Clarence finally retires his Intergraph multimedia keyboard at the office.

Some of the bad guys from Quake, an early first person
shooter. Charlie and I used to play this every day, 
against each other and online against others.

Back in the day, computers and peripherals were marketed as “multimedia” if they were able to play sound and render some level of animation.
The first time I heard the term, I was confused. What’s so “multi” about sound and moving images? Or is this something different than what I have already?
In those days, you bought graphic accelerators and sound cards separately. Most computers came with something that was capable of making noise and moving a cursor, but if you wanted to play Quake on a network and hear your foe dying in agony, you needed to invest in something a little better.

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My desk has moved so many times, I just left my name and extension on my keyboard. I had this one for nearly 20 years.

My old keyboard.

My new keyboard and laptop,

The view from my desk - it will soon be changing,

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I was one of the first in my company to get a laptop with sound, they were sturdy Compaq workhorses before HP bought Compaq. I created a Windows theme that made Star Trek sounds for various actions (a transporter door for minimizing windows; “He’s dead, Jim” when I deleted a file). Everyone looked at me like I was a green Orion slave girl or something.)

He’s dead, Jim.

Green Orion Slave Girl

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