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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Wednesday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week 06/23/2010 Bob Dylan said it in a song back in the
‘60’s – The times they are a changing ...and so is the pc
and the electronics world ... The
Personal Computer is now 35 years old; entering middle age. Born as a computer kit in 1975 –
The Altair Computer could
only be assembled by an electronics expert, and could only be programmed by a
computer expert in assembly language. It took decades for the PC to become
even mildly user friendly. Today small
children use personal computers in their daily school curriculums, and they
teach their parents how to do things. Millions of people use personal
computers daily in their jobs or professions, and millions of young adults now
see the personal computer as a communication device for email and social
networking, and as an entertainment device for playing online games. As the PC
evolved, it began to assume the capabilities of other electronic devices. In
the 1980’s many of the electronic arcade games
like Pacman and Mario Brothers were available on the pc, as well as on the
early game machines. But over the
years most of these games left the pc and went to sophisticated game machines
like the Xbox. Also in
the mid 1980’s was the introduction of computer cdrom drives, and the
PC became a much more powerful and versatile system, enabling a computer to
play music, display pictures, and access libraries of data stored on cdrom
disks. As the
internet exploded in the 90’s, the pc became much more of a
communication device, being able to send email and business correspondence anywhere
in the world instantly. Some of the first large social networking sites like
America Online began back then, and social networking has since evolved into
the phenomenon of Facebook today Digital
cameras emerged that you could connect to your pc and upload and view the pictures, and even enhance
them with picture editing software.
And of
course in the 90’s cell phone usage exploded, from the clunky old big
devices down to handheld size, and cell phones took advantage of the WWW and
began having email and photo capability. The
capability of cell phones to take pictures has impacted our world greatly;
many of the news stories we see today feature cell phone video documenting
events and natural disasters. And cell phones have created the concept of
texting – which millions of people are now addicted to and which has
caused numerous traffic accidents, and even sexting – sending sexy
pictures over the internet. Digital
camera makers are feeling the heat from cell phones, and they and other
electronic device makers like DVD manufacturers are beginning to take back
functions from the PC. For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2010 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html Call: (509)624-7230 |
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