It doesn't help to have been so interested in electronics from about the age of five as it, more than anything else, has changed out of all recognition in the time - everything was valve (thermionic that is) back then and transistors started to creep in from the late 1950s.
The effect of Moore's Law over more than 40 years has been quite amusing as well. The first computer I used and saw was an IBM 360. I was lucky to see the thing - back then (late 60s) most people learning programming never got to see the actual machine, just the printout from their prog.
The whole thing (including the air-conditioning plant it needed) occupied the floor area of a small house. The CPU filled a cabinet like a double wardrobe and for RAM it had 64k of "core store" - memory made by weaving fine wires through tiny ferrite rings. The 14 inch diameter multi-platter disk packs held about 7Mbytes each with a drive the size of a washing machine. 'Large' capacity storage was on half-inch 9 track tape - about 150Mbyte to a 10.5 inch reel. The programming was in FORTRAN IV and done on punched cards - 80 characters to a card and 2000 cards to a box. You needed a trolley to shift a big program about.
It's hard to put a single figure to it but in every respect the smart-phone in your pocket represents many tens of thousand times more computational grunt than that huge lump.
Discovering that Ralph Macchio turns 52 years old this year makes me feel old. That's the age Pat Morita was when he starred in the original "The Karate Kid "...
My friends siblings having babies, getting married and getting management position jobs. I'm 26 and they make me feel like I'm an old maid who's missing out and who's career is going no where.
YKYGO ...when age is just a number. When you're young age difference and getting old is a big deal especailly in your teens and twenties. Now it honestly doesn't bother me and I'm rubbish at trying to guess someones age anyway I usually get it wrong.
i will have to quote the late great Dave Allen on growing old:
"Some people do object to getting old. I dont; Not when you consider the alternative."
&
Theres a point at which your kids grow up. The girl will bring the boy home for you to meet.And because you've talked in kind of 'liberal' terms all your life, you have to follow this through:
"Daddy, i'd like you to meet Paul"
[Grunt}
"Can I bring Paul in Daddy?"
"Yes of course you can."
"Yes but can he stay here?"
"Yes of course, he can stay for dinner."
"No,but I mean.....do you mind if he stays here?"
"What do you mean:'Stays here'?"
"Stays in our house."
"Doesn't he have a house of his own? Why does he have to stay here?"
"Because I'd like him to live here."
"Well where's he going to stay?"
"He'll stay with me."
"What! In your room?"
And thats it, the b*@%$d's in! And they take over. She loves Paul. Paul's an ars*hole! I come down in the morning and he's drinking my tea, out of my cup, reading my paper, eating my food; And not only that, but he's humping my daughter and i'm out in the garden feeding her bloody rabbit !
Not so much the police looking younger, say one and we joked the he must get id'ed when he goes to the pub, but when airline pilots don't seem old enough to shave, let alone fly 198 people in a 737!
