Demography?

From: Doug Yowza <yowza_at_yowza.com>
Date: Sun Mar 1 15:25:01 1998

Hi, I'm Doug, and I'm a computerholic.

It started innocently enough with an HP65 programmable calculator in high
school (1977 or so). I played Lunar Lander and wrote a few programs, but
this wasn't enough to get me hooked.

For graduation in 1979, I got an Apple ][. I wrote a few programs in
clean crisp integer basic, and that was cool. But then I loaded some demo
program off a tape (by Bill Atkinson, I think). It was fast! I
experimented a little with assembly language. I was hooked.

I went to school at UCSD and brought my Apple with me. Convinced that
computers were cool toys, but unworthy of serious study, I studied
biochemistry, but snuck in a few computer classes out of curiosity. The
first was a FORTRAN course in which I wrote programs on punched cards and
fed them to a Burroughs 7800. I feel no nostalgia for that machine.

The PDP-11's and VAXen at UCSD were OK, but uninspiring compared to having
your own personal machine with a bit-mapped display. I regarded those
with S-100 machines as mad, and those with TRS-80's and Pets with a mix of
distain and pitty. The Apple was the only thing happening until IBM
unleashed the PC with sort of a dull thud.

While running a small computer lab at UCSD, I had my first experience of
computer envy when somebody brought in their GRiD Compass. I finally
resolved that relationship this year when I got my own GRiD Compass, and
then I realized that I had a few other nostalgic itches that needed to be
scratched.

Now that I'm an aging software weenie in Silicon Valley, I'm starting to
forget, for example, what a silly thing was the E&S PS-300 with it's
dataflow language, and I kinda sorta want one.

BTW, here's my theory of why now is an interesting time to be a collector:
the computer is now so mainstream that innovation is occuring only in very
narrow areas. As far as architecure goes, general purpose scalar machines
are the only ones to survive. RIP: writeable control stores, dataflow
architectures, LISP engines, connection machines, object-oriented
architecures, etc. If you don't get your hands on one of these recently
extinct dinosaurs soon, forget it. As far as form factor goes, I can't
think of any reason that everybody won't be using laptops in the next few
years, so now's a good time to collect ancient form factors as well as a
good time to collect early instances of the first of the new generation.

(OK, I guess that was cathartic. Thanks for the invitation.)

-- Doug
Received on Sun Mar 01 1998 - 15:25:01 GMT