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Last week, I was reminiscing somewhat incoherently about old computer technology. I had been thinking about getting a SuperDisk drive and disks on EBay, and found very few offerings. For some of the keyboards that have an onboard floppy disk (e.g, the Kurzweil, the Yamaha DX7II FD), I'm wondering if they could be replaced with a SuperDisk drive. I've seen Iomega Zip disks for Kurzweil synth workstations, but would an OS upgrade or driver instllation be needed to use it?
Then![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
filkerdave mentioned USB, flash drives, and wireless internet on their LJ. I responded, "How did we live without them?" And so that got me to thinking about the good old days. Or not-so-good old days. When "computer" meant "IBM mainframe" that filled a entire room, and people worked on time-sharing systems, punch cards, and dumb terminals. For some, it was the dark ages. For others, it was th epioneering days.
So what did I think were 20 of the most significant developments/technologies in the computer world in the last 40 years? In somewhat chronological order:
1. The Internet.
2. The mouse.
3. The 5 1/4" floppy disk.
4. Spreadsheets.
5. Word Processors.
6. The 3 1/2" disk.
7. Local area networks.
8. Windows 3.0.
9. CD-ROM.
10. Web browsers.
11. Windows 95.
12. Personal digital assistants (PDAs).
13. Burnable CDs (CD-R).
14. Zip disks.
15. USB 2.0.
16. The MPEG-1 level 3 (MP3) file format.
17. External (removable) hard drive enclosures.
18. DVD-R.
19. Wi-Fi.
20. Flash memory.
So...what's the Next Big Thing? The iPod? Bluetooth? Blue-laser DVDs? Accurate speech recognition?
Then
filkerdave mentioned USB, flash drives, and wireless internet on their LJ. I responded, "How did we live without them?" And so that got me to thinking about the good old days. Or not-so-good old days. When "computer" meant "IBM mainframe" that filled a entire room, and people worked on time-sharing systems, punch cards, and dumb terminals. For some, it was the dark ages. For others, it was th epioneering days.So what did I think were 20 of the most significant developments/technologies in the computer world in the last 40 years? In somewhat chronological order:
1. The Internet.
2. The mouse.
3. The 5 1/4" floppy disk.
4. Spreadsheets.
5. Word Processors.
6. The 3 1/2" disk.
7. Local area networks.
8. Windows 3.0.
9. CD-ROM.
10. Web browsers.
11. Windows 95.
12. Personal digital assistants (PDAs).
13. Burnable CDs (CD-R).
14. Zip disks.
15. USB 2.0.
16. The MPEG-1 level 3 (MP3) file format.
17. External (removable) hard drive enclosures.
18. DVD-R.
19. Wi-Fi.
20. Flash memory.
So...what's the Next Big Thing? The iPod? Bluetooth? Blue-laser DVDs? Accurate speech recognition?
