Yesterday my ISP sent an email saying I'd used 80% of my monthly allowance, I generally get these most months, but normally a bit closer to the end of the month. I did some checking, and it seems that most of this went on CES videos, as well as the usual ondemand TV now and then.
I do love a good audio podcast, I listen on my phone when I'm out and about, or to ease the monotony of autogen annotation. But these days we're more likely to get a video, and in the case of CES most of these just show the same 3 or 4 people standing there gesticulating. Why bother with video? Especially if it's an hour long cast, I was using GBs a day just listening to stuff with the video running in the background. I mean, why use video unless you are actually showing something?
The same goes for flightsim casts, you'd think it would be the ideal time to show the simulator running, but no, sometimes we're just watching the one guy blathering on, albeit some interesting stuff, but what a waste of bandwidth.
Anyway, on the subject of nostalgia, I have spent more time dwelling on the old days than is reasonably healthy today. At the end of the 70s I was working in Auckland, in insurance. I liked Auckland, the people were friendly, and easy to get on with compared to Christchurch, and life was pretty good. However Erebus hit everyone in NZ quite hard to some extent, and I was pretty homesick by then, so when work was offering redundancy I took it, hopped on my motorbike and rode home. A great trip, by the way, mid June, freezing on the Desert Road, but a good time to reflect on things.
When I got home, stayed with my mum for a while, determined to spend my redundancy before looking for another job. One thing which caught my eye in the magazines was the Commodore VIC20, which I was really only interested in because it had colour. There was one computer shop in Christchurch back then, a tiny little mezzanine up a narrow staircase, run by a guy called Ronnie Harris. He went on to open the Computer Centre, which is still going strong here in Christchurch, although Ronnie got out of the business and has been making a living in the rock band 'Odyssey', which apparently is still going strong.
I used to pop into town a couple of times a week, to annoy Ronnie, and ask stupid questions about computers. Finally I decided to buy one, so I forked over my $1100, and from then it's all been a bit weird.
The Classic Computers site has all the issues of Bits & Bytes, the NZ computer mag which begun in 1982. I've spent far too much time today reading through these. The intro on classic computers refers to the Muldoon era:
QUOTE
The economy was tightly controlled and import duties and sales taxes were high. Hence microcomputers, as well as being new and exciting were EXPENSIVE![/quote]
I think the VIC20 was around US$250, so the markup by the time it got here was huge.
I won't go on, I did collect a lot of facts about the early days of computers in NZ, but I won't spoil the fun for those who want to explore. Just one, then -- whereas the VIC20 had Bill Shatner promoting it, in NZ the BBC Microcomputer had Tim Shadbolt... Close enough, I don't think...
Here I'm talking 35 years ago, which is kinda mind-boggling. From one of the best songs in the world, I could just about replace '20' with '40' when talking about the good old days:
Twenty years now
Where'd they go?
Twenty years
I don't know
Sit and I wonder sometimes
Where they've gone
And sometimes late at night
When I'm bathed in the firelight
The moon comes callin' a ghostly white
And I recall
I recall
I think the VIC20 was around US$250, so the markup by the time it got here was huge.
I won't go on, I did collect a lot of facts about the early days of computers in NZ, but I won't spoil the fun for those who want to explore. Just one, then -- whereas the VIC20 had Bill Shatner promoting it, in NZ the BBC Microcomputer had Tim Shadbolt... Close enough, I don't think...
Here I'm talking 35 years ago, which is kinda mind-boggling. From one of the best songs in the world, I could just about replace '20' with '40' when talking about the good old days:
Twenty years now
Where'd they go?
Twenty years
I don't know
Sit and I wonder sometimes
Where they've gone
And sometimes late at night
When I'm bathed in the firelight
The moon comes callin' a ghostly white
And I recall
I recall
Last edited by toprob on Tue Jan 13, 2015 2:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
... Hopped on your motorbike ... June Nah, I would have been at work, my big battles started then, I survived and have what I have today - Flight Sim NERD CENTER ! 
