Ah yes, the year of 1981. 30 years ago. It was a time when the first commercial home computers arrived in stores worldwide. More or less. Importantly, that particular year I entered my teenage years, and I always wondered what would happen if home computers arrived a couple of years later and avoided my teen days, allowing me to have a different childhood with different options for life later. Would I be a different person with a different career today? Probably. I remember I was on the edge by choosing my professional career and was ready to go for science, most likely in physics or astronomy, as those two fascinated me at the time the most. They still influence me a lot, probably because of the same reasons computers hooked me - they are so mysterious and provide endless pleasurable time unlocking nature.
But no, computers arrived just the same year when I turned 13 years old, when I was the most emotionally disturbed by various hormones and other chemicals suddenly released in a young boy's body, and I was hooked big time. They were so attractive, so mysterious, so colorful, so enigmatic, so... new. I instantly learned BASIC and dived into the world of zeros and ones. And the video games... They were so addictive, solving puzzles, killing aliens, eating dots and ghosts—you name it. I still remember that year when I was on summer holiday in Greece with my parents, waiting every day in line to take my couple of minutes in front of a big video console, driving a giant ladybug throughout a maze, avoiding some villainous insects... After 30 years now, here I am, still playing with computers, only now for money, writing (sometimes pretty complex) software applications on a daily basis, having learned so far maybe around 15 programming languages with all their variations, still playing video games, now with my son, only now the ladybug evolved into a bigger angry bird, but in a nutshell, nothing dramatically changed over the years. But compared to other careers, being a software developer is a good thing. At least for me, as computers provide a constant hunger for learning new stuff, they are changing every day, and in the days full of programming hours, I feel like I am making a real contribution to the world. Not the big one, but surely the feeling is right.
There was a trap in the software career back in the time when I was younger. I was thinking of joining some big companies, going abroad, and working on more significant projects in the field of developing operating systems or programming languages themselves... But I decided that this was not for me. This was a path where I would be just a small bolt in the giant industry, and that would require big sacrifices. If I did that, I would definitively have to stop with other activities and hobbies and would have much less family time, and I knew for sure that if I didn't have all that, I would be no good and would probably sink into a small cubicle or, even worse, evolve into a boss-type of person that I never liked and would never be good at.
So 30 years of computer evolution passed in a flash of the eye, and from my first home computer Sinclair ZX Spectrum, to today's PC, what's really changed maybe the most is best self-described by simple comparison in their subsystems: CPU speed was at 3.5 MHz compared to my current HP 8710w laptop with a dual processor running on 2.5 GHz. The ZX had 16kB of ROM and 16kB of RAM memory, and I remember I had its ROM printed on paper in full Z80s assembly language. Comparing that, HP has its own 4GB capacity, and printing its OS would be similar to printing the complete DNA sequence of mine. The display was 32x24 characters with some color limitations, while I am looking right now at a 24" monitor in HD resolution. ZX didn't have any hard disk extended memory, just a simple way of recording software on an outside tape recorder where all zeros and ones were represented with its own sound. What is similar to nowadays' internet I remember that some radio stations were broadcasting Spectrum's programs live in the air. We were recording them on magnetic tapes and then loading them into memory. This great ZX Spectrum time of my teenager years lasted for maybe 4 years when the first PC computers appeared with their floppy disks and small hard drives. My parents took two car trips to Munich (around 1000km) back in 1988 just to complete our first home PC286. ZX served for many more years as a developing system in our lab, where my parents and I created a couple of industrial controllers based on Zilog's Z80 8-bit CPU. For almost a decade, this little CPU and ZX Spectrum carried a serious business within industrial means. Amazing what was possible to be done in just a couple of kilobytes of free space.
With today's update of the post I am including a link to the full ZX Spectrum emulator written entirely in JavaScript. Please find it within Qaop/JS HTML5 ZX Spectrum emulator with tons of games you can run from Torinak game page.
To conclude with some wisdom everybody knows today, 30 years of working in the IT business was really dynamic and enjoyable, and now when I look at thousands or tens of thousands or even more lines of code behind me, it makes me a little proud. Sometimes, when I start some application I made years ago, I simply can't believe it is my work, and for some I don't even remember the story behind, and even the programming language is a bit unfamiliar after years of its extinction.
