Outside the Beltway

Computer Evolution

James Joyner
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Kevin Aylward is offering information on how to get a 64MB USB Disk Drive free in exchange for a $10 donation to Spirit of America.

My initial reaction was “What would I want with something that has only a 64MB drive?! It’ll hold like four MP3s.” What’s amusing is that 64MB used to sound like a lot–my first three computers had smaller hard drives–but now it seems like nothing. I’m sure there’s some perfectly wonderful use for such a device that would be apparent to me were I more in tune with the latest gadgetry.

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6 responses to “Computer Evolution”

  1. Al Bee Avatar
    Al Bee

    The first program I wrote was written for an 8K IBM 1460. The second program I wrote in machine languagee because I was told I would’nt survive without machine language familiarity. That was in 1965. The 1460 was a transistor “driven” as opposed to the previous vacuum tubes.

  2. Brian J. Avatar
    Brian J.

    Yeah, Joyner, ya n00b.

    My first computer had 128K. Back then, 1 Mb hard drives cost $1000 or more.

    My first PC ran at a screaming 10 MHz and had a 40 Mb hard drive, which I never filled.

  3. Chris Lawrence Avatar
    Chris Lawrence

    A 128MB USB flash device was one of my backup devices for my dissertation. It probably would have fit on a 64MB device (certainly the TeX source would have, along with the final PDF document, but fitting in all of the analysis and data sets would have been tight).

  4. Kevin Aylward Avatar
    Kevin Aylward

    Chris you could have zipped them.

    I managed to carry documents around on and 8MB USB Disk for the last two years. Great for home to office (and vice versa) transport.

  5. Jim Avatar
    Jim

    I know the weird disconnet. My first computer was a Commadore 64. My first hard drive was 20 megs (and $400). I just purchased a memory card for my digital camera: 128 Megs for price I paid for one meg of memory for my first 286 computer.

  6. Attila Girl Avatar
    Attila Girl

    My friends used to program a computer in high school that was so large, it took up a whole room. I think that was only 128K.

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