Old computer users (Was: Re: Laptop (cell phone) in my pocket?)

[Alan Dayley]

On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 8:31 PM, Ryan Rix<phrkonaleash at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Thank you for changing the subject line ;)
>
> The funny thing about all of this, and talking to the retro hacker guy who
> sits next to me at work, is that I know what all of you are talking about, and
> I'm only 17. Not sure that's depressing or not xD
>
> I guess that's what happens when you have the Jargon file and various
> 'history' books and lore saved to your desktop and your pda for idle reading
> ;)
>

History in general is vastly important, despite how it is treated in
most schools.  The history of our technology is more important every
day as it inserts itself deeper into our lives.  The history of
computers is important to me because it feeds the wonder I still feel
for it after 20+ years working with it.

I'm glad you are learning and appreciating history at such a young
age.  It will be a powerful source of inspiration in years to come.

An important history lesson from Eben Moglen, attorney and historian,
can be found in his keynote speech at the Red Hat Summit of 2006.
Watch it from a link at http://www.redhat.com/promo/summit/videos/
Learn that copyright and patents were not about making people wealthy
but were a successful tool to attract innovated people to the young
United States!

All this talk of old stuff makes me want to fire up my Zenith ZFL-181
laptop (http://www.1000bit.it/scheda.asp?id=1523) I paid $2500.00 for
in 1986.  Yes, mine still works just fine.

Alan