Ten years ago I was living at home with my parents, as yet unlicensed to drive, and starting my final semester of my final year of a bachelor's degree in computer systems engineering. We were just starting a group "fourth year project" which was to build different sections of a remote-operated robotic vehicle. In the coming months I would develop a serious crush on one of my fellow team members, but she was way out of my league.
It was a very optimistic time for all of us in computer engineering. The dot-com boom was going strong. Within weeks of graduating that May I would find myself working in a telecom company that almost literally threw money at me. I would periodically receive letters saying "We have reviewed market conditions and are pleased to inform you that your salary has been adjusted to ____". Living at home, driving my dad's car (well, once I finished getting that license), spending all that money on toys and tech. Life was grand, and would continue to be up until the economic crash following the shock of 9/11.
And, of course, I was a staunch PC user. With the iPod not yet invented and OS X still well off my radar, I was using a desktop Windows 98 PC at home. (My first Dell laptop PC would be one of the toys I would buy later.)
We still used dial-up since it was provided free from my school. My friends were bugging me to try this new-fangled "ICQ" program that would let me chat with them, but I preferred using my free Yahoo email account, or calling them on my brand-new Nokia 5190 cell phone. I even had the clip-on analog module for extended coverage.
I'd seen people with these little 64 meg Rio mp3 players, but I was big into Minidisc. If Sony could just market the format a little better, it would really take off, and give MP3 players and Discmans a real run for the money...
I looked forward to the day that I could upgrade my PC to play DVD movies, but wasn't in a rush since there were still relatively few movies available on DVD. Our $500 RCA DVD player would suffice. And one day, soon, I would save up the $800 it took to buy a nice digital camera, but until then, I would continue to use my 35mm Pentax point and shoot.