Computer Aid

Can you remember your first computer? The first one I ever owned was a green screen Amstrad PCW8256. It had two floppy disc drives and a bundled dot-matrix printer that made more noise than a version of The St. Valentine's Day Massacre directed by Quentin Tarantino.
I am now on my third computer(or fourth if you include the laptop). I have been using the things for twenty-one years now. It's difficult to remember how big and primitive the early (mainframe, not p.c.) models were. Now I am writing this sitting in a park during my lunch hour on a Palm pda the size of a packet of fags.
(remember cigarettes?)
I already take the technology for granted. My students don't know of anything else. For them it's mp3s (I remember playing 78s). They have digital video (anyone remember laser disc players and coffee-table sized Betamax video tape recorders?).
In my lifetime technological change has been considerable, but incremental. Babbage designed a workable computer in the century before last. During the last century computers got smaller and faster, but essentially worked in the same way, just better, smaller and quicker.
I really think that things are changing significantly now.Technological change is happening so fast, the technology of twenty one years from now is almost impossible to imagine.
One thing is certain though. The computers we are using now are already out of date, and we will find ourselves pushed into upgrading them sooner rather than later.
If anyone reading this has an old PC they no longer need please don't just dump it or take it to a charity shop. Instead, try contacting Computeraid. Based just up the road from me in the Nag's Head, they are a truly international charity. They specialize in supplying refurbished computers to educational and charitable groups in the less developed world. If you work for an organisation that is changing a number of PCs they can probably arrange to collect them from you. No need to worry about confidentiality or data protection either - they guarantee to wipe the hard drives to military secrecy standards.
Computeraid are an almost ideal solution to feeling guilty about getting rid of a computer that works perfectly but is out of date. It's a solution that is both green and truly global.
I gave them our old PC. Its a really good feeling knowing that it is still in use and helping people on the other side of the world.