In 1996, I designed my first free commercial webpage on my PC. It was primitive but served its purposes. I called it MaSabe Translation Service. Then I bought a proper domain (amarapura.com), a commercial web-hosting service and several domain names from a Microsoft-sponsored Active ISP in 1998/9. However, I stopped my yearly subscription for this mature website in 2003 when I was locked out for two years after the ISP disappeared on the Microsoft site. My first commercial website had been listed free everywhere by the generous Google. I grieved for the demise of this commercially mature website for months.
In 2005, I bought a new domain name from Yahoo Business Hosting Service. My old domain "amarapura.com" had been already taken by someone. So I had to get a new domain. My new site was built and maintained on a PC with Yahoo SiteBuilder.
Then last year, I bought a MacBookPro because its brightly-backlit screen is perfect for my poor eyesight. Unfortunately, Yahoo SiteBuilder is not compatible with this Mac. And also to my utter disappointment, I could afford only MS Office Suite and FileMaker Pro 10 for this machine. I kept on going to the Apple Store in Regent Street, crazily gazing at the display of expensive professional multimedia and web-authoring software, safely tucked up on top shelves. Worried security guards appeared suddenly beside me every time I did that.
Today I discovered a free Mac compatible web-authoring software for my current Yahoo website. I must also use this software with Firefox browser. Unfortunately, all the contents on my exiting site are now gone after the installation. Now I have to start building a whole new website from scratch again.
Now I am reflecting on the last two decades of my life in the United Kingdom. Twenty years ago, I was filled with excitement about the new technology as well as regret for not going to a computer class six year earlier (1984) when my first advisor wanted me to analyse the syntactic structure of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway at the Aberdeen University. I thought I had already missed a great opportunity when I touched a personal computer for the first time in my life in April 1990.
Introduction to PCs and Apple Computers (1990-1996)
I was introduced to Apple computers at a semi-publishing house of an educational/animal charity in June 1990. The new Director requested help from a poorly-equipped college where I was busy messing around with a SAGE accounting software, a spreadsheet and dBase 4 on primitive PCs. I was sent to a college by a government job advisor. I spent most of my time in the computer room than in the lecture room. Most students liked to learn only bookkeeping from a lecturer but not "typing" in a computer room. Later they liked to learn to use SAGE. Unlike them, PC Dos and MS Dos along with DBase 4 and a spreadsheet programme became my obsession very quickly. WordStar was the leading word-processing software at that time. There was a less known program called Word on college computers.
The ambitious Director from an animal charity said she wanted a student who already knew businesses and had sufficient IT skills. She said that she had no time to train anyone. The college chose me for this lady! On my first day at work, I was given the whole library of manuals for Apple computers. First I was terrified to see a mouse on her red mousepad. She told me get on with the mouse by playing a game for fifteen minutes and left the room. I surprised myself that I could tame this terrifying mouse within a few minutes. I took manuals on 4th Dimension and Excel home in the evening and devoured them the whole night.
From the second day, I had to set up 4th Dimension relational database files from scratch for several types of membership records. Within a week, I was using Microsoft Excel to start computerising the whole paper-based but meticulously-kept financial system. Later I was asked to design two quarterly magazines with PageMaker 3 and later PageMaker 4.
At work, I was also allowed to use the black screen of Janet (Internet) to communicate with other computers all over the world. I was told we were using the internet illegally! Apple machines were wonderful; however, I was not allowed to mess around with them because they were under expensive service contracts. I missed PCs and MS DOS at the college. I knew Microsoft would take over the world because it allowed us to do whatever we liked on its system from the beginning.
My First Computer, Amstrad (1990)
Then I decided to buy a computer in July 1990. I had already saved about £600. The Director tried to sell me her laptop which she had bought for more than £1000 some months ago. I looked at her laptop and was disappointed with the specification. I wanted a desktop with more storage and speed. Then I made a weird decision which I later regretted a little bit. I bought an Amstrad instead of a PC. I paid £1300 for this mysterious machine on instalment; I had to pay back the loan for one year. I was curious about a different system with different software. This Alan Sugar's baby was tough; it never crashed. However, it was not as exciting as old PCs at the college. I used this computer for word-processing only before dumping it on a friend who happily paid me £150.00 for this £1300 machine a few years later. I still feel guilty about selling this to my friend who knew nothing about computing. After this transaction, I never sold my old computers to anyone. Now I only want to find freeloaders for a free dumping ground.
At the end of 1990, I left the animal charity to the annoyance of the Director, trying to get into Brunel University to do a Master Degree in Artificial Intelligence. She threatened to report to the government employment service for not accepting her job. However, I took the risk and left because I had to think about two staff members at the charity. They were worried sick about losing their jobs if I stayed. The other reason I left the charity was that I was not interested in filling in daily digital deliveries into the complex of storage for the rest of my life. I rather build more storage systems with different complexity.
In August 1991, I received a full-funded place for the University course that I had applied. At the same time, I was offered a desk-end job from a director from the largest international NGOs. When I told her about my plan to go back to the University and turned down the job offer gently, she screamed at me that I was too selfish to work for the mankind. Her shocking scream made me reluctantly accept the job because I did not want to be labelled as a selfish person.
