Kieran
How has using computers and the internet changed the way you work and the way you perform day to day activities like banking etc.
Computers have changed the way that I function at work a massive amount over the last 10 years, from having to do paper based design drawings to now using state of the art 3d solid modelling and virtual prototyping software. Also design verification is simpler, less tedious calculations and more reliance on finite element packages for stress and strain analyses, but this is not without risk as errors are harder to spot and can have massive consequences!
My home use of computers has increased massively over the last 10 years also, I now use internet banking, internet shopping, online conferencing and university tutorials ( still studying, just finishing a masters in engineering), my entire house has Wi-Fi coverage and I use wireless printers and file storage as well as streaming music and video.
Do you have dificulty with connection, what type do you use and why, do you use 3G because you cannot get access to internet, or isit because of the economic scale of things
As mentioned above I have an unlimited broadband connection at home, but use a 3g connection on my laptop when out on site, just for the convenience of always having a connection when needed.
also do you think if you had the internet as a child or even computers, you would be better educated do you think?
Internet had not being thought about when I was a lad, we had 2 bbc b micros at the high school, I don't think better educated is the right term to use, educated in different things maybe. We had more time to learn life skills and go out with your mates without having to worry about the things that we read about in the news. I have 3 lads growing up myself now, all in high school; they all make full use of technology with the internet, Xbox, iPods smartphones etc.
What was technology like as a child?
Big Track and BBC model B Micros and later on commodore C16 or +4 were the height of technology when I was in my early teens. I remember remote controls coming into fashion for the tv, and trimphones you were posh or well off if your parents had them!
What did the computers look like?
Very different to the boxes we all have nowadays, everything was separate such as 5.25" disk drives, no internal hard drives and only a few kb of ram. The simple games were still as addictive and more playable (in my opinion!) than some of today's top offerings.
When can you remeber buying your first home PC or laptop?
I bought my first computer in about 1984/5 it was a commodore +4, it was great as you didn't need a monitor, you could use your television (parents tv of course!)
When was the first time you looked on the internet?
The first time I had the internet my self was in 1993, I had just set up my own business and bought a top of the range olivetti pc, it had 200mb hard disk, windows 3.1 and and 4mb of ram. This was state of the art at the time s it had a 66mhz processor and an internal modem. The internet was mainly text based then, with very limited graphics and was very slow. It cost a fortune as well, it was costing me about £30 a month back then which was a lot of money for 16kb/s max line speed.
Hope this helps.