This journey all started 6 years ago, and it was all Simon’s fault! (PtII)

Chapter 4:

My first official post in a university as a computer demonstrator started post-revolution (see my previous post)! As I was pretty good at computer programming in GW-Basics and Graphic Basics in the computer module/course (or at least the professor thought I was), I was picked up to spend 4 hours per week of my student life in the computer lab to demonstrate and teach other students how to get their heads around the new PCs and use them to carry out the basic assignments in computer programming. As much fun as this was at the time, it may look very trivial and basic these days but remember we are talking pretty much about pre-internet era! And Google? What Google? Let alone tones of other search engines on (light) web, or elsewhere (dark web, etc. etc.)!   

Chapter 5:

This chapter 5 is the story about my first personal computer (PC) through which I am trying to introduce an informal history of IT and ICT development globally. Fast forward from year 2 (in my 6-year journey to get my MArch degree in university) to end of year 3 or beginning of year 4, I decided that I needed a PC of my own. Having braved to see and talk a couple of cool guys at the time who had very old Toshiba Laptops which looked like this or this, I decided that, no matter how cool they were, I could not even remotely afford one. So my option was a desktop PC. After researching the market, I went for a respectable vendor with a very clear spec that included an Intel 80286 processor and an 80287 co-processor, 256KB RAM (Yes, 256KB!) and 30MB HDD (and again yes, 30MB) and a CRT 14” monitor which looked like this. After having a long meeting with the company’s CEO, I was convinced to go for a much more powerful option: an Intel 80386DX (not even an 80386SX), 1MB RAM and 120MD HDD. The monitor stayed pretty much the same albeit with a better resolution and 14.5” or 15” instead of 14”! Now with the brand new hardware done and ready I needed to brush up on my CAD skills but good news is that this has already started in the background with me hiring a personal tutor (one of the cool guys with a Toshiba Laptop!) to teach me the tips and tricks of AutoCAD. And as you can probably guess by now from my “pre-Jurassic” age, I started with AutoCAD V2.6 (Release 8). You will find a good article about origins of AutoCAD here and also a good blog about AutoCAD Release History here.