computing

Click here to begin your journey into "the net:"

Some quotables:

• "Mister IP packages, labels, and sends packages of information [to your computer]."
• "AppleTalk packets—they're going against traffic, as usual."
• "Ah, the router—a symbol of control in a seemingly unorganized world."
• "The router switch plays fast and loose with IP packets—a digital pinball wizard, if you will."
• "Out here [on the Internet], it's the wild west [...] you never know when you'll meet the dreaded ping of death."
• "The firewall can be a bastion of security, or a dreaded adversary."
• "Pleased with their efforts, and trusting in a better world, our trusty data packets ride off blissfully into the sunset of another day, knowing fully, they have served their masters well. Now isn't that a happy ending?"

[Update: I have posted an article about all the computers I've owned].

Pictured below (in the final year of its existence) is the first computer I ever called my own. Built out of scrap parts my Dad brought home from his office, I managed to build the computer as a 33 Mhz 386, with 2 MB of RAM and a 20 MB hard drive, eventually upgrading it (in stages) to a 66 Mhz 486 with 8 MB of RAM and a 512 MB hard drive!

mmm... SCSI in a PC!

How, you may ask, could a diehard Mac/Apple fanboy start on a 386? Well, it was all about budget, you see. Free is good, especially when you're a little kid with absolutely zero dollars in the bank.

This computer died shortly after this photo was taken, when I was unplugging a connector from the motherboard while the computer was still powered up. Something sparked, I got the largest jolt of my life, and the computer started smoking. Oh well, such is life.

The one thing I really miss about those early days of computing (and using PCs in general ;-) was the physicality and brutality of computing. I would spend about 1/8 of the time using the computer with the lid off, working in the guts. I would constantly upgrade parts inside to make it a lean, mean, computing machine. Heck, I could still draw diagrams of the three different motherboards that were housed inside the case pictured above, and make an accurate diagram of all the components I had installed at one time or another, and how they were connected together.

With the complexity of computers these days, and the miniaturization and virtualization of everything, tinkering is much more limited. But that's just nostalgia talking—I'm kind of glad I haven't shocked myself touching my iMac, iPad or iPhone yet.

"We're living in a different world today," Microsoft Vice President Tami Reller said in an interview with CNET News.

The world is a lot different. That's for sure. It's not the same world that Bill Gates successfully launched Windows 95 into, causing a great stir in the world of personal computing. Anti-Microsoft prejudices aside, I don't know if Microsoft knows this 'new world.'

It's a world where flashy and appealing advertising, and a 'hip' CEO makes your software and hardware seem cool (e.g. Apple). It's a world where free as in beer is the norm, and things don't have to be perfect, but if they work okay and solve problems, people stick around (e.g. Google, Twitter). It's a world where office and work communication and collaboration are no longer tied to a certain computer or operating system—it's all done online (e.g. everyone but Microsoft).

Do they know what they're doing? I don't know. Vista was a flop, that's for sure. Windows 7 is much more solid, stable and secure, of course... it's basically Vista, but done correctly. But that doesn't matter so much. What matters is that Microsoft's operating system works well, gets out of the user's way, and costs nothing, or as close to nothing as possible.

The OS now works well, so Microsoft gets a point there. But Windows 7 is still not refined enough or kind enough to be a serious operating system—it feels to me somewhat like Mac OS 10.1 felt like—nice and stable compared to 10.0, but still way too gaudy, with candy-stripe lines, bright bubbly colors, and too much 'bling' to do serious work. Also, Microsoft loses big time on the cost aspect. A guy like me couldn't survive without business premium, and that would set me back more than two Hamiltons. The only software packages I have ever spent that much money on are Final Cut Express and Adobe Creative Suite—and those programs replaced multi-thousand dollar solutions in days past, so in essence they're dirt cheap.

C'mon Microsoft: up the ante. I'm not going to buy Office ever again, since I work in the cloud, with local backups, so you're going to have to get me on your OS. That's not going to happen unless you hit 3/3. Give Apple something to mock, and maybe I'll consider you.