Today I had a throw back to just how far we have come with technology. I was born in 1989 and had my first taste of technology around 1993-1995 when my parents acquired an old computer system which I played Lion King and Wheel of Fortune on. I also have memories of playing Doom at a young age on a laptop that was provided by my dad’s work.

My next memories are of playing a flying game on my cousin’s computer at my aunt’s house. My parents soon bought this computer for me and I was able to have it at home to play with. It didn’t take me long to discover the wonders of SimCity for Window’s 3.1. I was also able to talk my mother into purchasing a new fad called Dial Up. Wow, how far we had come, by 97 or 98 we were techies!

In there of course, my dad had built my grandpa and I identical computers running this great new operating system called Windows 95. Its graphical interface was improved upon and was much faster than Windows 3.1 (which I still don’t know how the name came about). I never had the latest and greatest technology but it was always a steady upgrade.

I don’t have many memories through these years but I do know I was upgraded to Windows 98 and then this nice operating system called Windows ME! I remember computer upgrades during this time but don’t recall much until 7th grade when I was built a new computer to run Windows 2000! I never have figured out how ME (millennium edition) and 2000 (the new millennium) weren’t the same thing but that’s not important.

That faithful computer (well, maybe one or two pieces of it) is still running today with many hardware upgrades and a copy of Windows XP. Around 2004 or 2005, I also received my first real laptop, a Toshiba Satellite, which I used up until 2008. It also ran XP and ran it great. It was the laptop that I formed GreeneCountyIndiana.com and Kegan’s Kandy Web Services, now known as New Deal Multimedia, LLC, on.

As I said, I had to replace my faithful Toshiba laptop in June of 2008 because during our family vacation to Myrtle Beach it shorted out and went from a faithful computer to a toasty mess of burned circuits. I replaced it with an Acer Aspire, the one I am typing on currently, and it has continued to work for me as a faithful digital companion.

In this month, I plan on becoming the proud owner of a Netbook, making my job easier and in October I plan on receiving a Blackberry (or equivalent piece of equipment). I am trying to stay up-to-date on my technology to make myself and my businesses as efficient as possible.

Now, we usually don’t stop to look back at how far we have come with technology until we have to. Today was one of those days that I was forced to do so. I received a call to help a business get their records from 2006 to present off a computer and into a print form. They didn’t of course have a printer or it would of been a piece of cake.

I was warned the computer was old and when I arrived I realized they were being generous to it by just call it old…it was an antique. I had grabbed some stuff up that I hoped would help me move the files quickly and easily. First, my jumpdrive wasn’t at all recognized by Windows 98, the cd-writer in the computer had since stopped function as had the floppy drive. All this left me wondering what I could do.

Not willing to give up on my task, I drove back home and starting searching my arsenal of collected technology. I finally was able to dig up a laser printer that was manufactured in the Mid-90s but amazing it wasn’t made in China and still works to this day. I researched and found a driver on the internet that would make it work with that system and after a bit more fighting with the old computer, I was able to print off all of their records.

I guess no matter how far we have come, there will still be those older systems out there and being able to work with them is important. It just goes to show that my parents providing me with a computer at an early age did pay off.

Thanks Mom and Dad!

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