pc change your life in any important way, for better or worse?

 

It made my career possible.

 

(And I recently learned that my shy, quiet uncle worked on the innards of C++ and Unix so he made quite a contribution too!)

[Traveler North]

My writing is terrible and my secretary's shorthand left something to be desired. As a result, I got a PC and used it to compose my correspondence for her to type on company stationery. Really was a great system.

[+ purplekow]

I purchased my first computer in 1982 and did several major federal grant proposals and played a lot of games, most notably Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I then started doing the statistics for my friends and our Rotisserie Baseball League. If I had the insight to see where the fledgling "fantasy sports" market was going, I could have been in on the ground floor. An opportunity missed.

 

In 1992, I started a paperless medical office, which was one of the first in the state. If I had the insight to see where the electronic medical record was going, I could have been in on the ground floor. Another opportunity missed.

 

Then in 2004 or so, I found a gay escort site which led to my being here on this site for many years and led to fucking regularly on the ground floor.

[rvwnsd]

I purchased my first computer in 1982 and did several major federal grant proposals and played a lot of games, most notably Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I then started doing the statistics for my friends and our Rotisserie Baseball League. If I had the insight to see where the fledgling "fantasy sports" market was going, I could have been in on the ground floor. An opportunity missed.

 

In 1992, I started a paperless medical office, which was one of the first in the state. If I had the insight to see where the electronic medical record was going, I could have been in on the ground floor. Another opportunity missed.

 

Then in 2004 or so, I found a gay escort site which led to my being here on this site for many years and led to fucking regularly on the ground floor.

 

Very well-said.

 

Without the PC, much of the work I do would not exist.

[BSR]

The PC alone did not change my life much. The combination of the PC + the Internet, absolutely.

[AdamSmith]

Without the PC, much of the work I do would not exist.

 

Likewise. I've always worked in small businesses (from 12 employees to one) and the PC was a godsend in helping small knowledge-work firms start up on a shoestring and compete with big ones.

[marylander1940]

I can't imagine accounting without a computer!

 

I must agree that internet + computer was a great idea, now everything is just a click away.

 

I can't imagine my life without Wikipedia just like some of yinz can't imagine "having friends" without this site, and also the feeling of empowerment that comes from anonymously trashing escorts on here.

[tom1980]

. . . just like some of yinz can't imagine "having friends" without this site, and also the feeling of empowerment that comes from anonymously trashing escorts on here.

 

Someone doesn't like his message forum neighbors very much, eh?

[+ Axiom2001]

Once I purchased by first Apple computer, I placed my IBM Selectric typewriter on my small desk in my office where it is today [unused]. My IMac is on my relatively good-sized, lovely Mission styled desk, and I use it extensively. Yes, the computer has changed my life. ...wish I knew how to do some technical stuff though to get full use of it!

[marylander1940]

Someone doesn't like his message forum neighbors very much, eh?

 

 

I just don't like how easy is to trash an escort's reputation on here, there are some folks on this forum who have acknowledge this is the main way to get in touch with other humans, those are their words not mine.

 

If I wouldn't like this forum I wouldn't be here.

[SFViking]

Did the pc change your life in any important way, for better or worse?

 

Replying to this thread months later due to insomnia.

 

Yes, it changed my life for the better. Like others it has enabled my entire career for the past 25 years and finances to this date. Career...I learned programming by working part time backing up disks for a friend in his small company. I went from there to various computer-related jobs in financial services. Because of my age people always thought I'd started as a mainframe geek, but, tho I'd studied Fortran and Cobal, I never made a cent in programming those languages. I was always a PC person. Finances...tho I've been investing for over half a century the amount of information that is available now on the Internet is exponentially superior to what I had available in the first 45 years of my investing experience. (Tho one could argue that the Internet could have happened from mainframe-based terminals, it didn't.)

 

Today, tho, I'm finding my smart phone and tablet are changing my life. Either the software on my two year old phone has gotten better or I've just now learned how to use it, but the voice recognition on Android and iPad are now weaving information-seeking more into my daily life. I ask for directions I get them. I'm curious about a fact, thing, person or place, I get answers about it. With one friend, when the two of us go out to dinner there are actually four participants: the two of us and our smart phones. We're always raising questions about one thing or another and our phones are there to give us the answers. At night as I'm trying to get to sleep and my mind is wandering, when I begin to question something, I pick up my smart phone and ask. (No need to wonder why I have insomnia, I'm always stimulating myself. At some point I have to force myself to stop asking questions.) I use it to dictate emails and texts when I'm by myself (not in public.) Surprisingly not on my PC. I used to have a microphone hooked up, but never used it. Maybe because Windows wasn't voice-friendly enough. Maybe I'll give PC voice recognition a try again with Windows 10.

 

I think mankind will get to the point where there will be some device (maybe implanted in us) that can respond to our thoughts or sub-vocalizations in ways we can't even imagine today. I just won't live long enough to see it.

 

SF Viking

[BaronArtz]

Someone doesn't like his message forum neighbors very much, eh?

