Computing power analogies

Chris Devers cdevers at pobox.com
Tue Dec 11 15:14:41 GMT 2007


On Dec 11, 2007, at 7:40 AM, Edmund von der Burg wrote:

>  "Well Grand-Ma, this new iPhone thing is as powerful  
> as ..................."

My first personal computer that I took to college in 1994.

Except not quite, as it ran Windows 3.1, so it was flaky, and it  
crashed a lot.

It didn't know what an inter-net was, but it had a modem, but it  
couldn't make calls, or take messages. So it also replaced my  
answering machine.

I think the 14" monitor probably had about the same resolution, but  
was (obviously) bigger, which is nice, except that the iPhone fits in  
a pocket, and the image is much sharper. And has more than 256 colors.  
And the whole touchscreen thing. So it also replaced the keyboard &  
mouse.

Oh and the 1994 PC couldn't play back music or videos, so I had a  
separate TV and Walkman, which are also replaced now.

But then, comparisons really break down. I know a guy that sold his  
Macbook when he got the phone, as he wasn't using it any more, and for  
all the things he was doing, the laptop turned out to be overkill

So maybe to answer your question, we need to more carefully define  
"powerful".


-- 
Chris Devers




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