dacs.doc electric

Matthew: GrandPa Jack, come see my new computer.

GrandPa: It’s great, Matt. Looks more like the controls of an airplane than it does a computer.

M: This is my new game pad. I can use both hands and I’ve got lots of buttons. I can shoot my laser guns at the same time I’m flying my space ship.

G: And the sound is coming from all around you.

M: I need it all ‘cause there’s more space monsters out there than ever.

G: Pretty cool, Matt.

M: You know, GrandPa, I can remember way back when my controller was only for one hand.

G: I can remember when we didn’t have controllers at all and had to use the mouse to zap the aliens from outer space.

M: That must have been a long time ago.

G: And even before that, Matt, our computers had no sound and not even color on the screen.

M: Really, GrandPa? How could you fly around the galaxies and fight the monsters?

G: We couldn’t, Matt. There were no programs for doing that.

M: Oh? Then what was your computer for? What could you do with it?

G: Well, mostly stuff with lots of numbers and words.

M: That’s no fun. Well, at least you could send e-mail and surf the Net.

G: No, we didn’t even have the Internet then.

M: No Net? You mean the computer in everybody’s house just had a mouse and keyboard and did stuff with numbers?

G: Not many people had a computer in their house at all.

M: No computer?

G: There were computers, but they were big things that people used at work. And no mouse. People would type everything into a terminal at their desk and go to another room to get their print out on big sheets of paper.

M: That’s pretty gross, GrandPa.

G: And before that, Matt, we didn’t even have terminals.

M: No terminals, GrandPa? How could you use the computer?

G: We would write things down on paper and then give it to girls who would type it into a machine that punched holes in pieces of cardboard. Then big stacks of those cards would be put into the computer.

M: Sounds weird, GrandPa.

G: Some computers couldn’t even handle the cards. People used reels of paper tape with holes punched in them.

M: That’s funny.

G: And they were big machines. Just one computer would fill up a room as big as your room at school.

M: Wow! That would be the most powerful computer ever.

G: No, actually it couldn’t do anywhere near as much as your computer right there.

M: Why was it so big, GrandPa?

G: Because they didn’t have transistors. See this board right here? See the little bumps? In the old days each one of those tiny bumps was a whole lot of little light bulbs.

M: The computer was a Christmas tree.

G: Kind of. All the little light bulbs were in cabinets so you didn’t see them, but there was so much heat that there had to be big air conditioning machines outside the computer room to keep it cool.

M: And people could play games on them?

G: No, they were so big and expensive that the only thing they were used for was to do lots of arithmetic on numbers. Computers were new back then. People didn’t understand them and most people were uncomfortable around them.

M: That’s silly. I like my computer and it likes me.

G: Not then. It was hard to get people to use them, even those who needed them. The first computer I worked on was named "George" so we could tell people, "let George do it". A lot of them still used pencils and adding machines.

M: What’s an adding machine, GrandPa?

G: It was a calculator, Matt. But it could only add and subtract.

M: GrandPa, that has to be a real long time ago.

G: It was, Matt. And then before that, the computers were even bigger and could do less.

M: Ha, Ha!

G: And then before that there were no computers.

M: No computers at all?

G: None that people could use.

M: No game pad, no mouse, no keyboard, no computer, no games, no monsters from outer space?

G: That’s the way it was.

M: And that was a long, long, long time ago. When there were dinosaurs.

G: Not quite, Matthew. In fact it was when I was just about your age.