The Rise of Microsoft and PCs
The University Computer department wished me good luck with this job when they heard about this! The only consolation for this miserable job (filling in daily deliveries into a warehouse that someone else had built) was that there were PCs, an intranet and Informix 4GL database at work. And I sometimes had to write summaries out of long documents. And also with the merge salary, I could afford to buy the most powerful custom-built PC with Windows 3.11 within a few months. I had been living like a forest-dwelling monk. I did not care about my cheap clothes and appearance. In 1994 I had my first internet CompuServe account at home. I was also thrilled to have RealNetwork music player for the first time on my home computer and to watch videos on the internet in 1995. And I bought only one item from Harrods in my whole life; that was Windows 95 on the first day of its launch. I had to get it many years before anyone at work had it on their office computers! I used my lunch break only once to go to Harrods which was near the office. Unsurprisingly, my unusual lunch break and my purchase caused so much commotion among office "girls" during the rest of the day.
The Rise and Rise of the Internet
In August 1995 I left this international charity organisation. In 1996 I did a computer programming course at the Middlesex University. However, the courses were dumped down within a month at the request of most students who were only interested in the Internet rather than Machine Language or C++. The university used Apple computers. Students made films using Multimedia Director software and 3 D modelling software. We were introduced to making videos and digital manipulation. To do my projects at home, I bought an Apple computer and a scanner. However, it was a low-end computer. The software were beyond our means. Students were using pirated copies of softwares even on their own PC computers at home.
A few years later, I dumped this Apple computer on my sister in Burma and bought another powerful custom-built PC (with a self-installed CD rewritable Drive) which I used until 1998 when it was replaced with a more powerful one (with a DVD rewritable Drive) which passed away in 2006. My Desktop Era ended in 2006.
The Rise of Laptops and netbooks! (2002 -
I bought my first Compaq laptop in 2002 but WindowXP and OfficeXP disabled it for the next four years. I was inflicted with frequent temporary paralysis in legs for the next four years and was busy repairing my own malfunctioned carbon-based hardware, chips and operating system. So, I just left my Compaq laptop in its original box while the old desktop was still alive. Only in 2006 after the death of my Carreria desktop, I spent several days to download all service packages and security patches to fix all XPs on this four year old unused laptop. I needed this as a home-based computer. This 2002 computer with outdated software was already ancient in 2006. So in the same year, I bought a new Dell laptop for use during my travels. My old 2002 Compaq became the server for my BT Broadband at home. Then I also bought a cheap secondhand IBM laptop as a spare. This IBM laptop died a few months later. Because there was no guarantee for a secondhand computer, I just buried it temporarily in a box so that I could perform a postmortem later.
I was quickly disappointed with the new Dell laptop. Its screen is badly-lit. I cannot see the screen under a bright light. So I needed to buy a small laptop with a brightly backlit screen. Initially, I did not want to buy an AppleMac because I could not afford its expensive software. However, I eventually dug deep into my empty wallet to get a MacBookPro in 2009 with FileMaker Pro 10 and MS Office Suite.
I have been using my Mac most of the time to browse the Internet, to write blogs and to work on FileMaker Pro 10 databases. However, I cannot update my Yahoo Business website on my Mac with my old software on my PC laptop. Only earlier today I discovered a free compatible web-authoring software to be used with the Firefox browser on my Mac.
Yes I love my MacBook Pro. It is sleek, unique and chic. It is beautiful, wonderful and powerful. However, I cannot afford Dreamweaver Suites, Acrobat Studios and other high-end graphic software.
And I lost the whole contents of my old website designed and built on PCs when it was updated on my Mac. I have not tested this new Mac web-authoring software that whether it is also compatible with Microsoft OS on PC laptops. Sometimes I like to work on my Dell and sometimes I like work on my Mac. However, life is never simple between AppleMac OS and Microsoft OS. Why can't professional Mac softwares be a lot cheaper for the mankind?
The Rise of Digital Books, IPad and Touch Tablets (2009 -
I bought an Ilex Iliad digital book in early 2009. The internal storage was full after I had purchased 10 language and specialists' dictionaries for my work. So I had to download thousands of free books on external storage media: SD cards, MMCards and USB sticks which I always carry in my handbag. The whole package cost me more than £1000. However, this device stopped working properly a year later_ annoyingly just after its guarantee expired. It was such a disappointment to me. However, all these storage media filled with thousands of books are still useful with my MacBookPro. When IPad came out, I became cautious for the first time. It is gorgeous. And it has colour. The screen is incomparable. However, the storage specification and the internet connection options are not satisfactory to me at least. Within a year, several rival products with better specification have appeared in the market. I am still waiting. So far, my MacBook Pro is my digital book. I use it to read newspapers, books and whatever is on the net. I use it to watch television, videos and films. And I can do whatever I want on this machine. Still then,... Can we have cheaper professional graphic and web-authoring Mac applications for the mankind?
