Technology Timelines

Since about 1995 I've felt constantly nudged in the butt by computer technology.  It's been a sense that something was going on that I should know about and perhaps find a way to use.  The nudging had actually been going on since about 1980 when Tandy brought out some of the first reasonably priced PC desktop computers.

Although we didn't really know it at the time, those early 1980s desktops couldn't do very much.  Nevertheless, there was a sense that if your were in business, you needed to have some computers around.  For years, until the mid to late 1990s, after getting the first ones, we used them as little more than expensive and complicated typewriter replacements.  Then came LANs, Internet, dot com...dot com...dot com, and a stock market crash.

Since the very beginning of my involvement with computers, there has been a small group of people moving in and out of my sphere who generally feigned knowing a lot more about computers and all things technological than I did.  I've never had the time nor the interest needed to delve deeply into the intricacies of these various technologies as they were developing.  However, I've always had a general understanding of them and made use of those things I thought might be helpful, but tended to let most other things mature before giving them a try.  That approach helped protect precious time and permitted the market to sort out the winners before I jumped in.

Telling a time-line type of story would be boring for both the writer and a reader, so I've been looking for a graphic way to present a longer view of what has transpired technologically over the past 30-years or so.  The time-lines below represent those things I've found most enlightening, yet maintaining some simplicity.  The overriding problem in understanding the issue is that the story has been developing in several interrelated technologies, each one depending on the other to progress its agenda:  Computer hardware, processors, memory, software, operating systems, communications infrastructure, and the slow development of human interface competencies in a constantly changing environment.