My Tech History

This is my last blog piece and I am going back to my Writing Mode.

ASUS Laptop (2009) was the last thing I bought and it is gathering dust. 

It has Endless OS installed.

For our generation technology was brand new.

Making a microphone from a Kiwi shoe polish tin was our discovery. 

I think I made a tiny One Crystal Radio but without a good antenna I could not receive a radio message. 

The tuner was not good enough.

Only Long wave and short wave available then but no FM.

I gave up my experiments very early unlike Bob Lazar in America of the 1980s.

I was good in my physics and got a distinction in physics but decided to do medicine instead. 

Only one of my friends ended up as a physical engineer. 

I used to visit him at Chandrika Weva in Balangoda and all my Engineer friends ended up suffering from Malaria. 

He is no more. 

I can still remember they were feeding a tiny crocodile in a tiny water tank.

I said, beware!

I was their medical consultant.

Symptoms of Malaria was not typical then and it was very difficult to distinguish from Dengue.

There were no pocket calculators or pocket radios then.

I upgraded myself to mini TV, Radio and Cassette Deck having walked all the way up the Tottenham Court Road. 

I migrated to a mini Cassette Recorder for dictation of Clinical Records from the bulky Cassette Recorder.

But my real interest was Cameras and had 20 odd mini to major Fuji, AGFA and Canon cameras in my possession.

Currently, I have Fuji Digital Camera, bought 15 years ago and I have not yet mastered all its functions, yet.

I bought a Peterson's Colour Photographic Development Kit but could not proceed without a proper Dark Room. 

I did some Black and White photography (Processing) with my brother as a school kid. 

We formed a Photography Society but our teachers we less encouraging.

 

I had few of my photographs published one in the Commonwealth Magazine.

 

I ended up buying a Digital Microscope (which children use in America) for my Thesis (University did not have a Digital Camera Microscope).

I ended up writing a book on "Microscopes" including its development history.

Fast forward, I bought a portable double deck cassette recorder and Radio Amplifier.

Amplifier was a novelty to me.

I had to cut down on my expenses after marriage but still went to Radio Shack outlet in Manchester to look for gadgets but I did not by any of the Fancy Radio Kits. 

If I remember right Radio Shack was going bust (bankrupt).

During early stage of marriage, 3 piece kit was the "ultimate top range" which we could afford from a Manchester Warehouse with a fancy name (which I cannot remember the name). 

If I remember right it was called "HiFi Mania" not WiFi Mania.

Most likely this outlet may have gone busy.

The combination of Double Cassette Deck, Radio and Amplifier were (of different Models) called a Setup. 

It is a rack one on top of the other.

A Single Model Setup was very expensive. 

The TV was the cheapest second hand Sony and no Video Cassette Deck.

There were no TVs in Ceylon then.

All these were before 1982. 

I returned home in December, 1984.

It cost me a lot bringing them home and TRICO was very helpful (TRICO guy bought ARPICO, later).

The Table Top, Fridge, Freezer and Dryer were the items we had to possess and doing everything at home (DIY) was the norm.

 

Saying Good Bye to Dry Cleaning was the end result.

Of course Computer was my addiction.

I used to assemble my own PC and had 15 unit Network at home and I have now migrated to NUC Basic, while having a mini barrel shaped Radio Receiver that accommodates USB and SD card for Audio play. 

I do not use Apple or Microsoft Windows and the various Linux Distributions from Xandros to Mandrake to Suse to Redhat to PCLinux  were my driving forces during 32 bit days but now full time Debian User (64 bit Version 12).

DOS to Sinclair to Atari to Commodore 64 Computers (but NO Radio Shack) were my introduction to computing.

I did not like BBC Basic but did a bit of basic computing including machine language on a cassette. 

Those days making a computer List of Contacts with addresses was big deal.

Dot max printers I hated but I have huge Sony Drum Printer which I used for my (Thesis) Printing Work. 

I have had several Tablets and the current one is Samsung.

I was busy looking after sick children before I migrated to sick elderly and I finally migrated to my bread and butter medicine which was Pathology (after the fact, full investigation).

The current Monitor is huge which I need for easy reading. 

I haven't watched a film for over six months and I hate Talk SHOWS, YouTube and Facebook.

I made only One YouTube (digital) presentation in my entire life and that is also on Linux Usage.

Currently my cellphone with Android 13 version is the Daily Driver and this piece is made on my cellphone which has a good Google Spell Checker.

Editing was done subsequently on my Intel NUC computer.

For all purposes Cellphone is a Mini Computer.

I did not spend huge on a car which is a depreciating asset but bought a second hand Peudeau car which I dispensed with, when the spare parts were hard to come by.

Postscript

With Microchip industry at its peak it is not worth investing on tech gadgets. 

If I am given the chance, instead of a Raspberry Pie, I would have made my Mini Computer on a Simple Keyboard by integrating the CPU and RAM of NUC. 

Just stick the NUC circuit board and mini RAM to a Keyboard. Instead of a TV monitor Wireless  Liquid Crystal Display Tablet would function as my digital reader cum monitor. It is possible and would be much cheaper but these Corporate Giants will never consider such a venture. 

Their target is profits.

I started with 4MB Video RAM and 128MB RAM to begin with. 

By the way, I am in full retirement.