Goin' a lil' "retro"!

I am in the process of writing a term paper for a class. During the process, I am pulling up buried memories from over twenty years ago.

Who could have dreamed that the building of small personal computers, and the opening of masses of networks to the public would result in “A whole new world”!

I recall working in the Bay area for a micro filming company in the early 1980’s. We worked with many up and coming companies located in the Silicon Valley during that time, one of which was called Osborn computers. Up until that time, most of the general population had never seen a computer. The computers that existed were large monstrosities took someone with specialized skills to operate. The main purpose of these “monsters” was data collection. They were also good at crunching numbers and keeping track of things. However, there was little to no software that the general public could find useful in every day life. Osborn Computers were one of the first to bring many businesses into the computer age. They were one of the first to create a portable computer. I remember the first time I saw one of these "laptop" computers. Looking at that small brown suitcase with it’s little black and white screen, I had no idea how much our world would be revolutionized within a short twenty years. Tandy, came out with the little TRS-80. they were afraid that the public might not go for it, so they only ordered 3000. The leaders of the company reasoned that if they did not sell, they could use the computers to keep track of data in each of their 3000 stores. To the amazement of all, they sold 10,000 the first month and by years end had sold over 55,000. The revolution had begun.

My marriage to my wife in 1983 was challenged from time to time by my love affairs with computers. First a Tandy 8088 invaded the sanctity of our home, to be followed by each successive micro-processor to follow.

I had no idea that I was a willing participant in a cultural revolution that would shake our world as perhaps nothing else ever has.