Chapter 14 Computers

I interviewed my dad, who is 71 years old. His first computer was what he referred to as a IBM "PC Junior" which he purchased in 1984. He bought the computer because it was something that he wanted to word process and play some games and having a pc back then in a way it was one of the coolest things you could buy, and was somewhat of a status symbol. It was a white rectangular box, not much wider than a monitor that would sit atop it. It had an old white "clackety sounding keyboard with monster keys and the keyboard itself weighed a good pound or two. There wasn't a ton to choose from but the PCjr was a nice choice because it was a bit of a more compact package, and that was part of the appeal to making it the right computer for him. This was the year before I was born.

My father made use of the PCjr over the next 8 or so years. He used it intermittently, not everyday like we use our computers today. A while after the PCjr went to hell. My dad's wanted to have a computer to be able to use a program called Quicken, which was a book keeping and money management system. He bought a Micron Clientpro with a pentium 2 processor and a 4 gigabyte hard drive, which was quite a hard drive in 1997. It came with Windows 95 and he upgraded it about a  half  a year later to Windows 98 which was almost identical, but way better. He said it was better and the ease of use was great. Windows 95 was the first time Windows with a popup menue bar, where you click the "Start" button and files and folders pop-up. This computer was also about getting on the internet via dialup with America Online, aka. AOL. I remember personally that this was the first computer that I played with and was so excited to have a computer in the home again with awesome sound, graphics, color, speed, easy color printing. 

My dad commented on the photoshop software that was cutting edge and the ability to print photos at home. a couple years later he bought a purpleish- bluish Sony Vaio. He said that was his favorite computer yet. He bought the vaio for the advanced and better processing for photo and video media. This was also a computer that was better paired with the new DSL "high speed"(for the time) internet which was about a 1.5 mbps download and 256mb upload speed, as he recalled. The vaio had the advanced modem for this higher speed internet. The ability to burn cd's was also appealing

He has purchased a plethora of computers since then, and prefers laptop computing today, which he can enjoy in his favorite livingroom comfy spot. he enjoys bluetooth and other wireless connectivity. He burns a lot of discs still, even though I told him that technology is going out. Personally I get all my music and video streamed live, even in the car. I don't do cd's anymore and dvd/bluray rarely. He does a lot of digital photo He is looking forward to seeing how virtual reality will benefit him in the future. He isn't sure how it will yet tho. He is becoming curious about the amazon echo dot technology and other smart home technologies, as am I.