 

Marylander1940 makes a very good point, though.

[bigvalboy]

Marylander1940 makes a very good point, though.

 

 

He does indeed....

[bobchitown]

The PC alone did not change my life much. The combination of the PC + the Internet, absolutely.

 

This. My first PC was before they were likely call that, and was circa 1987. It essentially replaced my typewriter initially. I used it to compose documents before we had WYSIWIG so I was embedding command codes for paragraph breaks, etc. I had no printer myself, so had to send print jobs to another building about a mile away and then walk over to pick up the printout, proof read it, make changes, walk over again, etc.

 

I got hooked up to the internet at work shortly thereafter and used it mainly for emailing colleagues across the country. The web came along a few years later and after that the rest is history.

 

My first home computer was also a Mac, sometime in the late 80s. A friend still has a Lisa, which was the failed precursor to the Mac - I doubt it still functions.

[Rudynate]

Thirty years ago today, my spouse came home with an expensive, heavy little box called a Mackintosh, and told me it would change our lives. However, he never found any regular use for it except to play solitaire. Today his desktop is dominated by a huge iMac, but he still rarely uses it for anything but playing solitaire. When the Internet became popular, a good friend of ours bought a big computer, but only used it to send emails, and when it stopped working after a few years, he saw no reason to fix it, and it sits on his desk gathering dust.

 

It did enable one important change in my life, but it took twenty years: as I approached retirement from my full-time job, I was also working part-time as a consultant for a major academic organization. When they announced that they were putting all their work online so everyone could work at home, I realized that for the first time in my life, I was no longer tied to living in a particular place in order to be employed. As long as I had a computer and an Internet connection, I could live anywhere! Within a year, I had left snow and ice behind forever, and moved to sunny Palm Springs.

 

Did the pc change your life in any important way, for better or worse?

 

Of course it did, but in an evolutionary, rather than a revolutionary, way. I learned how to use a Mac in about 1988, then learned DOS and PC's and then learned Windows in 1991 or so. I played with computers, but didn't adopt computing wholeheartedly, right away. In 1992, I went to graduate school, and, by then, computing had become an essential skill. Now, I do everything with a computer - all of my work is done by computer, I use a computer for hours every day, and am completely dependent on it.

 

In a way, I would like to become less dependent on computing and the internet. Since I used to be a librarian, I have a high appreciation for information and have always been a skilled information seeker. Computers and the internet just make all of that much easier, so that any time an idea or question pops into my head, I can find answers within minutes instead of having to wait hours or days. It makes me extremely well-informed, but I think I would like to be less well-informed and to have a quieter mind.

[marylander1940]

I can't imagine hearing about a place, person, idea, fact or object, and having to grab a dictionary or go to a library to find out about it.

 

Internet, did change my life, the PC made it possible.

 

Thank you Al Gore for finding out about this technology and instead of keeping it for the government, the military industrial complex and some universities, you simply made it public. If Reagan or Bush 41 had made internet public they would be remember for it every time they're mentioned on Fox News.

[Guy Fawkes]

I was an early adopter of the internet, of course back then it was called ARPA, then DARAPA, then ran side by side as ARPA/DARPA net.

 

However If I may gently correct another poster; When Al Gore announced that he had created the internet, all of us that were on the internet had a much needed belly laugh. While I will admit that he drafted a bill that expanded the internet, he did it the work countless others of the time including myself did to create and maintain the network.

 

If I were to suggest a possible creator of the internet, my first mention would always be to Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee the creator of the protocol the gives us the World Wide Web. Without his work in the late 80's the few hundred web sites that I proudly was a part off would have never grown to the estimated one billion websites today.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9d/Sir_Tim_Berners-Lee.jpg/330px-Sir_Tim_Berners-Lee.jpg

 

It's been a passion and wonder for me to see much it has grown. It has sustained me, kept me connected to my friends from around the world, and has introduced me to new friends every day.

 

It has allowed me to retire to a simple life that allows my mind to roam freely instead of living in a rocking chair dreaming of yesterday. I still dream of those days, they just wait for when I go to bed.

[marylander1940]

I was an early adopter of the internet, of course back then it was called ARPA, then DARAPA, then ran side by side as ARPA/DARPA net.

 

However If I may gently correct another poster; When Al Gore announced that he had created the internet, all of us that were on the internet had a much needed belly laugh. While I will admit that he drafted a bill that expanded the internet, he did it the work countless others of the time including myself did to create and maintain the network.

 

If I were to suggest a possible creator of the internet, my first mention would always be to Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee the creator of the protocol the gives us the World Wide Web. Without his work in the late 80's the few hundred web sites that I proudly was a part off would have never grown to the estimated one billion websites today.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9d/Sir_Tim_Berners-Lee.jpg/330px-Sir_Tim_Berners-Lee.jpg

 

It's been a passion and wonder for me to see much it has grown. It has sustained me, kept me connected to my friends from around the world, and has introduced me to new friends every day.

