Computing history Memes

Posts tagged with Computing history

Spaces In Filenames: The Eternal Terror

Spaces In Filenames: The Eternal Terror
Remember when spaces in filenames were basically forbidden by the laws of computing physics? Those of us who survived the DOS/early Windows era still twitch nervously at the thought. Nothing like typing cd My Documents only to have the terminal smugly respond with The system cannot find the path specified . Then you'd have to do that awkward cd "My Documents" or worse, cd My\ Documents like some command line contortionist. The trauma runs deep enough that even in 2025, we're still reaching for that underscore key like it's a security blanket. final_report_ACTUAL_v2_FINAL_REALLY_THIS_TIME.docx just feels safer somehow.

We Came So Far Guys

We Came So Far Guys
1989: "Imagine the technological marvels we'll create with computers in 30 years!" 2020: "So I've simulated 1,000 T-Rexes fighting 80,000 chickens. For science." Ah yes, the pinnacle of computing power - dinosaur-poultry warfare. Somewhere in a server farm, a CPU is thinking, "I was designed to cure cancer, but here we are."

Modern Computing Priorities

Modern Computing Priorities
In 1973, NASA sent humans to the literal moon with just 4KB of RAM. Fast forward to 2019, and your beastly machine with 16GB RAM and maxed-out CPU is brought to its knees by... an Excel dialog box lurking in the background. Nothing captures modern software bloat quite like this perfect comparison. We've gone from accomplishing humanity's greatest feats with minimal resources to having our supercomputers paralyzed by spreadsheet popups. Progress?