In Hindsight ‘Densha De Go!’ in December 2020. I don’t remember much about writing this one, though the title is a play on the name of an arcade game which came out around the same time, and made it onto consoles. You played a train driver and had to get simulations of real trains to real stations on a real timetable. Yup, it was a big thing. There were sit down versions also, where you could even put a driver’s faux uniform on....
With Hindsight ‘PC Upgrade - May 2000’ in December 2020 We can always have a good laugh at PC specs and prices from decades past, but this was fairly balanced I suspect for the time. Ah, VersionTracker, I used to check that thing every day in the 90’s until RSS and in-application updaters were a thing. I have fond memories of that first GeForce too, if only because it was indeed my first gaming card....
In Hindsight ‘Digital Life Update - February 1998’ in December 2020 Over 20 years on, and the idea of explaining a move to Mac might seem odd. In context, at the time, Apple was a basket case, Jobs barely back, the iMac wouldn’t be out for another six months and the company was almost bankrupt, so the idea of move to the Mac platform was a bit weird. Rhapsody? Wow, I’d forgotten about that....
In Hindsight - December 2020 I was a huge fan of free online texts, and I wrote this page against that backdrop in late 1997 when I was still teaching English on JET, Amazon was just getting somewhere and when buying an English language book meant a small selection in a larger city like Yokohama and paying a lot of money. Still, they were quaint and fun days perhaps. I still believe in open source e-texts, and still support Gutenberg, and they continue to upload more and more content each day....