Older Computers

They are now releasing terabyte hard drives.

Hitachi have annouced, just before the start of the CES in Las Vegas, the first consumer available terabyte hard drive.

Along with the Deskstar 7K1000 for the retail market, Hitachi is also announcing today a CinemaStar version 1TB hard drive, which provides optimized capabilities specifically designed for digital video recording (DVR) applications. Consumers have come to rely on their digital video recorders (DVRs) to record and store their favorite programs, and with the increasing availability of high-definition (HD) TV programming, 1TB of storage will become a necessity.

"The industry's first one-terabyte hard drive represents a milestone that is 50 years in the making, and it reasserts the hard drive's leadership as the highest-capacity, lowest-cost storage technology," said Shinjiro Iwata, chief marketing officer, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. "In the 51 st year, Hitachi is leading a new era for hard drives -- not only providing large amounts of affordable storage, but also customizing and optimizing hard drives to deliver products that are smarter, more durable and more useful to the consumer."

So what do I say about that? The truth is, my practice has always been to stay a generation or two behind the trend. The fact is my primary in need for a computer is for word processing, and for doing some research on the web -- hence the need for a web browser. My preference is for Firefox. But my point being I don't need a Mack truck to drive to the corner grocery store, and I surely don't need a 747 jet airliner. It's more than sufficient for me to actually have a bicycle to get there. And so I'm very happy if I have a little Volkswagen and it does the job.

To use that analogy, I don't mind having a computer that's a generation or two behind in the latest cutting-edge technology. If I have my druthers, I would say the most significant part of my computer would have to be the RAM. In that department I have 1.75 GHz of RAM, surely more than sufficient for some browsing, and for word processing. What I do use of the word processor, of course, is my dictation software. And that needs sufficient memory, of which I am happy to say I have. I also have a Pentium 42.6 GHz chip as my CPU. It's way he sufficient for what I use. I use an IBM ThinkCenter desktop, and it gives me what I need.

Operating systems is another area where I am happy to be a generation behind. I have a laptop that is still operating on Windows 2000. It is sufficient for browsing and word processing -- and probably a lot more. I have a Pentium III chip in there -- 900 MHz -- and it is sufficient to be used for watching some overseas foreign news video. In other words, it does what I need it to do.

Windows XP is the operating system I use primarily on my desktop. Although I observed Windows Vista in action, I see no use for upgrading to it at this time. Besides a little aero eye candy, it has not been proven to me that there will be any benefit for me to upgrade at this point. If it, theoretically, is supposed to provide a bit more security, my firewall and virus and spyware scanner -- all served by zone alarm -- is doing just fine. I don't believe I would be getting any increase in security at this moment from Vista. Especially, I believe there's a need to give them a good six months to take some of the initial bugs out of the system.

I use an old monitor -- a 21 inch IBM Trinitron monitor -- on my desk, and the picture is just magnificent. I use an old keyboard, and mouse. All of my peripherals are slightly old, or more, and generally rather economical. And they are in wonderful working order, I must add.

So here is to old parts, older machines, older versions of software, and everything else that does the job.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.