The first one I ever saw was GEOS. I did not partake because I could not fathom what in the world it would be good for. In college, someone showed me this new thing called Windows and gave me some floppies to install it on my PC. Again, I could not see it being of any use whatsoever. I can only do one thing at a time so why in the world would I want to applications running at once in the foreground?

Today I will concede that it is somewhat useful but I think people would be very surprised at how much you can do with a computer with no square containers having an X in one corner. It took me a long time to figure out that a mouse was of any use at all on a computer.

This was my most prized possession. When I asked for a C64 for Christmas, I never thought I would actually get it. $200 does not grow on trees! Then the presents were placed under the tree and one of them was the size and shape of a boxed C64! Could it be? What was in that box? Christmas morning was one of the happiest days of my life. It was torture waiting for Christmas that year. It was just the C64... no tape or disk drive. I could care less. I had a stack of Compute! magazines ready to go. I typed in my own games out of the magazine. I would leave it turned on for days to enjoy the program because once I turned it off, it was gone.

I once typed in a program for three days to see it generate a three dimensional donut on my TV. It took the program hours to calculate and display that donut. When I finally got a tape drive I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I didn't have to type in my game every time I wanted to play. I could save it and then mangle the code figuring out how to adjust the programming to create my own game without fear of screwing up the code so badly it wouldn't run anymore.

I feel sorry for people who didn't get the opportunity to enjoy the early computers. Things were so simple and fun back then. Now when a kid gets a computer there is so much information to absorb in order to become an expert that one doesn't even know where to start. Back then, you just needed the Commodore 64 Reference book purchased from your local book store and everything you could ever want to know was at your fingertips.

I agree with bl4nk. This new release schedule sucks. As an example, Firefox doesn't have a global setting for zoom. You have to zoom each page individually. I hunted down an addon to fix this called NoSquint. Works like a champ. It always worked right up until they started this ridiculous release schedule. Now it's disabled and my browser is back to everything being tiny again. That's not the only one... that's just the one that broke the camel's back.

I switched to Chrome this weekend. It has a global zoom setting. It seems to work wonderfully and I'm not going back until Firefox stops releasing a major version number every three weeks. There is nothing wonderful about the user experience in Firefox as far as I can see.

I've been reading Slashdot for a very long time. I think I had been reading it quite a while before I needed to create a login so I could post on an article. This site is the gold standard of News for Nerds. There are many imitators these days which is the ultimate compliment. Good luck in your future endeavors!

iPad all the way. I just bought an iPad 2 about three weeks ago. It's my goto document reader. Transferring documents to it is quite simple. I have hundreds of them on mine. My PDF reader (Goodreader) has a built in web server so you can just upload your files to it from the computer's browser. You can plug it in to drag the files into the application of choice in iTunes. You can use DropBox. You can ftp into your computer from the iPad. There's ten ways to do this easily and quickly right off the top of my head. The fastest way is to plug in the cable and drop them on the application in iTunes. The USB transfer is very fast.

I am FAR from a fan of Apple or Steve Jobs but I have to begrudgingly admit that this iPad 2 that I bought is one of the best technology purchases I have ever made.

I simply couldn't agree more with this comment. Most replies I see to most articles are condescending criticism of Life, the Universe, and Everything. If you read the comments you will soon be convinced that there is no point in ever researching anything especially if you intend to draw any sort of conclusion from the data.

If Slashdot could copy and paste your comment onto each article posted, it would save at least 500 comments that would automatically be filtered due to redundancy.

This happened when I was out on my boat fishing last summer. It's the most amazing thing I think I've ever seen in salt water. They were everywhere as far as I could see with the water clarity being what it was. It would have been a very bad day to fall off the boat! That's a lot of tentacles in the water. I did not, however see a radioactive Super Jellyfish with psychic powers which saddens me a little.

cloud computing... not cloud computer. Stupid fat fingies!

The "in" thing in business circles is to be up on technology right now. Carrying an iPhone or an Android phone says "I am tech savvy and know how to use my time efficiently." I agree that the Blackberry is very "business like" but the trend is toward cloud computer, bring your own device projects, and being flexible in integrating the latest technology. If RIM doesn't get with the program, they will most certainly go the way of the Palm Treo.

There are not enough "My distro can beat up your distro" comments here. I am disappoint.

I've been a controls programmer for fifteen years and this guy gets to write control software for a freaking space shuttle. As if that's not enough glory already, now he gets to fly in it and space walk! Lucky bastard! I hate you! Next month he'll probably win the lottery too.

What the hell does Siemens have to do with the code running in their SCADA systems? Siemens sells PLCs and SCADA software. YOU hire someone to program it for you. At no point in the transaction does Siemens have a copy of your code or architecture unless you GIVE it to them... dumbass.

I thought only American politicians fancied themselves wizened and experienced educators without ever teaching a group of children anything in their lives. I am relieved to see that this is an international phenomenon that knows no bounds of ignorance. Thank God Armenia doesn't have a gold medal winning Olympiad in Twister!

As an XM listener, I enjoy "Old Time Radio". Last week the host played three different radio shows that were all a version of one script. Apparently the rinse and repeat writing has been going on since the 1930's.

His explanation was that good scripts are expensive and rare. The studios try to maximize the yardage by reworking the material a little and using it in other shows. CSI, CSI Miami, CSI New York, Criminal Minds, NCIS, NCIS Los Angeles, etc. etc. The sad thing for me is that I watch all of those. I DVR them to skip the commercials. I guess the good news is that if what you like becomes popular you can certainly get your fill of it since it will be copied and pasted repeatedly. Yay me... I think?