Happy 30th Birthday PC!

New York City on August 12, 1981, the IBM 5150 personal computer made its debut. The IBM 5150 ran the Microsoft Disk Operating System, MS-DOS, the precursor to modern day Windows.

Over the last 30 years the technological evolution of the PC has been astounding. The personal computer has lead to many breakthroughs in the way in which we do business and even interact with other. The PC of today is vastly different from the one that made its debut in NYC way back in 1981.

We now have Xbox and Playstation consoles that are more capable and better equiped than most PC's from just a couple of years ago. The ubiquitous smartphone is everywhere nowadays and even these devices are more functional and powerful than a PC of only a couple years old.

This does make you wonder where the PC of the future is going to be. Is there even going to be a need for the PC as we know it today? Why not just have a smartphone that can double up as a PC when needed. The phone could project a 'screen' and a keyboard at the same time and you could work away. The rise of cloud computing and services means you just need a phone with a browser capable of providing such service.

The will be no licensing issues, just a paid-for access account to the services needed. No need for cumbersome printer drivers with modern printers linked to the Internet and their own e-mail addresses. There will also be no lost software disc's.

I think the PC is going to be made redundant within the next few years and replaced by better and faster smartphones. Then again weren't online news sites supposed to have killed off the newspaper already? Either way I for one am very keen to see what the future brings.

Installing a shared printer on Windows 7

One would think this is to be relatively simple given previous versions of Windows. To install a shared printer on a Windows 7 machine is different from the normal Start > Run > \\servername and double clicking the printer.

To install a printer that is shared on another computer you need to do the following:

1. Click on Start > Devices and Printers
2. Click Add a Printer
3. Click Add a Local Printer - it sounds odd I know took me awhile to figure this out too
4. Select Create a New Port and select 'Local Port' as the port type
5. In the Port Name box type in \\computername\printershare 
6. You will then be asked to go through the Add New Hardware screens - this is where you can eventually install the driver for your Printer.

It took awhile to figure the above out but it does work.