68kMLA

For ordinary people, home computers made the biggest impact. Before the late 70s, everything had to be done by hand, at human speeds. Calculators sped math up by a factor of 10(ish), but computers then sped everything up 1000x or more. The IBM PC was an evolution of late 70s business micros, but the Mac was a massive conceptual leap again (if not a performance leap).. 1/

We don't see micros & GUIs for the conceptual leaps they were, because we're used to it, obviously. But one way to understand it is to think about how Boomers were taught to think vs how we think. In their world, all mechanical devices and appliances were fixed-function.. 2/

That is, an object's user-interface: the buttons, dials, and levers did specific things that never changed, much like even today's cars where someone from the 1950s could jump straight to today and continue driving within a few minutes. But today's user-interfaces are fluid: the visual indications and gestures are dynamic, so the key skill is to know how to work out how to use a device.. 3/

And this presented a major problem for society then. They'd ask: "how do I use it?", and the reply: "Whatever you want." would make no sense. And that meant that practical microcomputer applications took a while to appear, beginning with Word Processors and video games (because we'd already played Pong and Space Invaders). For the minority who did understand though, of course it was immediately inspiring.

It was great to be around then - and I miss that time so much.
Don't get me wrong, its great to have what's available to us now, but its almost like having three channels of television and then getting cable TV, now you have 250 channels, but you can still only watch one.

Fondest memories:
- Stopping in to work at the the university library computer lab - at least a dozen AT&T PCs (the amber screens were so cool!) and the same number of Mac SEs, all brand new and AppleTalk networked to a couple of LaserWriters (the original monster-sized ones).

Fondest memories:
- Going to the Apple dealer in town and playing with the Macintosh Portable display model. There was no way you could afford it, but it was SO cool to use it, even just for a little while.