Forward Progress

The other day I needed to watch a program on TV, but the TV in my room wouldn't receive the station that the program was on. I wasn't sure what I could do - the only thing I could think of was try to get another TV. I borrowed a TV from my grandparents so I could watch the program.

TV Progress

The TV that they let me borrow was made by RCA and is probably close to 40 years old, if not older. The first thing I observed was how small it is for its age. It can't be more than 16" deep, yet the screen is about 15". The knobs are on the top: there are four of them, two control changing the stations, one controls brightness, and the other controls volume. There are four knobs in back: one for horizontal hold, another for vertical hold, another for contrast, and another for fine-tuning. The speaker is on the top in between the knobs.

We also have a Motorola TV from about 10 years before the RCA. It has the same size screen as the RCA, and yet is probably twice as deep. The case is made of wood with two doors over the upper portion of the front. Inside is the screen and four knobs (it looks like there are two, but they are "double" knobs). It can receive channels 2 through 13. The back is half covered up with a perforated piece of cardboard. Part of the chassis is exposed and has controls for brightness, contrast, vertical hold, and horizontal hold. According to a diagram on the back, there are 30-some tubes aside from the CRT.

Compare that to the RCA, which is much smaller, has the same size screen, and can receive not only the basic channels, but UHF channels 14-83 as well. In just ten years they managed to cut the size in half and still add some features. There is no diagram on the back, but my guess is that the number of tubes had been reduced by at least half.

Around the time of the RCA, color TVs were still very large and expensive, and even though they were decent, most people didn't have them.

Ten years later they had color TVs not much bigger than that RCA - and completely transistorized, which meant no longer waiting several minutes for it to warm up. The price had dropped considerably, and they were now starting to become widely used.

Computing Progress

The same can be said about almost everything else that people take for granted today, including computers.

When computers started to be used, they weren't common in the home. Starting in around 1992, a lot of people started buying computers for their homes. They basically had two choices: a Macintosh with System 7.1 or a 486-based PC with Windows 3.1. Each one had some software available for it, but was somewhat primitive in ease of use and setup. Like the Motorola TV, they did the basics but were somewhat clumsy and basic.

In 1995 you could buy a slightly better integrated Macintosh with System 7.5 or a PC with Windows 95. Windows 95 was a big improvement to version 3.1 in terms of ease of use, and System 7.5 added more features to 7.1. In 1995, the idea of the CD-ROM drive and Internet was starting to become popular, but many people still did not sign up with an Internet service provider. Yes, the Internet and multimedia were out, but it would be several more years until they both became widely used.

In 1998 the iMac was released and people started signing up for Internet access. Most of those people who bought an iMac used it on the Internet. Windows 98 was also released, which greatly improved Internet access in Windows.

In 2000, the release of QuickTime 4 with "QuickTime TV" brought video to the computer, and Microsoft's Media Player offered another alternative. The next year, Apple released iTunes, and making CD-ROMs and music CDs became popular on the PC and the Macintosh.

The computer in the home went from a large, ugly beige box sitting on a desk with 20 different wires coming out the back to a much nicer looking unit that one may argue even looks nice. It went from having 4 MB of RAM and a few educational programs and home office applications to having 128 MB of RAM with thousands of applications doing almost anything you could imagine.

Time spent on the computer has also increased. In 1992, a family might have spent an hour a day on the computer, not even using it some days. In 2002 most families keep their computers on all of the time, using it from 2 to 6 hours a day.

The same can be said for the TV. In 1950, a family might have watched it during the evening for an hour or so; now people frequently keep their TVs on for 4 or 5 hours, sometimes not even actively watching it. I find that I can't sit there and watch the TV without doing something else as well.

The changing and improving technology can be a good thing. You may have noticed that I described where the knobs that control the picture are on both of the TVs I have. You may have noticed that I said they were on the back. How are you supposed to watch how the picture changes as you are adjusting it if you are in back of the TV? (I know, you can use a mirror - but it's not a great solution.) Someone obviously wasn't thinking when they designed both of these TVs.

This is exactly how changing technology is a good thing. Improvements are made to what is already there. I don't know of a single TV made today that has the picture adjustment controls in the back.

Expansion options were improved when Apple started building Power Macs with PCI slots instead of NuBus slots. This meant that the Mac could use some PC cards if Mac drivers were available. Connectivity to peripherals was made better when the iMac made USB the standard. PCs and Macs could now use the same peripherals; only drivers had to be written for each platform.

New features are also added, such as when the CD-ROM drive started becoming available on most home computers by 1994 and when, in 1999, Apple started including FireWire with new Power Macs, which let you connect fast external hard drives, CD-RW drives, or video cameras - and transfer files much faster than you could with USB.

New computers can be had for $799 (for an iMac) or as little as $499 (for a cheap PC). Just 12 years ago might have paid $6,000 for a decent Macintosh and at $4,000 for a decent PC. Nowadays $4,000 will buy you a top of the line Macintosh, and $6,000 will get you a top of the line Mac, scanner, printer, monitor, and 1.5 GB of RAM - and you may still have money left over.

Just think, in another 10 years we may be complaining about having to pay $999 for a 10 GHz Power Mac.