[smellf]

Yeah I can understand romanticizing the parts of this guy's experience with computers, but it wasn't all gravy. Did you read the part where he marveled at his new "daisy wheel" printer only having broken down once in a year of use? Or the disk drive that took 10 minutes to write out a few kB?

And how about those prices? Sure, some were $400, but you'd need $3000+ for a machine that has non-volatile storage, can run arbitrary programs, and has an input and an output device. $2000+ dollars for a hard drive storing a few MB? Not to mention the horror of completely undecided OS and instruction set architecture wars.

It's cool to imagine the simplicity of this dude tinkering with his printer made from a converted typewriter and unplugging the entire thing when the thunderheads roll in, but we're definitely better off where we are today.

[mushly]

And those are 1982 prices too.

[agumonkey]

It gets you thinking, how much of our lifestyle is about dreaming.