Sunday, March 05, 2006

Techie-riffic

I know I'm behind on this one, but hey, I'm just fashionably late. Also, these answers may be eerily similar to two other bloggers out there :)

1. Do you remember when you saw your first computer? When did you actually use one? What about having your own? Do you own a laptop? (PC or Mac?) Have you gone wireless at home yet?

The first one I ever saw was a dumb terminal that a neighbor's dad had. He was a prof at a local college. The neighbor kids got something soon after. I remember watching the older neighbor kid play lunar lander. Very impressive. We got out Vic-20 later, and were changed forever. I remember my brother painstakingly building a picture of an uzi, pixel by pixel with a art pad that we had. It was unreal that a computer could display something that detailed.

Later on, we had a C64 and eventually we got a dedicated phone line and I ran a little BBS called the Sewer System (My moniker - Smelly Rat. Well, I think I actually spelled it -= Rat]} I remember I got very excited to get my first upload. I was sure that it was kool warez, as the kids say now, but in fact, it deleted my BBS software. Oh, I was crushed.

Also memory-worthy on the C64 was when my brother and I downloaded an audio file of the first couple seconds of the song Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting." It was stunningly good. I had never even heard the song before, but we sung that first piece of it forever. The file also took about a day or so to download.

Now I've got a desktop that's packed up because I don't have room to unpack it, and a HP laptop that's serving heavy-duty for me. It's a good 'un, but I always fall to the lure of the upgrade - such a geek.

I have a lot of respect for the Macs, but as far as I'm concerned, they simply don't run all the software I want to run. I wouldn't be able to run all the experimental download stuff that I do on a Mac without an emulator, and on top of that, I do some stuff at school that can't easily be done on a Mac - some of it can't be done at all on a Mac. I would love to have all the buttery-smooth Mac goodness and a little bit of actual design in my computer, but frankly, Macs can't do what I want to do yet. :(

2. When did you first go online and/or use email? Who did you email back then? How did the internet change your life? When did you discover blogging? What about your home internet connection - is it dial-up, DSL, cable?

I honestly don't remember when I first used email, even though I had been using BBS forums forever. I was a huge fan when Prodigy came out, because it was so much more graphical than Compuserve. I discovered blogging early, but didn't really get interested until I saw Profgrrrl's site. I had started a couple dairy-style blogs before then, but after I saw her's, I tried to start one in earnest. Right now the place where I live (I dare not use the word 'home,' that would make it sound like I like it there) is wired for cable. I've never really cared about the cable/DSL wars - either one's fine to me.

3. Do you remember your first VCR? What about a video camera (there were some bulky ones back in the 80s and 90s) and home videos?

VCR - very vaguely. Top loader? Oddly, I love photography, but never been a big fan of video.

4. When did you switch from VCR to DVD? How did it change your video viewing experience? Do you use TiVo or any such "contraption" to tape TV shows? Do you use Netflix or some other internet-based DVD "renting" service?

I'd love to get a TiVo, but I'm not sure I've got the time to watch all the stuff I'd want to watch :( Netflix might be a possibility...

5. What about music? Did you enjoy listening favorite music in Long Plays or did you prefer cassette tapes? When did you buy your fist CD player and switched to CDs? Did you abandon them (and turned to downloaded music) for MP3 players or Ipods or do you still buy CDs? (I'm not going to ask or comment about "illegal" music activities in the internet, even though it was an exciting innovation, lest one of us gets arrested for it :)

Ah, I remember having a very small red white and blue record player. I also had a record... Candy Girl? It was mine all mine, and when my brother wanted to hear it he had to ask me! Bwahahaa.

I'm almost entirely digital now, I've got a box of CDs around here somewhere, but I don't use them anymore. I do kind of miss mix tapes though.

6. Do you own and use a cell phone? Do you think it's useful or just annoying?(Did you always have a telephone in your house growing up? Did you have a phone in your own room?)

I fought the cell phone thing forever, and now I've got one. I think it's a horrible nasty evil, but needed thing.

7. When did you first buy a digital camera? What kind was it (3.2, 4.0, 5.0 mega-pixels or better)? Did you start taking more pictures or were you a photo aficionado before then? What about a digital video camera?

ugh. First digital? Canon D60? I got it so that I could use my SLR lenses. It was wonderful to move off of film. Film was such a hassle. I've got crates of negatives and prints that I still need to digitize. ugh. I usually take many many many pictures - especially on vacation, but lately I haven't been doing my job well.

8. What about televisions? Have you already embraced the new technologies, such as HDTV, plasma, and flat screen? (On the other hand, you wouldn't remember black white TVs, would you?)
TV? I've got one, but it isn't very special. I would love to get a big honkin' monster screen, but alas, not for many years, I'm afraid...


Looking back at that, I think I should have broken this up into many smaller blog posts and given each question more time, but then again, who would read all that?

2 comments:

Phantom Scribbler said...

I probably would.

Overread said...

hehe - you're sweet. I can't believe you even read this far :)