Speed now & then

I'm reminded of how fast things have gotten when I use some of my old media conversion code developed on an 8088 PC, that's been recompiled to run under 64-bit Linux on a reasonably fast CPU (3GHz quad-core AMD). I'd sit back for a couple of minutes waiting for the code to churn through the data and create files and write them to disk. Now, with essentially the same code, it's done before I can lift my finger off the RETURN key--150 or 200 files' worth of data. It strikes me as odd how little time we actually spend today computing (other than bitcoin mining) in comparison to drawing pictures on a screen. Back in the day, I often fantasized at what I would do if I had a processor 10 times faster than the 70s supercomputer I was using. Little did I suspect that I'd be using the processing power 40-some years later to watch TV. --Chuck