I went through grade school during the era of the green screened apple word processors, I remember in about 3rd grade they finally got colored screens.

At home we had a Commodore PET, that was later replaced by a C64, which was replaced by a C128. I still have the C64, C128, and a couple Amigas that I got second hand.

Our first "modern" pc was a Acer, about 85 MHz, 16 MB of ram, and a 512 KB hard drive. We "upgraded" it at the time of purchase, the upgrade included a 4X cd rom drive, and twice the ram. Purchased in 92, I believe, for about 1800 bucks. That was the computer that taught me most of what I know. It was the first machine I used to get on the internet, I remember the day dad used about 600 bucks of his tax return and we bought windows 95 and 16 more MB of ram. True story, the empty tower of this machine is being used a a table leg for a bench in my basement.

That computer stayed in use until about late 97 when it was replaced by IBM 300PL. It came with windows 98, 600 MHz P3, 64 Mb of ram, 8X cd rom, and a 10 gig hard drive. This machine lives on as my server, currently it has 512 MB of ram, two 80 gig hard drives, and a 52X cd/dvd burner. Its been one of the most trouble free machines I've ever dealt with.

After the IBM i started building my own machines, I built my first in 99, using a asus motherboard, 2 gigs of ram, a 80 gig hard drive, and a 1.4 MHz p4. It cost about 1800 bucks to build. I built 3 more after that machine using most of the same parts.

A year ago I built my current gaming machine, using a asus motherboard, running windows xp pro, 4 gigs of ram, 500 GB hard drive, a over clocked core two duo processor running about 3.2 GHz, 256 MB video card, A memorex 52/32/52 CD burner, a sony 16x dual layer dvd burner, and a elcheapo dvd rom drive I had laying around. grand total on this machine was about 2400 bucks. I used it for a little over a month before I got laid off, I ended up selling it to a guy I worked with for 2000 bucks. He got himself in money trouble about a month ago, so I ended up buying my machine back for 500 bucks. Its the same exact machine as it was when i built it, he made no changes at all, he had it for about 6 months.

Currently I have 4 machines that are used daily, plus a pile in the basement. I enjoy bringing home computers I find sitting on the curb during junk days, for the most part I'll add a few parts and install a fresh copy of windows. I end up selling most of them at garage sales, I use the money to fuel my habit of building my own machines.

 

i got a trs 80 for christmas when i was a kid. after that (which lasted a couple of years) i didn't touch one until i was in the Navy.

in the Navy learned as far as pc's goes all the little things an office assistant would know like MS office and various little things, plus installng and making lan cables, this and that, even helped set up the boats lan system. but most of the computer tech stuff i learned in the Navy had to do with big old computers with big tape drives, wierd 6 and 8 bit codes and a mass of wires dangling around everywhere.

the first pc for myself i got was in 2000, a home made job which i still have.

i just can not get myself interested in the tech aspects of computers no matter how hard i try.

 

Oh forgot to mention...

If you purchased a modem in the 1990s chances are you've used software I helped develop! If you had one of the later "voice modems" which could double as an answering machine... you probably used software I wrote as well. If you faxed from a PC with the software that came with the modem, it was probably something I helped write.

If you did accounting on a PC with Peachtree accounting... the Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, report graphs.... my work.

If you used any of the instant "loan by phone" applications banks had in the 1990s or early 2000s, odds are good that my code was running behind the scenes.

I wrote a huge set of date/time/calendar functions as part of an energy commodities forecasting application as a contractor for a major utility company... they did this in partnership with.... Enron. I hated that contract.

 

Your right I missed that when typing.. It would have screamed if could have held 128M

 

Thanks Ken,

Now we know who to blame for all the aggrivation we went through with all those early programs...


Yes, I remember using many of those programs..

 

My story starts almost the same way, except I was 12 and it was the summer of '77 and the TRS-80 was in the local Radio Shack as a demo model... I was there quite a lot for the next 6 months.

The rest of the story, well, we'll leave that for another time

 

Our first computer was a TRS 80 also, got it about 82 I think. It lasted till about late 87. My dad did his bachelors on that thing, I did some homework on it, played a couple video games.

Dad gave it away, got an IBM compatible 286, with DOS 2.0 and Word. I loaded up Tetris. I guess 88 - 90.

Dad gave that one away, got a 386, DOS 4.0, Word 4.0, and Windows, MS Mouse, and a MCGA screen and laser printer. Good till about 92, but we kept it till 94.

That's when I stopped learning how a computer worked, as I was done with school, had no need for the computer. I didn't have my OWN computer until about 2001, and even then, I didn't use it much. Can't even remember what stuff it had in it. HP Pavilion N 610 I think. My wife used it maybe 10 times as much as I did back then. Sister in law has it now, since we got our laptop last year. But I eventually came back around. My wife almost fights me for the laptop now, and as it goes, I am now the "family tech guy" as far as my wife's family goes.

 

I have used PeachTree 5.0 since 1999 and have often wondered who in the heck wrote this thing!!! Ha! Ha! J/K!! I absolutely love that program!! I wouldn't use Quick~ anything for all the money in the world!!

