Michele Brannon-Hamilton's Blog

In its simplest form, the history of technology refers to the evolution of technology over time. In my own life, I think back to my years at the University of Waterloo in the late 80s and early 90s.

While completing my undergrad degree, I used an electric typewriter to complete my papers at home and an ancient computer in my dad’s cartography lab at the university. The typewriter was fascinating because I could type and correct a whole sentence at a time. However, it did take a lot of time to complete my assignments.

I found the university’s computer much more useful when it was working properly. The system I was using was attached to the mainframe of the university and its cpu was located in a large room. Interestingly enough the cpu was the size of the whole room.

The software I used at the time was called Script. As I typed in my assignments, I would add instructions or code to the page if I wanted bold or underlined text. The page looked untidy and confusing but luckily it printed just the assignment.

I remember one particularly annoying problem, forgetting to save. In those days, computers did not save data on their own so we had to save every few minutes. One day I forgot to save my assignment and when the mainframe crashed I lost a whole 10 page paper just minutes before it was due. It was a hard lesson to learn but one I’ve never forgotten.

Computers became cheaper just as I was graduating so I bought one at the end of time at the university. I had decided that under no circumstances would I take another course without a computer. Since then I’ve used my computer in many courses and I’ve often wondered how I could have possibly lived without it!