TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: PC Processing Power From:Paula Puffer <techwrtr -at- CEI -dot- NET> Date:Thu, 3 Apr 1997 02:28:25 -0600
At 09:19 AM 3/28/97 -0600, Barry House wrote:
>I can tell I'm the lone wolf here, but I've always purchased computing power
>based on what I can afford to spend today, not on what software I use or the
>tasks I have to perform. Software and tasks change too frequently.
No you aren't the lone wolf here. When I bought my computer a year and a
half ago, I bought what I could afford (granted now the same money now
would by me one heck of a machine!) and I upgraded accordingly. I'm
currently running a 486 dx2/80 with 3 gigs of HD and 32 Megs of Ram. I've
pushed this machine and still haven't crashed it from running too many
programs. There have been times I've had Photoshop, Pagemaker, Word,
Freehand, and Homesite open and my CPU has handled it quite nicely.
And I have to disagree with the software/tasks change too frequently
statement. I think I have seen more changes in the last year in the
hardware side of things than I have in Software versions.
>
>On the Mac side, I'm still using a PowerMac 7100/66 I bought three years
>ago. On the PC side, I have a two-month-old Pentium 166 MHz with MMX. A good
>client threw a multimedia project at me with a very short deadline--the fee
>more than paid for the machine. It's more power than I need today, but if
>I'm still using it in three years, I'll be happy with the purchase.
Its been two years since I bought my machine and I have more than made back
the original purchase price of the system and the upgrades. I'll keep my
machine for a bit longer and when I get a fulltime job think about
upgrading to a Pentium.
Paula
P.S. In keeping with the you know you are a tech writer thread...You know
you are a tech writer when you can pull the cover off your machine, pull
out the dead HD, change the jumpers on the old drive so it can be used as
your temp primary drive, and it all works when you are done. 8-)
TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send commands
to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/ or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html
