Home-Built Computer

Let me start off this blog by stating just how old I am:
• I can remember when magnetic drums were a recording medium in mainframe computers.
• I remember—and have coded in—Hollerith code.
• I remember—and have met—Commodore Grace Hopper.
• When I learned computer programming in high school, it was in COBOL.
Needless to say I’ve just proven myself to be older than dirt (or at least as old as vacuum tubes—Google it). And because of that, it’s safe to say that I was around when the personal computer hit the market, followed by the portable computer as well as the introduction of the cellular phones to the consumer market.

The portable computer and the early cell phones were not the easiest things to carry about. The early portable computers were the size of a small suit case, weighed about 20-30 pounds, ran entirely off of 5.25” floppy disks and had a monitor screen about 7-8 inches in diameter. Cell phones weren’t any better. They were large, boxy things with a rubber ducky antenna that reminded me of the walkie-talkies they used in World War II. They would later become known as “bricks” because they almost resembled a brick in size, shape, and weight. Forget about putting them in your pocket; if you didn’t have a purse or briefcase to put them in, you had to carry them.

Over the years, as electronic components became smaller and faster, the portable computer and cell phone became smaller, lighter, and more powerful. Portable computers earned the nickname “notebook computers” because they were roughly the size of a three-ring binder. An entire phone now fit into a unit about half the size of a receiver of the old-time phone sets. But no matter how much smaller and lighter the devices came, critics would always complain that they were still “too heavy”.

So, manufacturers continued to improve their designs, making them smaller, faster and lighter. And along the way, the line between what was a phone and what was computer began to blur. To this end, we got computers that could fit in the palm of your hand and phones that are small enough to clip to your ear. And still, the critics cried, “Too heavy!” The absurdity of this came about when I read a review of the BlackBerry® Storm which, coming in at all of six ounces, was described as being “a bit chunky”. (Look for my review coming in the future.)

Really? Do you actually have that much trouble lifting your six-ounce cell phone to your ear? Tell me, how do you manage to lift that twelve-ounce can of Bud to your lips?

Society has become obsessed with weight not only in themselves but also in their devices. And there seems to be no end to this downward spiral. Devices today that are praised as being of the perfect weight will become way too heavy a few years from now. And what of the devices themselves? What will happen to them? Currently, we have the MacBook® Air, the thinnest and lightest full-size notebook computer around, but this thing looks so fragile that it could be crushed just by looking as it wrong. I’ve also heard of it getting lost in a stack of papers and being accidentally picked up.

I wouldn’t be surprised if technology kept on shrinking the devices until they became implantable in the human body. Of course, I would be even less surprised if the next generation of reviews came from Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, all complaining that the devices are still “too heavy”.