 

It has allowed me to retire to a simple life that allows my mind to roam freely instead of living in a rocking chair dreaming of yesterday. I still dream of those days, they just wait for when I go to bed.

 

Thank you for adding all this information, I didn't know anything about this fellow because I only got my first computer in the late 90's to watch porno at home without having to go to the store and rent a video...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee

 

Al gore didn't "made the internet" but as soon as he heard about it he knew it's potential and dedicated himself to make it popular.

 

"During the election and his term as Vice President, Gore popularized the term Information Superhighway, which became synonymous with the Internet, and he was involved in the creation of the National Information Infrastructure.[81] Gore first discussed his plans to emphasize information technology at UCLA on January 11, 1994 in a speech at The Superhighway Summit. He was involved in a number of projects including NetDay'96 and 24 Hours in Cyberspace."

[+ deej]

"During the election and his term as Vice President, Gore popularized the term Information Superhighway, which became synonymous with the Internet, and he was involved in the creation of the National Information Infrastructure.[81] Gore first discussed his plans to emphasize information technology at UCLA on January 11, 1994 in a speech at The Superhighway Summit. He was involved in a number of projects including NetDay'96 and 24 Hours in Cyberspace."

 

He was a supporter even before that. As Senior Senator from Tennessee he sponsored the funding bill that helped create ARPANET.

 

He never claimed to invent the internet, but he did help pay for it.

[gallahadesquire]

A quick retrospective, gentlemen:

 

When I began my Residency at a [then] Prestigious Harvard Hospital, all the Residents attended a Resident lecture every Monday after ICU rounds. All of this I dreaded in the depths of my heart. One would be given a topic - a few of my favourites were "Resuscitator bags," "Gate theory of pain," and "Neurologic sequelae of Cardiac Arrest."

 

Generally, these required at least a five-year literature search. No texts. Go dig it up.

 

At that time, The Literature was indexed in the Index Medicus. Each YEAR of the Index Medicus was something like twelve or 14 volumes, and about three feet wide, when placed front to back. One had to choose one's keywords carefully, so as to cover as much of the topic as necessary, but to stray from random, non-relavent literature.

 

So one would repeat this process four, five times. The CURRENT year's literature was covered in monthly installments. A February lecture was great, as the previous Years' edition had already come out, and January wasn't usually indexed by then. December and January lectures were horrid, as one had an additional 11 or 12 volumes of index to research in addition to the four or five annual versions.

 

This was JUST FOR THE BIBLIOGRAPHY. Getting the actually papers cited was another exercise in journal hauling. [i still have boxes upon boxes of Xeroxes from that time period. Never had the time to go through them and toss everything.]

 

Around that time, Beth Israel Hospital of the Harvard Medical School brought up a system called PAPERCHASE (not to be confused with the TV Series of the same name, which was Harvard LAW school). ONe could do these same searches with a computer. Oh joy! Oh rapture!

 

But one still needed access to a computer, and terminals were still relatively rare beasts.

 

Cut forward about 15 to 20 years. ANY PC could access MEDLINE and do the same Searches [i still prefer "keywords" over "subjects": So much more comprehensive]. Another five years, and Abstracts were available. Add another five, and *.pdf files of the actual paper would come up.

 

Did it make life easier? Oh, yes. Did it make people smarter? Oh, no. Some people never get the concept of the Boolean operator.

 

Here endeth the reminiscence.

[namchebaz]

 

At that time, The Literature was indexed in the Index Medicus. Each YEAR of the Index Medicus was something like twelve or 14 volumes, and about three feet wide, when placed front to back. One had to choose one's keywords carefully, so as to cover as much of the topic as necessary, but to stray from random, non-relavent literature.

 

 

Oh dear God. I just got cold chills when your post reminded me of INDEX MEDICUS!!!

We've come a long way.

[+ MasssageGuy]

It was the combination of several technologies and the PC was the catalyst that brought them together. Moore's law enabled cheaper and cheaper processing and DASD (disk storage). I purchased my first PC from IBM with IBM financing. Don't remember how much is was, put it was big bucks back then. The AT had a "huge" 20MB drive. LOL. Vint Serf the father of MCI Mail and Internet invented protocols that enabled us to use MCI Mail when I worked for MCI. I started my programming on an Andersen/Jacobsen acoustic coupled terminal running at 300BPS. At IBM I used GML which was the foundation for XML which all browsers use to render content.

 

It has made information accessible to all. It also creates so much distraction in our human interaction. The technology does allow us to meet others (escorts), put away our toys, and savor our humanity in an intimate session. Eye candy is dandy. Thank goodness for high speed access.

[+ FreshFluff]

My dad became a computer scientist before the days of PCs, so we always had a terminal at home. (I still remember Eliza and that caterpillar game.)

 

Our first home computer was an old TI bought used, long after they had already exited the home PC market. It came with this book on BASIC, from which I learned to code before I really learned to read!

 

Ha, I still remember the "TI BASIC READY" prompt.