Nowadays, computers are omnipresent. The idea of the global village could never exist without them. They are an invaluable source of information, enable people of all nations to communicate with one another and provide entertainment for both young and old. It would be hard to imagine living our lives without them. However, not everybody remembers the way it was, back in the amazing 1980s.

Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft and the richest man in the world, once said nobody would ever need more than 640kB of RAM. While it may sound funny in the 21st century, most computers of the mid-eighties had as little as 64kB of on-board memory. What is more, the most popular machines of that time were based upon CPUs whose speed was as low as several MHz. There was no reason to install special fans or fancy radiators, of course, as the chips did not emit large amounts of heat. Hard disks could only be found in large companies, and personal computers were limited to the use of floppies or analogue cassettes. Sometimes, there was even no point in using a monitor, as a regular TV set would suffice. Families would gather to share the experience of digital graphics and sound, which is nowadays known under the name of multimedia. In fact, some of the newest mobile phones have better screen resolutions and the number of available colours than the computers of the eighties.

The possibilities for programmers were thus limited, but the fact also stimulated their creativity and allowed them to get the most out of their machines. At that time, plenty of wonderful games and applications were produced. Moreover, emulators of old machines are easily found in the Internet. Thanks to that, old computers, such as Commodore, Atari, ZX Spectrum, with all the accompanying software, are now available for our Windows based machines. Sit back and enjoy the experience that led to the Information Technology the way it is now.

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omnipresent - wszechobecny
global village - globalna wioska
invaluable - bezcenny
entertainment - rozrywka
however - jakkolwiek
chairman - prezes
RAM - pamięć RAM (ang. random access memory - pamięć swobodnego dostępu)
on-board memory - pamięć wewnętrzna
CPU - procesor (ang. central processing unit)
fan - wentylator
radiator - radiator
chip - chip, układ scalony
hard disk - dysk twardy
floppy (disk) - dyskietka
suffice - wystarczyć
screen resolution - rozdzielczość ekranu
programmer - programista
get the most out of - maksymalnie wykorzystać
moreover - ponadto
accompanying software - dołączone oprogramowanie

by Maciej Pastuszka
WWW autora: http://computerenglish.pl