A small piece of homebrew history to remind us...

[passedpawn]

My dad used to actually be a programmer back in the 60's and used those punch cards. He got out of computers in the early 70's and did touch them again for many years. When I was in HS I bought my first computer, a C-64. I can remember vividly how blown away he was that this "little box" held a whole 64K of memory! The rate of change still scrambles my mind. My current phone came with 4Gb micro SD card, about the size of a fingernail, and they make them in something like 16 or 32Gb now.

Funny. 64k. I had the VIC-20, also a commodore computer. 3.8k. I wrote a blackjack game on that thing, with 3.8k. Inconceivable in todays standards. I also used punch cards in college. You'd key in your program on those cards, then hand them to El Nerdo behind the glass. He'd return the results of your program on a giant piece of tractor-fed fanfold paper. It's all surreal now, as you point out, with 1Ghz processor in cell phones.

 

[SumnerH]

The rate of change still scrambles my mind. My current phone came with 4Gb micro SD card, about the size of a fingernail, and they make them in something like 16 or 32Gb now.

128GB SD cards:
http://www.myce.com/news/lexar-unveils-the-worlds-largest-sd-card-128gb-sdxc-model-38445/

Amazon has plenty of 64GB SDs.

 

[Golddiggie]

Consider how far technology, in computers, has come since their infancy durin WWII... With processors having multiple cores, with hyperthreading (that actually works properly) you can have a single workstation class system with more power than almost every computer in the world, just a couple of decades ago (if that long ago).

Hell, a typical cell phone has more processing power in it than the space shuttle (been that way for more than a few years too)...

I remember the first computer we got as a family... An old Toshiba T100 configuration... It had the very floppy floppy drive (5-1/4") with a cassette player for 'backup'... I think it was a 64k system too, although it's so long ago it's hard to remember the details. The next one we got was an 80/86 (86MHz in 'turbo mode')... :rockin: Thinking about those old systems from my youth, compared with my workstation running dual E5345 Xeon's, with 16GB of RAM and 2.25TB of storage, makes you realize how far things really have come. I think our first computer had a hard drive with a few MB in it... Back then, they couldn't see the need for more... Now, you have TB and even PB for storage sizes...

 

[Golddiggie]

128GB SD cards:
http://www.myce.com/news/lexar-unveils-the-worlds-largest-sd-card-128gb-sdxc-model-38445/

Amazon has plenty of 64GB SDs.

Problem is, phones typically use the micro-SD cards... At 133x, they're too slow for my digital camera (1Ds Mark III) to be of any decent use. I go for high speed, over huge capacity. As long as I can get a couple of hundred shots on a set of cards, I'm happy. I do shoot to both an SD and CF card at the same time (large JPG to the SD, RAW to the CF)...

Digital cameras is another area where technology has exploded... Look back at what was available around 2000/2001 compared to now...

 

[passedpawn]

So, John Palmer. 18 years ago. Says wowee, making beer is hard, mine's infected. Now, he's written the bible on it (IMO).

Where will YOU be in your brewing career in 18 years.

 

[Golddiggie]

So, John Palmer. 18 years ago. Says wowee, making beer is hard, mine's infected. Now, he's written the bible on it (IMO).

Where will YOU be in your brewing career in 18 years.

Ask me again in 17.75 years...

Now, if you ask where do I WANT to be... That's a different story. :rockin:

 

[davesrose]

Besides the trip down computer memory lane...I think it's also funny that the post mentioned video taping an episode! :cross: I just recently got rid of my VCR because I'd rather stay all digital now, and last time I tried a videotape on a big HDTV...it looked dreadful!

 

[FrFtr28]

Small world. There's a post on there from my current boss asking about opening a homebrew shop. Looks like that idea never panned out for him.