A 25-Year-Old Blog Looks Back at 40 Years of Computing
Mark Round reflects on his 25-year-old blog and 40 years of personal computing, tracing his journey from writing his first BASIC program on an Acorn Electron in 1986 to the evolving technology landscape. He notes how his early obsession with computer magazines and BBS systems shaped his career as a software developer.
Background
- The author, Mark Round, has been running a personal blog (markround.com) for 25 years, an unusually long stretch in the fast-changing world of tech blogging. This post reflects on that span and on four decades of home computing, from the 1980s to today.<br/><br/>- Key touchstones: 8-bit home computers (ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, Commodore 64) that defined the UK and US hobbyist scenes of the 1980s; the rise of the internet in the 1990s (dial-up, early web); the explosion of blogging platforms, social media, and mobile computing in the 2000s–2020s.<br/><br/>- The piece is a personal, retrospective "state of computing" — not breaking news but a meditation on how technology, the web, and the culture around them have changed across several distinct eras. It speaks to themes of digital nostalgia, the loss of the "small web," and the shift from tinkering with hardware to consuming polished services.