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Just a bit of a disclaimer to start. The dates on this page don't signify when advancements were made in computers. Rather they give the dates when I upgraded!
The story of DESTINATIONS begins years before the site was conceived. In 1983 I was using an old Texas Instruments TI99-4a computer. Back then most computers used BASIC as their operating system, and no two versions were the same. It was what I first started programming on.
About 1987 that computer gave up the ghost and I found myself using an Atari computer. What a step up! 16 K of memory and a cassette tape for saving files! As with the Texas Instruments, the monitor consisted of a TV set!
In 1990 I acquired an IBM XT computer with a real computer monitor. Black and green, much as this screen text you're reading right now! It was actually built up from three different ones that I bought through a surplus equipment auction. This computer had two 5 1/4 inch floppies and a 20 meg hard drive on a plug-in card! It had 768K of RAM. (Who would ever need more than that!) Plus it used DOS as its operating system. A big improvement and another system to learn. Later I actually made my first internet connection with it. Using a 300 baud modem, much like the one pictured here, (For comparison with today's speeds, that's .3 K !!). I could actually get on the newsgroups and bulletin boards by dialing a telephone number. And also send e-mail! But no pictures yet....
In 1992 I went from the IBM to a Dell computer. This one was a 386, with 100 megs of hard drive space. 2 Meg of RAM, and a 14.4 K modem. I was ready for the internet just as soon as I could get real dialup service. Finally out here in the sticks in 1994 we got it. It also included 2 MEG of storage space for a personal webpage. In 1996 the CRUSHED ARCH was born. The name was created from an acronym of the topics presented, Caving, Record collecting,UFOs,Solar Heat, Electronic Design, Antique Radio, Computing, and a Homepage list of other websites
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The initial splash page is lost to the ages, but shortly after it was replaced by the CRUSHED ARCH "Ask the Wizaed" page. A screenshot of that one is seen on the right. This one lasted for about 6 years with a few tweaks and modifications as the subjects changed.
The limiting factor on these pages was always the load time. Dial up, even at 56 K still required some time to load. Since many used dial up the page files were kept small. Even today, there are users on dial up, so the later pages also tried to limit download times.
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In 1996 a new computer replaced the Dell. This one was a Penium 2 running Windows 95. I still was limited to 56 K dial up though, so the page didn't see any major upgrades.
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Then in 2001 the page was revised. Some topics were removed and emphasis placed on others. Because of the change the acronym no longer applied, so a new name was required. The map legend and the name DESTINATIONS became the new website.
This page utilized the image mapping for topic selection and also incorporated many more diversions, In 2006, DESTINATIONS also acquired its own domain as well,
Then in 2007 another computer upgrade speeded things up quite a bit. That is the machine I currently am using, Athalon Processor, 128 MEG RAM and 120 Gigs of hard drive. Plus I am now connected using broadband, they finally made that available here in 2008 as well!
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Which all brings us up to the present. The Wizard has been with the page since the first CRUSHED ARCH Pages were developed, and the general outline remains much the same. The page remains relatively simple compared to some. It follows the original concept of presenting material, not a lot of fancy graphics. It follows one of the basic thoughts that goes back to the original, "Just because we can do it, should we?"
Now don't you regret clicking on that History book? And you should understand why I THREW it along that path....., I didn't lose it!!!!
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