Obsolescence - it's a fact of life An article by James G. Johnston Well, it finally happened. They finally convinced me that my Atari was obsolete. I went to the bank manager, saw my friendly computer salesman and there it was, in all its glory. An Intel Pentium 60, 420 Meg Hard Disk, Double speed CD, etc., etc., etc., which cost me an arm and a leg. Was it worth the hassle? A whole new system to learn. Well, I have to admit that I cheated here. My 16-year old grandson has taken over, so I sit back, watch what he does and learn the easy way. On the credit side, the standard of programs supplied and those we have purchased is very high. The machine handled school timetables, chemistry homework and mathematics formulae with no problems. We even have a program which draws and colours folding paper aeroplanes - both sides, and they fly too!! On the down side, the 420 meg hard disk soon filled up - one week I think - and some house rules had to be introduced (I think it's something to do with the law that states the program size expands to fill all available RAM). I had forgotten how clumsy DOS is and the use of Windows cluttered up with an idiot type "Navigator" program to let you load the various installed software by icon. I had forgotten how the initial boot file is well within a fortnight (young William was getting on so well he has changed all the sound effects - Windows started with the sound of glass breaking and the session closed with a half scream, half laugh he found somewhere). Then horror! The boot file crashed on startup. He had fiddled around too often. The computer would not recognise the CD player. We tried all we knew including wiping the hard disk and setting it up from scratch. Still no joy. In desperation, I wrote down everything we had done and went to my friendly dealer. We went over the steps and then he phoned Packard Bell. When we explained the error description, he said you are trying to load something without DOS being in place. So simple! We rearranged the boot file to load DOS before the rest and full steam ahead - STUPID SYSTEM!! I find it novel to put a music CD in the CD player and start playing it through Windows, then loading up whatever I am working on and continuing with the CD playing background music. I thought that would have difficulty justifying another computer with my +D speccy and two Atari computers already operational (and I don't want to part with my collection of programs for next to nothing!), but I have discovered that with Gemulator I can have a mega STe emulation on the PC and, even better, with the Z80 emulator I can run my +D discs, and, if I wish, I have a small hardware add-on to the printer port which will let me wait for ages while a TAPE loads. So it would seem that this time I shall be able to make use of my software and play all my old speccy stuff (and maybe now I will be able to complete a few more of my old adventures!) So what has all that got to do with obsolescence? Just this - my computer is 3 months old and already the Intel Pentium has an upgrade from the 60MHz I have to 90, 100, 150 MHz. My double-speed CD drive has been superseded by a quad-speed drive, which has been superseded by a six-speed drive, to name just two items. In fact my new system is obsolete. The real story is that the "computer" as we know it is shortly going to disappear and be replaced by an electronic console supplying TV, TV phone, FAX modem, TV conference, CD/CD TV, Computer Activities (gaming, etc.).... the only thing missing is the microwave to feed you. The unit will be capable of recording sound from the telephone and will produce sound and a hard copy of the message if required. This same unit will allow for TV shopping to expand dramatically. You will click and point for a dress, a car or a pizza. Your order will be instantly processed by the store and sent to you by courier, at the same time the bank will deduct the price of the goods and credit the money to the store. Open University will alter to using this new field, and documents will be downloaded as required. Instead of us getting up early and/or staying up late to record our programs, they will be on line for downloading 24 hrs. a day or on CD TV if you wish to save disk space. I personally cannot forecast the way this road will take us, but I do remember that we were the only family in our street who had a car and the only houses that had telephones were doctors. Public phone booths catered for the country's requirements as did public transport or shanks pony (I walked 3 miles to high school and back so that I could use my bus fare for goodies). In 62 years I have used slide rules, log tables, mechanical add/subtract machines for number and price calculation, the big clumsy "pocket" calculators, and through to bank card sized solar powered calculators. Recently we have moved to a new mini-series of dictionary/thesaurus and programmable calculators which perform instant calculation of very complex maths formulae. Looking back over all this time, the most striking fact is that the rate of change (obsolescence) has speeded up and shortened in time-length incredibly. That this rate of change will continue, would appear inevitable. But with world resources dwindling, population increasing rapidly, and no attempt being made to recycle or preserve what we have, it is impossible to prognosticate with any accuracy. And then I thought .... 65 is the age at which men are regarded as unfit to carry on working (obsolete). I was given early retirement at 53! So effectively I became obsolete 12 years earlier than the norm. It would seem that by the time we are into the new century you may find that you have to pay for being permitted to work .... And then I thought .... - o -