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nection to the now standard (or is it) USB connection. Not forgetting the
humble memory stick which again comes in many sizes and the numerous
memory cards found in phones or cameras. Today your choice is im-
mense. You can even now store all your data in the cloud, but that’s an-
other story.

Printers & Scanners

As with all computer accessories these too have gone through numerous
step changes during their history. Basic ribbon based dot matrix printers
were the standard in the early days of home computing. These would ei-
ther connect via a serial or parallel port to the computer. Today’s models
have inkjet cartridges or in the case of Laser printers, toner cartridges.
They will now either connect via the USB port or in many cases, wire-
lessly. Scanners again originally would connect via a serial or parallel
port and in some case via a SCSI port. Now of course, as with printers,
they may be connected via the USB port or wirelessly. They may even be
incorporated into your printer. Very often, a printer or scanner may be
connected to a system via a local network from where numerous comput-
ers will have access.

Other Devices
In the past, to connect to the internet, a 300bit/sec dial up modem was
necessary along with a huge phone bill and everyone else complaining
that you were hogging the phone line – happy days! Now we have broad-
band, some superfast, others a bit slower. There is the standard broadband
sent over the phone line and on top of any phone traffic. There are now
the superfast fibre optic connections that offer very large transfer speeds.
Then there are webcams, cameras and phones that connect to the comput-
er mainly by the USB port. Many newer models also have Bluetooth con-
nectivity.