Back in the Day: Computers

When the internet was just a dream and this stuff was expensive as shit.

image source | I was making monthly payments on this forever it seemed.

The kids these days- they don’t know how good they have it. They have their face jammed into a small little magic computer that fits in their pocket and they are so used to it they do not know that it wasn’t always the normal.

With the latest news being the tariffs on some Apple stuff going to hit 25% possibly, I thought yes…okay, that’s bad.

BUT.

You have a computer in your pocket that I would have killed to have back in the day. Instead: my portable of 1992 was this monster you see in the photo above.

This thing was: crappy, expensive and heavy.

And, I loved it. I LOVED it. I carried it around with me everywhere. I made new friends with this computer. I made money with this computer. It was great and also the world’s biggest piece of crap at the same time.

I bought this (well, financed it) for almost four thousand dollars in 1991. That’s close to $10,000 in today’s dollars. With thirty-six easy monthly payments (spoiler: they were not easy)

That’s a lot of money for a laptop computer that did not do much of anything compared to today’s stuff. Backups were on floppies, and the power brick weighed as much as the computer. And the screen was horrific. But I couldn’t stretch to get the one with the better screen.

This assumed it even worked to begin with. One thing I remember is that if you turned on the scanner when hooked up to this thing it would erase the hard drive. Good Times.

What’s amazing is that I ran a business making graphic signs off this thing. I can’t remember how long it would take to start but it was not fast. I have no idea how it managed to run a graphic plotter at all, but I do remember the software to do so was in the thousands as well.

Complaints aside, I got a lot done with this thing.

This stuff was not cheap. It was slow and useless, but that didn’t stop me from trying to get the best use I could out of it because at the time the laptop above was the future. I had a portable computer! Oh, the possibilities!

Today you can walk into any Apple Store and buy a $999 MacBook Air and be done with computing forever as it’s all the computer most of use even need.

Today, you can go even cheaper. In fact, a lot cheaper.

I started thinking about this as I was puttering around tonight with my current computer: A Mini PC priced under $100 that I bought on a whim and works surprisingly well for my needs. I really didn’t have high hopes for this little thing that’s about as big as a ham sandwich, but it’s got all the power you need for everyday use.

I bought it on sale for $80! No monthly payments and a fraction of the price I paid back in the day.

My current ride.

Granted, you still need a monitor/mouse/cable but even that would cost about the same. You could have an incredibly good desktop system for about $300!

That’s a far cry from ten grand. This PC works online! It has the world wide web so you can play solitaire online with your friends.

It works, it’s fast and cheap. It’s fine.

So, yes - more expensive iPhones are not a good thing.

But tech was a lot more expensive back in the day. Now the child swipes and clicks like it’s second nature - I was changing the case on my phone tonight and she had never seen a phone without a case and she was mesmerized as it really is light, thin, and small and full of just small little parts and some glass

For her: Light and small will be ancient and I can only guess the tech will get smaller/faster/lighter.

For me: I’m still taking medication for back pain after slugging around a 25lb computer bag for years. And I’m still pissed about all the accidentally erased hard drives.

Tonight’s PSA: Make sure you have a backup.

Keep computing,

TH and Co.