"Nothing endures but change"which is often paraphrased as "The only constant is change". In today's technology, this quotation applies every bit as much as it did many centuries ago.
The personal computer was introduced to the world in 1981 and the world has never turned back. During the 28 years since the introduction of the IBM PC, the growth of technology has been exponential. As computers are now such a critical component of so many jobs, regardless of if you're a computer professional or just use a computer as a tool during your job, it becomes increasingly important to keep current with the technology. With the frequent releases of operating systems and the application software itself, the ability to be able to adapt to new versions of the software will only help your career growth.
When the IBM Personal Computer was first released, there were no hard drives. There were two floppy drives - one for the program and one for the data. Each floppy disk would hold 360 kilobytes of information. Contrast this to the hard drives today that routinely hold upwards of 200 gigabytes of information, an increase of roughly 500,000%. Already, the industry is developing hard drives with storage capacity expressed in terabytes (1,000gb+)
I have been using Microsoft Office for the past 15 years and as I write this article, I am reminded of the importance of being able to adapt. I've only been using MS Word 2007 for a few months now and this version of MS Word has a radically different user interface compared to previous versions. I remain frustrated as my familiar menu options have been removed, renamed or moved into different "ribbons", but this is just one more example of how as a professional software developer, it is paramount to my career growth to be able to adapt to this change and to take the time to re-learn this manifestation of Word.
Although for many of us, this ability to adapt to technology isn't explicitly part of our "job description", it remains a critical skill as the reality is that this radical change really is the nature of the beast and that for us to do our jobs, we need to be able to master the tools at our disposal.
This growth in technology is self-perpetuating. As hardware increases in speed and capacity, software vendors are able to take advantage of these advances and release new versions which require more hard disk space, memory and other resources. Users often complain that their computer's performance tends to decrease over time and this is one of the primary reasons. In turn, this sophistication increase in the software spurns the vendors to push the envelope so that the hardware is better equipped to support the evolving software.
Over the years, the use of computers is more sophisticated. Now, it is very common for someone who has a digital camera to want to be able to load their pictures on the computer and use photo-editing software to enhance or correct their images.
In addition, computers are becoming integrated entertainment devices and are used for streaming videos, listening to music and online radio stations or even watching DVDs. Where the TV was the focal point of the home entertainment, we now see a slow evolution towards the computer being the focus. Although in the foreseeable future, TV will reign supreme, there are an ever increasing number of people that do not own a TV. Perhaps they watch their TV shows online, or they may even have a digital tuner card in the PC to receive the broadcast.
The common denominator of these technologies are that they are very resource intensive and in order to receive adequate performance, high end components are a requirement. From the graphics card, processor speed, internal memory, hard disk speed, these are all factors in the performance of high end entertainment workstations and periodically upgrading or optimizing existing configurations is a necessity for these types of applications.
When purchasing a new system, it is important to not only look at your current requirements but also to look into the future to determine what needs you might need then. If you don't think that you will have a need in the future for high end graphics, gaming, streaming video or watching DVDs, it is likely that any higher end system will suffice for the next few years. However, if you do use any or all of these applications now, then one eye must be kept on the pocket book while the other looks to the future to ensure that your workstation continues to meet your needs for the next couple of years. There is nothing more frustrating than spending money on a new computer only to find that it no longer meets your needs after a year.
I wonder what Heraclitus would have thought if he had known that his quotation from so many years ago was so relevant today if not moreso.
