Has anyone else bothered to document their own personal computing history / milestones?
Here's mine!
1981
Attended week-long course at University Of Canterbury and was introduced to home computers. Learned BASIC on BBC model B that week.
We had the choice of BBC or Apple. I don't recall the reason I chose BBC instead of Apple that first day...
From then on wanted a computer at home...
1982
First computer – Atari 400
First storage device – cassette tape drive
1983
Replaced Atari 400 with an Atari 600XL
First floppy drive using 360K 5.25 inch floppy discs
First decent joystick “Quickfire I”
1984
Replaced Atari 600XL with Atari 130XE
First printer - 9 pin dot matrix
First Light Pen (forerunner to tablet)
1985
First modem – 300buad only (at a whopping $1,700)
First communications with BBS’s
Commodore 64 as additional computer
Upgraded joystick to “Quickfire III” (microswitch technology!)
1987
Replaced 8 bit computing for an Atari 520ST 16 bit computer
First Mouse!
First GUI based interface
Replaced 300buad modem with 1200buad modem
1988
Commodore 128D as an additional computer
First monitor (as opposed to running through a TV)
1990
Replaced all computers with an “IBM clone” 4.77MHz XT
First Hard Drive (20 megabytes)
DOS 3.3 through to DOS 5
Replaced 1200baud modem with 2400buad modem
First account with an ISP (to get access to FIDO)
Replaced 9pin printer with 24pin dot matrix printer
EGA Monitor
First virus (stoned virus)
1992
Upgraded to 386 SX 25MHz PC clone
First use of Microsoft Windows! (Windows 3.0)
My workplace was also using Windows 3.0 but primarily DOS
Replaced modem with 9600baud
First VGA Monitor
First sound card
First CD ROM drive and game played that came on a "CD" and not on floppies (game was "The 7th Guest")
1994
Upgraded to 486 DX2 50MHz
Upgraded to a 33K modem
Started using Windows for Workgroups
1994 - 1995 approx
Visited my first “web site” which was altavista search engine (up til now had been using usenet and telnet services)
1996
Upgraded to a Pentium based system
Started using Windows 95
(Work was using NT4 now)
First colour printer
1997 - 2000
Windows 98 and Windows 98SE
Various upgrades of system including second PC
First 56K modem
First home network to play local LAN games
Windows ME
First curved ergonomic keyboard (Microsoft) (I cannot use a straight one very well now at all)
2000
First online gaming (Quake 3)
Windows XP (yes the corporate one that came out ages before it was available in the shops)
First AMD Duron based system
First “accelerated 3D” graphics card
First CD-writer
2002
Replaced 56K modem with Cable internet 256K
Started using multiple monitors
First surround sound on PC (5.1 Creatinve Live!)
First scanner
First AMD Athlon based system
2003
Shifted house to area with no cable. ADSL now on 256/128
First router with hub (no more crossover cable!)
2003 – 2007
Numerous upgrades (a blur of constant upgrading really)
ADSL full speed up and down
First optical mouse and first laser mouse
First "gaming mouse pad" that costs more than the mouse!
First DVD writer
SDRAM to DDR to DDR333 to DDR2 400MHz Memory
IDE hard drive to SATA to SATA II
Wireless home networking (due to wife buying laptop!)
Changed to LCD screens from CRT
AGP to PCI-E
2007
Windows Vista
First dual core CPU
DDR2 800MHz Memory
First time using memory in Dual Channel mode
External HDD Enclosures using USB2
2008
First quad core CPU
First use of AHCI controller to make use of SATA II enhanced features (Hot swappable hard drives, NCQ, faster speed)
First time completely removing a floppy drive from the system
DDR2 1066MHz Memory
First NAS Device (Netowrk Area Storage)
External HDD Enclosures using E-SATA not USB
2009
Windows 7
First 64bit system (ie both OS and hardware)
First wireless printer
First hard drive sized over 1Tb
2010
ADSL2+
DDR3 Memory
First netbook purchase
First 1080p widescreen monitor
USB 3.0
iPad (replacing netbook for mobile internet access)
2011
The saga continues...
