Fill in the blanks with a suitable tense of the verbs in brackets:

Since computers were first introduced to the public in the early 1980's, technology ____________ (1) (change) a great deal. The first computers _____________ (2) (be) simple machines designed for basic tasks. They ___________ (3) (have, not) much memory and they were not very powerful. Early computers were often quite expensive and customers often ___________ (4) (pay) thousands of dollars for machines. Times __________ (5) (change). Computers __________ (6) (become) powerful machines with very practical applications. Many computer users ___________ (7) (start) to create international communities online.