I remember the PC ... I remember the first beat 
PC beat ... I'll be shot! 25 years, a quarter of a century .... This year marks the 25th anniversary of the introduction of the Personal Computer. Today there is more the case, all the PC call, the "box of wonders" that we lit in front of us and makes us as a window on the world. But not until the IBM launched the XT model (in 1981 exactly) the computer was a monster. My first experience of computers date back to (sigh) 1976 or 77 when I was a student of Engineering. So for me the computer (in fact, the calculator, note the capital C) that car was great (you do realize that would come barely in your living room) and a bit 'scary which were part cardboard cards properly and that prick in a few hours (yes, I said hours) was able to perform the calculation in Fortran structural complex of buildings. A machine that could afford to own only universities or large corporations. I remember only in my early 80's father, who had an engineering study in which structural calculations were performed (of course only with the help of calculating machines) you could afford a computer. " He was a Hewlett-Packard (HP today) without the screen, with "well" 64k of internal memory (no hard disk) and a large display less than a mobile phone today, but monochrome and capable only of alphanumeric characters. Cost then? Sixteen million pounds (1980, eh?). Would be easily enough to buy a Mercedes mid-range (for this we had only a Giulia). I still remember the nights spent waiting for data and type (after hours) the fateful "beep", indicating the end of the calculation. Out of the PC, there was the grand finale, a kind of Copernican Revolution. Initially regarded with suspicion, the PC began to take hold in the case thanks to the games, stuff that now would cry of sadness even an infant: Space Invaders, PacMan, all in monochrome. So I was a maniac of programming. I went up there with two small computers that are entered in the myth: the ZX Sinclair and Commodore 64 (then 128 and Amiga). The programming was in Basic primordial strictly monochrome screen (phosphor green or amber? "Was the only choice). In a couple of years the cost of the PC became less prohibitive. In 1984 Amstrad bought an XT with 640k hard disk of 10 MB (ten megabytes!) At a price "how" of 3 million and a half (roughly the price of a small car). The first PC on which I was able to work very professionally was an IBM AT office. It was about 1985 and the "monster" with 640 kb of memory "expandable to 1 MB well" with 20 MB of hard-disk was shared in the office by 6 * lucky * engineers. I was among those who understand a bit 'more and then I was destined to program in GW-Basic traendoci rigorous calculation programs for structural or thermal insulation. For the rest you wrote the letters (Word did not exist, the best was WordStar) and only the most enterprising used the spreadsheet (no, not Excel, then it was the most popular Lotus 1.2.3) or the first real DataBase, that was then and DBase II DBase III. The graphics? Still dot ... The graphical interface of the first color screens, no more than VGA 640x480 pixels (and it seemed a miracle). No one had ever heard of a mouse, a virus, let alone Windows, the first version of which cloning is the genius of Apple appeared only in the early 90's. I could tell even a lot of these my 25 plus years dealing with computers, devouring magazines, through sleepless nights to program in Visual Basic and C + + (and also, I confess, download music and video), disassemble, implementation, setting , repaired and reassembled dozens for friends and relatives. But I'll stop here, I would not make it too long. Just makes me smile thinking back a few days ago when talking to a little known by his thirties, my sentence on the fact that my daughter is pretty good at the computer did not believe that I would understand a pipe and had to rely on the expertise of Ba to carry on with this "box of wonders." Ah, Blessed youth ... Vaglielo to make people understand that the world is not started by then so little ... I remember de
The finger and the moon
PC beat ... I'll be shot! 25 years, a quarter of a century .... This year marks the 25th anniversary of the introduction of the Personal Computer. Today there is more the case, all the PC call, the "box of wonders" that we lit in front of us and makes us as a window on the world. But not until the IBM launched the XT model (in 1981 exactly) the computer was a monster. My first experience of computers date back to (sigh) 1976 or 77 when I was a student of Engineering. So for me the computer (in fact, the calculator, note the capital C) that car was great (you do realize that would come barely in your living room) and a bit 'scary which were part cardboard cards properly and that prick in a few hours (yes, I said hours) was able to perform the calculation in Fortran structural complex of buildings. A machine that could afford to own only universities or large corporations. I remember only in my early 80's father, who had an engineering study in which structural calculations were performed (of course only with the help of calculating machines) you could afford a computer. " He was a Hewlett-Packard (HP today) without the screen, with "well" 64k of internal memory (no hard disk) and a large display less than a mobile phone today, but monochrome and capable only of alphanumeric characters. Cost then? Sixteen million pounds (1980, eh?). Would be easily enough to buy a Mercedes mid-range (for this we had only a Giulia). I still remember the nights spent waiting for data and type (after hours) the fateful "beep", indicating the end of the calculation. Out of the PC, there was the grand finale, a kind of Copernican Revolution. Initially regarded with suspicion, the PC began to take hold in the case thanks to the games, stuff that now would cry of sadness even an infant: Space Invaders, PacMan, all in monochrome. So I was a maniac of programming. I went up there with two small computers that are entered in the myth: the ZX Sinclair and Commodore 64 (then 128 and Amiga). The programming was in Basic primordial strictly monochrome screen (phosphor green or amber? "Was the only choice). In a couple of years the cost of the PC became less prohibitive. In 1984 Amstrad bought an XT with 640k hard disk of 10 MB (ten megabytes!) At a price "how" of 3 million and a half (roughly the price of a small car). The first PC on which I was able to work very professionally was an IBM AT office. It was about 1985 and the "monster" with 640 kb of memory "expandable to 1 MB well" with 20 MB of hard-disk was shared in the office by 6 * lucky * engineers. I was among those who understand a bit 'more and then I was destined to program in GW-Basic traendoci rigorous calculation programs for structural or thermal insulation. For the rest you wrote the letters (Word did not exist, the best was WordStar) and only the most enterprising used the spreadsheet (no, not Excel, then it was the most popular Lotus 1.2.3) or the first real DataBase, that was then and DBase II DBase III. The graphics? Still dot ... The graphical interface of the first color screens, no more than VGA 640x480 pixels (and it seemed a miracle). No one had ever heard of a mouse, a virus, let alone Windows, the first version of which cloning is the genius of Apple appeared only in the early 90's. I could tell even a lot of these my 25 plus years dealing with computers, devouring magazines, through sleepless nights to program in Visual Basic and C + + (and also, I confess, download music and video), disassemble, implementation, setting , repaired and reassembled dozens for friends and relatives. But I'll stop here, I would not make it too long. Just makes me smile thinking back a few days ago when talking to a little known by his thirties, my sentence on the fact that my daughter is pretty good at the computer did not believe that I would understand a pipe and had to rely on the expertise of Ba to carry on with this "box of wonders." Ah, Blessed youth ... Vaglielo to make people understand that the world is not started by then so little ... I remember de The finger and the moon 
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