Sinclair ZX Spectrum JavaScript emulator
http://torinak.com/qaop
Sinclair ZX Spectrum
http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/computers/zxspectrum/zxspectrum.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum
Peek & Poke
http://www.peekpoke.hr/en
HP 8710w:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3864
Sinclair ZX Spectrum
But no, computers arrived just the same year when I turned 13 years old, when I was the most emotionally disturbed by various hormones and other chemicals suddenly released in a young boy's body, and I was hooked big time. They were so attractive, so mysterious, so colorful, so enigmatic, so... new. I instantly learned BASIC and dived into the world of zeros and ones. And the video games... They were so addictive, solving puzzles, killing aliens, eating dots and ghosts—you name it. I still remember that year when I was on summer holiday in Greece with my parents, waiting every day in line to take my couple of minutes in front of a big video console, driving a giant ladybug throughout a maze, avoiding some villainous insects... After 30 years now, here I am, still playing with computers, only now for money, writing (sometimes pretty complex) software applications on a daily basis, having learned so far maybe around 15 programming languages with all their variations, still playing video games, now with my son, only now the ladybug evolved into a bigger angry bird, but in a nutshell, nothing dramatically changed over the years. But compared to other careers, being a software developer is a good thing. At least for me, as computers provide a constant hunger for learning new stuff, they are changing every day, and in the days full of programming hours, I feel like I am making a real contribution to the world. Not the big one, but surely the feeling is right.
There was a trap in the software career back in the time when I was younger. I was thinking of joining some big companies, going abroad, and working on more significant projects in the field of developing operating systems or programming languages themselves... But I decided that this was not for me. This was a path where I would be just a small bolt in the giant industry, and that would require big sacrifices. If I did that, I would definitively have to stop with other activities and hobbies and would have much less family time, and I knew for sure that if I didn't have all that, I would be no good and would probably sink into a small cubicle or, even worse, evolve into a boss-type of person that I never liked and would never be good at.
Personal Computer i286
So 30 years of computer evolution passed in a flash of the eye, and from my first home computer Sinclair ZX Spectrum, to today's PC, what's really changed maybe the most is best self-described by simple comparison in their subsystems: CPU speed was at 3.5 MHz compared to my current HP 8710w laptop with a dual processor running on 2.5 GHz. The ZX had 16kB of ROM and 16kB of RAM memory, and I remember I had its ROM printed on paper in full Z80s assembly language. Comparing that, HP has its own 4GB capacity, and printing its OS would be similar to printing the complete DNA sequence of mine. The display was 32x24 characters with some color limitations, while I am looking right now at a 24" monitor in HD resolution. ZX didn't have any hard disk extended memory, just a simple way of recording software on an outside tape recorder where all zeros and ones were represented with its own sound. What is similar to nowadays' internet I remember that some radio stations were broadcasting Spectrum's programs live in the air. We were recording them on magnetic tapes and then loading them into memory. This great ZX Spectrum time of my teenager years lasted for maybe 4 years when the first PC computers appeared with their floppy disks and small hard drives. My parents took two car trips to Munich (around 1000km) back in 1988 just to complete our first home PC286. ZX served for many more years as a developing system in our lab, where my parents and I created a couple of industrial controllers based on Zilog's Z80 8-bit CPU. For almost a decade, this little CPU and ZX Spectrum carried a serious business within industrial means. Amazing what was possible to be done in just a couple of kilobytes of free space.
With today's update of the post I am including a link to the full ZX Spectrum emulator written entirely in JavaScript. Please find it within Qaop/JS HTML5 ZX Spectrum emulator with tons of games you can run from Torinak game page.
Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Jumping Jack
To conclude with some wisdom everybody knows today, 30 years of working in the IT business was really dynamic and enjoyable, and now when I look at thousands or tens of thousands or even more lines of code behind me, it makes me a little proud. Sometimes, when I start some application I made years ago, I simply can't believe it is my work, and for some I don't even remember the story behind, and even the programming language is a bit unfamiliar after years of its extinction.
Sinclair ZX Spectrum JavaScript emulator
http://torinak.com/qaop
Sinclair ZX Spectrum
http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/computers/zxspectrum/zxspectrum.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum
Peek & Poke
http://www.peekpoke.hr/en
HP 8710w:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3864