Soapbox:
My first computer was a Commodore 128. I was AMAZED at what that machine could do! And it (to this day) has the smoothest keyboard on the planet! It had those huge floppy disks and a disk drive that sounded like a dishwasher! The monitor screen was
GREEN and my printer was dot matrix. I'm ashamed to say it is still in the basement in the 'computer museum'. When I was a medical resident, we had beepers to keep in touch with our clinic and patient population. We invested in a portable phone affectionally known as
The Brick for those of us who had to be on call and needed immediate access to a phone. THAT was an amazing device! Otherwise, when the infernal beeper went off, we had to search around for the nearest pay phone. My first phone was a Motorola Flip Phone. WHAT an amazing piece of technology
THAT was. About twice the size of a beeper and, not only could you receive and make phone calls, but you could also take
PICTURES with it! OMG!! Technology was out-of-control!! There are a lot of people on this forum that can identify with all of this. There are a lot that have no CLUE as to what I am referring to.
Since then, things seem to have advanced at a rapid rate. When I built SuzieQ, I had what was, at the time, a pretty advanced panel that I still really like, by the way. The Rocky Mountain Instrument muEncoder was an amazing piece of instrument technology that you, like the airplane, built yourself! And it worked amazingly well! It is on my desk at home, having been replaced by much advanced instrumentation. And I still have a very simple panel with a majority of the instruments round and analog. Did I mention I like it?
I remember dial-up. Had an AOL account. Remember that sound? Forums and chat rooms were rare. I was on a forum called The Well that was an amazing collection of people from all over the world that would talk about nearly anything, It included some celebrities like Daid Crosby. An amazing community.
When I first became aware of this forum, I regretted not having it when SuzieQ was coming together. It has since been an amazing source of information, friendship from an amazing group of people that come together from all over the WORLD to build/fly RV's. I no longer use my Commodore. My flip phone is in a desk drawer. I like the old VAF format but am quickly adapting and appreciating the new format. I am still on the
DARK mode! I log on, on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. I contribute when I can but mostly cruise the amazing amount of information that is in this forum.
The only thing that stays the same is change. I really like my RV-4 but appreciate the newer models that have come after. Would I have a side-by-side? Nope. Someone sitting next to me would scare the stuffing out of me.
I liked the old format; I like the new format. I will always support the effort of keeping this forum going with what I can afford to contribute. Thank you Doug and your supporting crew of folks that bring us this indispensable resource. Keep up your most excellent work. Looking forward to the improvements you will incorporate into this new look!
PS:
DONATE.....