30 Years: A Retrospective Look

[Swad]

This weekend marks 30 years since the beginning of Apple's contribution to computing history... and what a contribution it has been. The impact of Apple's innovations has been treated by much more capable writers than I, but I think this weekend marks a good opportunity to look at what has changed in the past 30 years.

 

I wasn't around to experience the thrill of early computing, although I did grow up playing action-packed monochrome spelling games on an Apple IIe. A visit to the British Science Museum in London helps us place these things in perspective, however - with an Apple I sitting a few feet away from the Babbage Differential Engine, it becomes clear that we are living in the formative age of computing.

 

The community that this site is built on is a highly technical one; most of us are self proclaimed geeks and proud of it. Not only can we readily recite our high scores in the MMORPG of your choice, we can do it in binary.

 

But are we truly better off than we were 30.1 years ago? I love my computers as much as the next person. I've built them, torn them apart, ruined them only to save them at the last moment. But it's a Faustian bargain - with the enjoyment of trying out the latest Linux distro comes the incessant barrage of emails from coworkers demanding my attention. At times exciting and annoying, it seems I am tied to my technology.

 

Are we as a society better as a result of the PC? It's a question to consider. Two good opinions on the issue can be found in this Guardian article on the subject - they represent the Angels and Demons (not of the Dan Brown sort) on my shoulders.

 

So Happy Birthday Apple! Thank you for your innovation and - more importantly - your infectious, innovative philosophy. Let's take this opportunity to ensure that we are responsible stewards of your creation.

 

[Digg it!]

[osmacx86user]

That's a great question. I think there are differing opinions of "better" competing to answer the age old question - "Are we really better off than in the past?".

 

Listing the obvious advances in science are one way to approach this issue:

 

- We clearly have had great improvements in medicine.

- We understand the world around us to greater detail.

- We are more self aware than ever before.

 

One critical ingredient of technological advancement is the rate of information exchange. In the past, information has been secret and often hidden away due to the implications presented by that information.

 

In this age, we are privy to vast amounts of information, but how do we sort it all out? Again, we would need to define "better".

 

We live in an age of instant global communications. This is good, for we know more about ourselves as a global culture and as the human species than ever before. This is bad for the very same reasons. Do we really need to know the details of every heinous act occurring anywhere in the world? Is it important to know about all the good that's occurring? Are we getting a balanced version of both sides, a balance of all information?

 

Oppression always involves control of information.

 

Despite being more self aware, we are possibly getting a "twisted" version of the truth about ourselves based on the goals and agenda of the information gatherers. (Look at modern advertising for an example.)

 

In spite of all the negatives, I believe a globally connected society can lead to greater peace and justice world wide, so long as the standard for peace and morality is being defined by powers that we agree with. (Maybe your standard is different than mine, and probably is!)

 

Based on this line of reasoning, I believe we are dramatically better off than we were 30.1 years ago, and I think Steve Jobs and Apple Computer were fundamental to building a vision of the future which has now been moved dramatically forward.

 

Even today, as I watch thunderstorms roll across the radar screens, I ponder that I am looking at a vast amount of real time data being fed to my computer via the Internet. I still remember watching the evening news with my parents and seeing a crude circular radar and a weather man trying to explain what they thought was going to happen.

 

Nowadays things are different. We have a lot more information and it's much more accurate than ever before. Does anyone look in the newspaper for movie times? Probably not. Or use a phone book? Didn't think so. We are hopelessly connected, always on, always pagable. We are constantly reachable. This is the bad part of the past 30 years. To me, leaving laptop, pager, and phone behind can be a great relief.

 

I recently spent 10 days in a remote region of Mexico. No cell phones, there were some land lines. There was an internet cafe, but it was running on a single intermittent modem line.

 

After a few days I was surprised to find technology did not matter as much for the most part, but did we have clean drinking water? Was there adequate medicine? What if I get injured or sick? The reality of modern life in America comes rushing at you when you realize how absolutely great our lives really are here. We have good food, good water, that's critical stuff.

 

I was also amazed at my friends in Mexico - no set schedule, and a very laid back way of living life. That was refreshing, to say the least. We are often too tied to schedule, finances, and activities which rule our lives.

 

To summarize, there have been great advancements world wide with Jobs and Apple at the epicenter of the incredible change, and I do think it's mostly good. It has the potential to be terribly bad.

 

The downside is our hectic 24x7 lives. Now, how can we bend technology into making our lives once again laid back?

 

Conclusion: So far, we are much better off then ever before, but this is based on the current conditions in which the average person wants to do good. The current state of technology would be terrible in the hands of a world wide totalitarian regime. Technology, including our personal computers, are simply great amplifiers of humanity.

[hdavy2002]

Happy Birthday APPLE. I ate an apple in youe honour.

 

To be honest, the mac people have contibuted a lot to the computing world. If it was'nt for them we would not be here. I remember the first time i used a pc was when i was in school. never understood programing language and still don't today. I think it was cobol. we had to write a small program to add two lines of number.

 

Then we graduated to a class where we had our first graphical view, we wrote a small program to make a line move.

 

my first look at 3.1 made me feel WOW, we had those big floppies to use, a 386 machine then a 486. WOW when i first saw a picture on a desktop, i think it was windows 95 i coud not stop looking.

 

Then came 333 MHz pentium in my life, i was stunned. I had never even known that there is something called Mac or Linux. In india computer was for the elite in the soceity.

Owning a pc was like taking a dog to walk with your nose up. Old wealthy pigs who had pc treated us like craps, if we wanted to use their pc. and someone with a laptop was like a god.

 

Then came the internet in our lives, a dos based shell, and it was so slow, we had to dial to another city to get connected and the conenction broke every 5 min. I paid a lot of money just to see it.

 

one day someone told me the best OS is reh hat linux. I made it a point to learn it someday. Someday will come.

 

As a local indian, the first time i saw a mac was on an apple website, and i recall saying this is beautiful. the graphics are beautiful.

 

The first time i laid my hands on a mac machine, i was not impressed since it was version OS 9. Then came OS X and i loved playing with photoshop. Now i am in a dreamland to where we have come since last 20 years or let say 10 years, you guys in the west had the technology, we were still with burning our pc with kerosine lamps.

 

Things have become cheaper, but macs have not taken the makrket in india, becuase they hardly advertise and are very expensive, if the indian get to know mac, mac will be the most favorate of PC's. Indian's cannot afford 100 $ windows on a 50 $ salary per month. So the east is all pirated, it's so normal and it's part of life. 91 % do not even know what a pirated software means. They just get it with the guy who sold them a home build pc, which is cheaper then dell, compaq etc.

 

Steve spent 4 years in India, as a hippie, he travelled to all the holy places and lived a cheap life, travlling in local bus and local trains. They say he has an effection for the place. I wonder when he will give us cheaper computers. He is in india as i write this.

 

What years we had in computing, everyone has a diffrent experience. I say hats off to the computing community, whether it's linus, unix, mac or windows, we all make one computing world. God bless all, the hackers, the virus makers, the window makers, the unix makers, the networking people, the website designers, the geeks,etc etc. We make the world closer and more emotional.

 

Cheers

[Colonel]

Happy Birthday Apple!