My love affair with computers began in 1992 – the very first time I’ve laid my hands on it and used it in school way back in high school days. It’s been almost 20 years since the first time I was struck by this technology and right at that moment, it ignited my interest to this remarkable, greatest human invention- “COMPUTER”.
I’m thankful that one of the people I really admire and close to my heart owned one, wherein she generously allowed us to use it, I was able to practice the computer basics thru my Tita’s PC. Way back then one of my Aunts, Tita Agnes the very first one in the family who owned a PC at home. I still remember it belongs to the 486 PC family, wherein a 50 MHz 80486 executed around 40 million instructions per second on average and was able to reach 50 at it’s peak. Compared to what we have and enjoy now, that’s way too far.
486 PC
I love computers. I love technology. l just love them.
I wanted to know everything about them how they processed data, their functions and how to fix them when they weren’t working properly. Amongst my family, I was known as the “techie geek Riz“. Through the years of interest in this field, if something that messed up a computer or made it worse, I would try another approach and often find results. Thru trial and error, I became pretty computer savvy.
I have a burning fascination within me of all the wonderful, amazing , powerful things this machine can do. For me computers are personal technologies, it makes my life so much easier and that is precisely why l am fascinated by them. And how do I explain this love. Imagine finding a TRUE LOVE, a one of a kind that weathers and conquers everything, that almost your whole existence bears on it. ( But of course my First Love , it’s still the Almighty and will always be HIM.) . I always knew what I wanted to do it has to be something involving computer technology. I was never fixed on what or where, but I knew I wanted it to involve computers in some way and up to now I have this urge to share this passion to others.
Last week, we had a discussion about the evolution of technology in class and my students were all smiling when I told them how’s technology before and they couldn’t imagine how people managed to use it during that time as they considered it way too slow compared to what we use nowadays. It’s the humble beginning of computers. years ago Floppy disks with 100KB capacity were the most effective means of transferring data between computers, invented by IBM. They are made up of a ‘floppy’ magnetic storage disk encased in a plastic square or rectangular outer shell.
Over the years its size was reduced by more than half with the 8″ version being replaced by the 5.25″ and the 3.5″ surpassing that. The format remained popular until the emergence of flash and optical storage devices such as CD-Rs DVD’s and USB sticks. I still keep some of these kind of floppy disks even some 486 and different sorts of obsolete computer components at home.
old school floppy disks
Out of curiosity and love, everything I could find I tried it;
- from playing with different software and hardware components
- an era wherein the only way to do anything on a computer was to know DOS ( Disk Operating System)
- changing settings and at one point having to replace a new motherboard since I incorrectly placed the power sockets to the motherboard “I forgot black is to black and red is to red” (lolz) this was when I’m just starting to assemble my very first CPU by myself more than a decade ago
- experienced reinstalling systems several times because of a couple of bad moves
- and so on and so forth….
Eventually I got a bit more adventurous and I started trying different kind of stuffs ( you know what I mean 😉 ). I really enjoyed playing around on the PC, and when the World Wide Web, the Internet arise, I became exposed to an entirely new world even to the point of having my personal cyber love life through chatting, social networking ( haha I assume some of you can relate themselves to this situation ). I’ve seen and experienced it’s evolution from the old school dial-up connection with the eeky sound of the modem while it’s dialing, the speeds were pitiful compared to today’s connection speeds. Now we have WiFi, 3G, 4G and so much more the future holds.
The extra control, the ability to have different levels of access were all great, it excites me.There was something even more priceless about being able to put my own computers, gadgets, network connections together. I’m joyful in being able to see just why and how my computer worked the way it did, learning how to install everything. I made my computer, something I can not say about and there is something inherently sweet about building your own machine that really makes it yours. That is not to say that I suddenly know everything about computers, I am still incessantly learning, but I can say I understand my computer gadgets in a way that I can never understand other things.
Gradually, because of technology my world had changed in so many ways. I had access to so much more knowledge. In a wink of an eye, I could find anything I wanted to know, immediately. At first I started out quite innocently, looking up cheats for games, software reviews, trial application downloads and the like. Then of course, blogging, social networking, facebooking and so many new great innovations in front of me.
I’ve grown more and more interested in the world of technology as it exists today. In a day, I spent most of my time in front of it. Computers always entice me. It invited me to sit down and be creative. My ideas flowed in abundance when I sat down in front of it, I was even able to block out my surroundings, just myself and my computer. I’m especially fascinated by our systems of interaction as generated by the world wide web. We are collectively in an era of co-evolution between people and technology. Technology evolves and human beings evolve with it, we evolve and technology evolves with us. A mutual co-existence relationship.
Whenever I see a vintage personal computer, I smile. We may call it obsolete technology but it was the start of something enormous — a revolution. It brings back so many wonderful memories from the time I started to explore it, studied it, have it as my first profession, earning a living from it and in so many ways it changed and touched my life.
Definitely, my love for computer is so valuable, for me its ageless. And I honestly believe that my love and fascination for computer and technology itself will not come to an end anytime soon and it’s not going away with me.
With each passing day I find my life more & more closer with technology and I love it to stay that way.
Riz's Poetic Soul 