The Real Future of Computers

[JustDave]

Back when my school was still running on Apple II computers, or more accurately when they had bought a few Apple IIs because they were affordable, a colleague of mine, a rather bright one at that, came up with one of those premature predictions people make when few people had even an idea what was in store for computing, and no one had even thought about a thing called the Internet, she said, "People think that the future of computers will be in math, but it will really be in word processing."

I thought about that for a while and agreed, "You know, she is probably right," as I immediately saw the personal value in writing. Oh sure there will be math uses for the geeks at NASA, but word processing will be what it's really all about. Well we were right, and NASA was right, but mostly all of us were wrong about 95 percent of it.

 

[JustDave]

A different prediction that was probably true 40 years ago, but not today was that, "Improvements in power and speed in computers is being driven by gamers." Of course it was told to me by a gamer, but I think it was probably true back then.

 

[horseless carriage]

Computers have evolved, but the abacus will always be there for you. You can count on it!

 

[MarkinPhx]

A different prediction that was probably true 40 years ago, but not today was that, "Improvements in power and speed in computers is being driven by gamers." Of course it was told to me by a gamer, but I think it was probably true back then.

I was very much into the Links golf series back in the early 90's. It was a golf simulator that offered many different real golf courses to play . Each year the company that developed and published the game (Accolade) would put out a new edition to keep up with the evolving changes in graphics processing power. I kept up , buying either a new graphic card or even building a new gaming PC when needed. The leap in the graphics from one edition to the next was always worth the effort to me.

The final edition came out in 2001 and at the time, the graphics appeared to be so real and lifelike to me. My mind was tricked into thinking so. Looking back at the graphics now, they seem so simple and almost cartoonish looking. But at the time, it was interesting to see the leaps in processing power and graphics from year to year by just playing a golf game on my PC.

 

[Gardenlover]

The earliest games I can recall were King's Quest on the IBM PC jr and Auto Racing game on the Intellivison.

 

[JustDave]

All of those evolved quite quickly. I haven't bought a game or upgraded my playstation for two or three years. The last game I bought was "The Last of Us." An astonishing advancement in gaming, I thought. I also did Flight Simulator for years. Power was what it needed and Microsoft was always putting out the new edition, which none of the current gaming computers could run it well with all the MSFS settings maxed out.

Maxing out would have been nice, but not necessary to have a very pleasant experience. It always struck me as MicroSoft being overly optimistic about advancements in power. Haven't done MSFS for 6 or 7 years now, and my last computer was brand new at less than $500, now that I'm out of gaming.

 

[JustDave]

I was very much into the Links golf series back in the early 90's. It was a golf simulator that offered many different real golf courses to play . Each year the company that developed and published the game (Accolade) would put out a new edition to keep up with the evolving changes in graphics processing power. I kept up , buying either a new graphic card or even building a new gaming PC when needed. The leap in the graphics from one edition to the next was always worth the effort to me.

The final edition came out in 2001 and at the time, the graphics appeared to be so real and lifelike to me. My mind was tricked into thinking so. Looking back at the graphics now, they seem so simple and almost cartoonish looking. But at the time, it was interesting to see the leaps in processing power and graphics from year to year by just playing a golf game on my PC.

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I bought lots of games and I did try one golf game, which was fun. I loved the environments. Most of my games were first person shooters.

 

[Dr. Jekyll]

The ugly secret in the industry is that porn really drives the cutting edge of technology advancements. From a CNN article called "In the tech world, porn quietly leads the way"

In the technology worlds, it's an open secret that porn is always on the cutting edge.
Days after the iPad release, a major porn company announced a way to stream videos on it.
Porn's on the cutting edge because of deep pockets and a need to find creative outlets, experts say.
Tech companies internally acknowledge porn's impact, but stay quiet in public.

 

[MarkinPhx]

I bought lots of games and I did try one golf game, which was fun. I loved the environments. Most of my games were first person shooters.

MS Flight Simulator is another great example. I remember thinking how realistic the airport that was used in Chicago looked at the time. You mentioning first person shooters reminds me of when I first played Deus Ex. It was a first shooter RPG type of game . The first part of the game takes place in NYC and the hero has to get terrorist who took over the Statue of Liberty. The graphics looked so advanced at the time. I felt the same when playing the original Doom game also.

 

[JustDave]

The movie, GRAN_TURISMO is a true story about a young adult who played the game and got so good that he was given a chance to race for real in a contest to promote the game, and of course he wins Hollywood style. I've watched it three times, and like it. I don't know how much the film was glamorized. Maybe a lot or not much, but it's interesting.

 

[JustDave]

MS Flight Simulator is another great example. I remember thinking how realistic the airport that was used in Chicago looked at the time. You mentioning first person shooters reminds me of when I first played Deus Ex. It was a first shooter RPG type of game . The first part of the game takes place in NYC and the hero has to get terrorist who took over the Statue of Liberty. The graphics looked so advanced at the time. I felt the same when playing the original Doom game also.

Doom, I remember that one. It was highly rated at one time.

 

[MarciKS]

I'm fairly certain gaming changed the computer world immensely. A lot of programming goes into that stuff and maybe they stumbled upon stuff along the way. But who could've imagined back in the beginning that there'd be all this computer hacking and AI. I never would've even thought of such things back in the 90s when I first got online.

Plus I'm sure the graphics in gaming alone helped a lot with the graphics we see today. I wish I had been able to take part in the world of tech as a programmer but, unfortunately, life didn't roll that way for me.

 

[Messy]

I was very much into the Links golf series back in the early 90's. It was a golf simulator that offered many different real golf courses to play . Each year the company that developed and published the game (Accolade) would put out a new edition to keep up with the evolving changes in graphics processing power. I kept up , buying either a new graphic card or even building a new gaming PC when needed. The leap in the graphics from one edition to the next was always worth the effort to me.

The final edition came out in 2001 and at the time, the graphics appeared to be so real and lifelike to me. My mind was tricked into thinking so. Looking back at the graphics now, they seem so simple and almost cartoonish looking. But at the time, it was interesting to see the leaps in processing power and graphics from year to year by just playing a golf game on my PC.

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My BIL had a golf game in the 90s. It was not on a pc, but a device that later didn't exist anymore. All I remember is that when I could try it that golf player got mad, cause I played so lousy.

 

[Rich]

The ugly secret in the industry is that porn really drives the cutting edge of technology advancements. From a CNN article called "In the tech world, porn quietly leads the way"

Back in the 90s, the company I worked for bought laptops for all the field technicians. It was a huge leap forward, suddenly we could bill jobs promptly, the techs could order parts on the spot, and they could open and close service calls online, this represented a profound time savings. Since hardly anyone back then had much computer experience, we brought everyone in for a training seminar.
After a few hours we stopped for a break. Normally the guys would scatter for a smoke, a snack, or to make phone calls. This time, though, a bunch of them were huddled together, clearly excited about something one of the techs was showing off. Naively, I assumed he’d discovered some clever new workflow trick.
Imagine my surprise when I found out what they were actually looking at. They weren't the least bit shy about it either

 

[JustDave]

What does porn do that Utube can't? Beyond the obvious of course.