I am Techie who have seen days where computer world was limited to 5.2 Floppy and having a CD writer was status symbol and people used to show-off of having 7 GB disk and 32MB RAM in their Desktops.
..wait..don't think i am 50+ old man..i am talking about a technology revolution which happened in last 15 years!.
Recently i was talking one of the new joines in my team who have 3 years of experiences in IT industry so he might have finished in engineering graduation in 2012, we were talking about storage in CD and moved back in floppy days and he admits that he haven't see a single floppy in life..wow..i can't imagine how come someone on this planet haven't see floppy but later realized that he is not on the only person and we may be dealing with " Technological Generation Gap" which is growing day by day.
I still remember the day when i first time when saw Computer in glass covered room A/C with a note on entrance door stating to remove the shoes out side the room. I was exited but also worried to not to touch anything as i heard that computers are highly expensive. BTW it was NIIT center where they teach "computers".
The lab instructor was sitting on a decent chair and playing chess on Black and White monitor ( i guess it was 12' screen). So far i have only know chess can only be played with fordable plastic/wooden broad and it requires two persons but here lab instructor was alone playing..God knows.. if that was chess or something else.
That was the day when i have first SEEN computers and i could still visualize that moment.
As in those days everyone was going after computers which was BIG taboo, after completing my 10+2,
i also joined BCA ( Bachelor in Computers Application) in MCRP Bhopal which was the formal path in learning computers.
its worth to mentioned here that i have studies in small town with Hindi medium schools with no so called "computer classes" facility in school but i never regret it and always cherries the real life values which was taught to us in school which was foundation and can not be learnt in in day.
We have been give list of books for first semester which also includes "Computer Fundamentals". i don't remember the number of pages but it looks almost like Ramayan in width and weight.
We had 3 days of theory and 2 days of practical classes which was the most existing time as we chance to do hands-on or say play games on computers.
Some of the classmates were already familiar with Computers as they have studied it the school and for them it was not that great thing but for someone like me it was a new era with excitement.
I remember a memorable incidence from the lab sessions where someone from classmate used DOS command netsend * that would flash a message on all the computer screen and would stop any of working program. It was fun to see how the message is getting sent from one computer to all the computers. Later he was caught by senior lab instructor who found his workstation number from similar DOS command.
The days then moved from Black screen to Color CRT monitors with curve in new lab setup with Internet access..with limited time and everyone wanted to create their email ID on Yahoo so that it can be used on Yahoo Messenger to Chat ..may be AOL(American OnLine) was booming in US but in India YM was the pioneer in making "Chatting" popular.
Since it was difficult to get time slot in lab to access internet, we looked at the "Cyber Cafe" which were outside collage campus. I never understood why its called "Cyber Cafe" where there was not coffee shop.
May this term was also came from western countries.
Internal access was only available via BSNL phone lines with "Dial-up" network where we need to plug phone line to modem and using dial-up connection, we have to dial some numbers like *1234# and you will hear strange sounds like chee..pee..chiee when dial-in was in progress and of-course when line is used in modem to connect internet you will not receive any calls on your land-line so either you can talk or use internet.
At the end of 2nd semester itself, i had brought my own computer..yes..it was awesome feeling to have my own as so far i have used others computers or worked in lab.
My Computers Configuration - Brand - Zenith , 800Mhz CPU, 64MB RAM, 20 GB Hard Disk, 14' monitor, color- white, two tine speakers.
I still remember my friend used to ask me what you would do with 20 GB HDD..is its too much :)
The idea to have computer was to do programming but other advantage slowly taken over like watching movies..playing music (Winnamp was my favorite player )..playing games..NFS, RoadRash ..i am must say NFS was additive as we spend times in crossing levels and unlocking the cars.
Now almost everyone in class have their own PCs so it was common to see people carrying the HDD in collage bag and visiting others house to copy new movies..songs..Yes you have read correct we used to carry our PCs hard disk and people will always have PCs cabinet open to easy plug-in in master-slave and struggle with booting with correct HDD. We started with Windows 97 to 98 to ME and last OS was XP on my PC.
Also in collage libraries we used to go first approach to get magazine with CDs (free software) like PC Quest. it was more like garbing CD rather then reading magazines as you would get new music players..wallpapers. I still remember when Windows XP was announced and i saw the default Desktop's picture in one of the magazines..it was thrill and how to get it in my computer first.
By the time, BCA was finished i was more enjoying the troubleshooting, breaking-fixing stuff and was already point to contact for my fathers office where they have got new PC.
During my home visits, one of neighbor who used work for NIC (National Informatics Center) used to call me to discuss about their issues and plan to create website to track passport information. Even i designed and made a passport information system for them in ASP/ MS Access.
Later i moved to Pune for master (MCA) in 2003 where things were almost same but this Bhaiya had gifted me Mobile Phone to stay connected.
Brand - Nokia
Model - 5110
I only had the mobile among with other room-mates so all calls used to come to me. it was like a movable PCO where you call someone and talk to someone.
At that time other mobile service providers have also started their operations and to attract customer daily they will publish adds and offers. So i had taken a SIM card for BPL provider which i guess later taken over by IDEA.
The BPL use to provided bulk SMS packs like 500 SMS per day and literally at most of the time we were able to reach limit and sometime over limit and had to pay later.
Everyone will send SMS to some other friend in same state other state ( other state SMS was separate pack) and people was chatting via SMS :)
During the same time email on mobile service was launched by Rediff.com and one of my room mate used to check email by sending SMSs to Rediff.com's number and would get SMS in part 1/5 ..2/5..5/5 ..it was fun in reading email via SMS.
We also made few miss call patters to save money on outgoing calls ...
1 missed call = leaving ..2 missed call = class started ...lol ..this was our own invention and used to work almost all time :)
At that time Nokia was the leader in Mobile phone and in 2005 they launch Nokia 6600 which had color display and you have have MP3 songs as ring tone and Bluetooth connectivity , VGA camera, Java Games.
if someone have Nokia 6600 then people will see him with different angle as it was expensive device.
As far as i remember Nokia continued with their Symbian OS for next 4-5 years and launched business phone - Nokia communicator, E63/72 and later ExpressMusic edition which popular in market till 2009
Meanwhile Sony had also started spreading its presence in India.
And finally the arrival of Android have change the world that no one imagined ..booking ticket..Social networking..WhatsApp replaced SMS/MMS and so on...and as they say "the best if yet to come " :)
So stay tuned for more from technological revolution !!
