When I Was Quite Young, and Computers Were Too

[duck2ducks]

Several months back I discovered a fantastic blog called The Digital Antiquarian.  It's written by an author of interactive fiction (text adventures and the like), and is a compelling and astoundingly well-researched history of the early days of computers and electronic gaming.  After first sketching in the very earliest days of the 1950s and 60s,

Comments

[mathuaerknedam]

You bring back memories of all the time I spend making cool graphics (in basic?) on an Apple 2, and figuring out how to "fix" a broken DOS character editor for Wizardry. Good times.

With recent updates, Windows seemed to have returned to its roots. I really dislike Windows, but Powershell is really quite nice, and my recent Server 2012 r2 "Core" install seemed to confirm that you can get the whole functionality with little more GUI than a terminal window.

I've had email continuously since 1991, had a pager in 1995 and a cell in 1996, but I think I had neither by 1997. I didn't get another cell (a flip phone for a business trip) until late 2013, but had upgraded to a second-hand Nexus S within 6 months. I did get a third-generation iPod on one of my trips up to see you, and I got a replacement iPod Touch two years ago. :) I've been an early-adopter in some ways, but rather behind the times in others.

I definitely appreciate being able to root, rom, and otherwise customize my well-supported phone (well, it was until Android 5), but I do miss the Apple ecosystem where the majority of apps aren't crazy ugly and using inconsistent under interfaces.

[duck2ducks]

That is an impressive 17-year gap between your first cell and your second! I'm not sure you'd find many (any?) others who have done the same. :D

[duck2ducks]

Also, if you too have an interest / fond memories of older technologies, I cannot recommend highly enough that you check out the blog cited at the top. I started reading a blog post or two before going to bed most nights; to my shock, I caught up to his current writings in remarkably quick time. And I've learned so much! :D