Ok. I know. I go for days on end with no entries, and now 3 on the same night. Well, don’t get used to it. I am just in a blogging sort of mood.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have been thinking about technology. About 2 weeks ago, I had an ultrasound for baby #4. The picture was so clear. At only 12 weeks gestation, it was so easy to see the baby on the screen. When I think back to Calvin’s ultrasound 7 years ago, I am amazed at how much more sophisticated the technology is today. Even 4 years ago with Evangeline, the image was not as clear. When I took the printed picture home, Calvin looked at it and said, “Is that the baby?” So if a 6-year-old can tell what he is looking at, it is obvious things have improved.
This technology thinking caused me to start remembering how computers have changed over the past 15 years. Moving from my computer-phobia in college in the mid-late 80s to absolutely requiring that we have a computer in our home only a few years later made me realize that the computer has affected my life pretty significantly.
So, I thought it would be fun to ask anyone who stops by to answer these questions:
1. When did you first own a computer?
2. When did you first have e-mail?
3. When did you first use the web?
For me the answers are: 1: 1992; 2: 1992 — prodigy; 3:1995 (But I remember Mark’s brother calling our house once in 1993 or 94 and giving me a website address for Mark. He said to keep it until we had access to a computer that we could use it on. I didn’t know what he was talking about.)
That’s easy! All three happened simultaneously in Jan. 2000. (Years earlier, I resisted buying a microwave too. I’m stubborn.) I had never touched a computer before then.
There are some who assert that my purchase of a computer was linked to a potential long-distance romance. Don’t believe them! I was going to buy one anyway.
1. 1980 (Tandy by Radio Shack)
2. 1990 or 1991 at home (1989 for John at work)
3. about 1993 at home
Email had the biggest impact since Mark & Jay were so far away (both in distance and time zones). But just think how cool it would have been if we could have shopped the web during those years on Kwajalein (1980s).
1. First computer: Jan. 1995, a Macintosh Performa with the first generation of “Power PC” processors. It was a “powerful” 60 MHz! LOL My mom bought a 33 MHz Macintosh in 1993 and let me play with it when I visited.
2. E-mail: Sometime in 1994. I had a Pine account through Temple while in graduate school. The whole dial-up was quite complicated, once I tried to access the account from home.
3. I first used the Web in 1994 also, in a computer lab at Temple. My workplace didn’t get Web access until 1996. They were sure we would only use it to goof off. 🙂
1. February or March 2000, when I moved from my last job to my current one.
2. Sometime in ’98 or ’99, I’d guess. I used to just access it from work.
3. Also ’98 or ’99, from my former job.
1. 1987 – My dad bought me a Tandy
2 & 3. 1995 – In seminary I bought a cheap laptop with a black and white monitor and a very slow modem… but I had AOL!
My first computer was probably around 1995. The first I bought was probably around 1998. I first used the web in 1996 and received an email account in 1997.
My first computer was probably 1994 or so. I bought my younger brothers’ (they’re twins so that is right [grin]) computer from them so I could write papers at home not at work or in one of the university labs. My dad always had a computer at home growing up, though, so I had used one for years.
I first got email in 1996 when I started working for CompuServe. Same with the web.
My plan worked. For once, I got more than 3 comments on my blog. Thank you all:)
1. June 23, 2001
2. June 23, 2001
3. June 23, 2001
This was when I bought my first computer
1. My dad bought me an old Tandy in 1987.
2. I had email in 1991 when I started college.
3. I used the web in 1991 at college, too. That was before the web was graphics-driven, though – we could only get text. I remember getting a huge email from someone at Stanford that contained drawings of cows using only asterisks.
1. September 1997 during my freshman semester of college. We’d had them at home for years (since the early ’80s), but that was the first time I owned a computer.
2. Late 1994 at high school.
3. Same as #2.
1. Sometime between 1984 and 1986. I think my dad bought it when I was in high school. (I first owned a computer myself, though, in 1990, when I moved away from home and went to university.)
2. 1995.
3. 1995.
1. June 23, 2001
2. June 23, 2001
3. June 23, 2001
I still have many of my first emails.