The Gordon Bell Nomograph Relating to Computer in use, Birth date & Age (as of 2002) and Age of First use Gordon Bell, one of the world's greatest collectors and historians of the digital era, has kindly contributed the above nomograph to the readers of the DigiBarn site. One thing we here at the DigiBarn are struck with day in day out is what our visitors declare as their first "imprinted" computer. There is a pretty strong correlation between age and the computers most enthusiasts first identified with. Gordon Bell has encapsuated this in an ingenious manner above, relating: Age at 2002 and birth date as connected with the generations named with popular parlance. You can see Gordon Bell in there (cgb) under the so-called Silent generation (althought few would consider Gordon to be a particular shy or retiring sort). On the right hand side is the typical age at first use of a computer system. Lines crossing between these two temporal measures may well peg you the DigiBarn reader as to the class or particular make of machine you first encountered (seen in the center). Few now remain from the GI/Great generation who first encountered ENIAC, but there are many in the 40-50 age range who started their digital odyssey on early micros, from the Altair to the TRS80, to the Apple II or Mac. The kids of today "Millenials" are starting younger and intercept the World Wide Web. So there it is, thank you Gordon! We hope the DigiBarn serves the interests of many different ages, although our central focus is from 1975 upwards in the PC to Net era. Learn more about Gordon Bell and his work at his homepage and see him on his visit here to the DigiBarn. View a powerpoint version of this nomograph here.

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