 

I maintain computers and data communications equipment in a process control environment of a large steel mill. It used to be mainly a DEC / CAMAC environment but in the last ten years, is moving increasingly to PC's (SCADAs) and PLC's. I used to just love this stuff but now it's just a job and like me... it's getting old. Twenty years ago there were four hardware guys in my area. Now I'm the only one and there is at least 2 -3 times as much equipment to maintain. I dread hearing the phone ring in the evening, not to mention the early AM hours, because I get called out all the time. I even get called out about half the time when I'm on vacation. Other than that, it's a great job...really!

My first computer was a Timex Sinclair, then a TRS-80 and later home built PC's. I had one FORTRAN class in the late 60's while in school but it was more of an introduction to using the card reader and card punches of the time. I taught myself BASIC, Assembler, Pascal, FORTRAN, and some C although I never developed the any great love for C or UNIX. My favorite was Pascal. I used to subscribe to magazines like Byte, I think I still have the first issue, and Dr. Dobbs Journal.

At work I spent 10 years as an instrument & control tech before being drafted into the computer hardware group. I have a stack of certificates for training on DEC PDP11's, VAXes, data comm, yada-yada. I had the opportunity to switch from doing hardware to being a programmer so I did. Like many things in life, working on cars for example, doing something as a hobby is not the same as doing it for a living. After a few years of it I was fed up and went back to hardware. When other people decide what software your going to write they don't give a damn if its done well, they just want it done fast and do what they want -- no matter how stupid it is.

I've got a few more years to go till I retire. When I do, maybe I'll be interested in computers as a hobby again... or not.

 

I don't know squat about computers.

They're evil.

They control you.

They own you.

You're under their spell.

Find the numbers corresponding to the letters COMPUTER, and they spell......666.

Did I mention I enjoy my computer?

 

Actually, the code we did at my company would automatically find COM ports, identify the modem, configure, etc. without user intervention. It was really cool stuff. Hayes, Zoom, Boca, USR all used our software (not the crappy "Bitware" stuff some modem companies gave). They usually shipped with Faxworks (our stuff) as well, which was so much faster and feature rich than WinFax. Problem was that WinFax had the retail shelf space and we had a hard time cracking into that market when the freebie program did more than the paid version of WinFax.

Now the voice mail software, that's another story. Another and I developer wrote that code in 2 weeks, in a marathon run. Loads of fun trying to digitize sound through a 115.2kbps serial port (not!). The final weekend we worked through without sleeping, and literally spent maybe an hour on the final test. No major bugs we reported but it could have been a much more polished piece of software.

 

It started with a Vic20,(early 80's) used a cassette player/recorder for data storage, I taught myself basic and had a blast writing simple programs for myself. I never went any further in the field than self satisfaction with the programming or hardware stuff. I am so so as far as computer literacy. All self taught. Most 6 and 7 year olds run circles around me with their computer knowledge.

 

When I started with 'computers', it wasn't called computing. It was called 'Data Processing'.

In 1969, I trasferred from a real ghetto style, delapidated (sp???) old school, to a fairly new Technical/Trade school.
They offered classes such as Data Processing, Electronics, Printing, Drafting, The Building Trades, Automotive Repair, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, to Food Preparation.

I wanted to take the Building Trades and Automotive Repair.
My Dad said that IF I was going to transfer schools, I was going to take the Technical classes.

My first 'taste' of computing was on the old alpha-numeric keypunch machines, sorters, printers and the marvelous IBM 1130 computer!!!!

I did pretty well in that class, but, like any DUMB 16 year old kid, I didn't listen to my Dad.
I wound up in Printing (like my Dad) and became a pretty good printer.

Fast forward to 1995.
My wife came to me and said that she needed a computer to do work on, at home. (She used computers at work, and wanted to be able to extend her workday. Whoopie!)

So, it was my 'new job' to find a pc for my wife to use.

Our first pc. . . a custom-built Pentium 90 w/8 MB of RAM (later upgraded to 16 MB for an additional $375!) and a 730 MB hdd and a 2x CDROM.

From there, I built (for myself) a 486 DX/2-80 Cyrix pc w/24 MB of RAM, 730MB hdd, a second 540 MB hdd and a 6x CDROM.

From there, it's all downhill.
All self-taught, along with a BUNCH of "Dummies" books.

Now, I have three pcs on my desk at work (one, a NEW Macintosh still in the box), two on my desk at home, (plus two laptops, picking up a third today), a pc in each kid's room, my wife has a desktop and laptop, built my Mom's pc, and maintain all of them.

Plus, two older kids that have pcs, that I have to maintain/administer.


I've had 8088, 8086, 286, 386, 486 DX/2, Pentium, PII, PIII, PIV, Centrino, MAC 66 mhz (This one is set-up on my reloading bench, in the basement).

I've still got DOS 3; 4; 5; 6; 6.22 (and 6.22 on 5-1/4" LD disks!); Win 3.1; 3.11; Win 95; 95 OSR2; 98; 98SE; 2000; NT 4; XP Pro.


And I still don't know 'poop' about computers!!!!!!!!!














Keith

 

Damn ken you are a beast!

And i thought i was smart cause i knew my way around the old dos prompt.

I built my current computer and i troubleshoot it when something goes wrong. Id like to know more but you know, busy these days.

 

Ken,

I may still have some of those discs kicking around like winfax, faxworks and bitware..