PCs in the Home
PCs have been in the home for 20 years
- Limited access to external networks
- Limited security issues
Increasing use of PCs in homes today for
- School and personal tasks
- Home-based business
- Business tasks
- Telecommuting and work-at-home
Notes:
This slide and the next provide some deep background information. It is increasingly common today for families to have multiple computers in their home. But while PCs -- or PC-class machines -- have been around for over 20 years, cost was the main issue and security was not. My first PC-type machine was an Apple II+ purchased in 1981 for a cost somewhat above $2500. The Apple II+ was a great machine; 64 KB RAM (yes, KB), 2 floppy drives (hard drives for microcomputers didn't exist in 1981), about a 100-kHz CPU, a 300 bps modem, and a BASIC compiler. And that was a pretty good system!! But there was no Internet and a limited number of places to dial into such as the neighborhood Bulletin Board System (BBS) or some such. But there wasn't a big problem with other users attacking our computers.
Today, of course, PCs are everywhere. In particular, we have computers in the home for school work, business tasks (for both out-of-home and in-home businesses), and, increasingly, work-at-home and telecommuting applications. More and more of our personal information are on our computer -- medical information, personal finances, love letters, correspondence, e-mail, family photos, etc., etc. Our computer has become the repository of a larger set of personal items than we care to think.