When my youngest son was born in 1993, cassette tapes and the Sony Walkman were popular. I had a brick-sized phone hardwired into my car, and we had a Macintosh-II in the study. We take a lot of today’s technology for granted — it’s evolved so fast it’s hard to remember any of that wasn’t so long ago.
Here is a throwback picture showcasing the cool tech we had back then.
Everything in that photo now exists in the cheapest of smartphones. And the features and functions available now far exceed my wildest expectations back then.
For a blast from the past and a look back at what used to be top-of-the-line … here’s a video of people buying a computer in 1994.
via David Hoffman
Video transfer and playback. 160-megabyte hard drive. 32 megahertz. All for the low price of $2,000.
I can remember back further than 1993, because I’m old enough that I didn’t have my first computer until after I graduated college. My first Macintosh had floppy disks measured in K, not megs or gigs. For context, my first job out of school was at a law firm where the only people who used computers were in the typing pool. And when I said I wanted a computer, the lawyers said “No!” because it would look bad.
It’s pretty cool to see how far we’ve come!
This week’s other piece is a reflection on moonshots. Just as a reminder, even the things that seem like moonshots today will someday look “primitive” and “quaint”.
Now, that’s cool! I can’t wait!!
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