Achieving Your Computer Knowledge
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Achieving Your Computer Knowledge
So how did you acquire your computer knowledge ?
Myself....self-taught with No Formal computer classes
In 1992, at 42 y/o I was introduced to a computer with Windows 3.1 on it to do some spreadsheet work of making karaoke disc song listings from the disc as they arrivedat the store.
This was a manual input method handling every disc and while trying to hold the disc cover ..read the small text ..type the info into each field.
Now there is program to copy to the HD.
In 2000, I finally gave up the " I can do without a personal computer" and after a year of reading Newsgroups (where I first met FTE Ken on alt.autos.fords. I think) eventually to find FTE in 2001.
All my education then and now is still the "fly by the seat of my pants" method.
How about you ?
Myself....self-taught with No Formal computer classes
In 1992, at 42 y/o I was introduced to a computer with Windows 3.1 on it to do some spreadsheet work of making karaoke disc song listings from the disc as they arrivedat the store.
This was a manual input method handling every disc and while trying to hold the disc cover ..read the small text ..type the info into each field.
Now there is program to copy to the HD.
In 2000, I finally gave up the " I can do without a personal computer" and after a year of reading Newsgroups (where I first met FTE Ken on alt.autos.fords. I think) eventually to find FTE in 2001.
All my education then and now is still the "fly by the seat of my pants" method.
How about you ?
Last edited by Mil1ion; Sep 20, 2007 at 04:22 PM.
Senior User
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 170
Likes: 0
From: Gordon,Ohio
My teacher is my son it started when he was 3 now he is 17. he is a great teacher, he shows people stuff all the time, and they learn it, so I guess its me? Oh well I try. Old dog new tricks, heck any tricks new or old.
Post Fiend
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 6,473
Likes: 4
From: Lafayette, IN
I first sat down at a TRaSh-80 in the fall of 1981 as a second-grader. Various Apple II's, IBM-compatibles and Windows PCs later, I am where I am. I have taken computer classes at just about every education level (elementary through college-level programming), but have forgotten much more than most will ever learn.
I think we are suffering from the effects of Windows--not many really learn how to use a computer on a technical level; it's all point-and-click. The software we buy now is severely bloated, inefficient and full of security holes as a result.
All I do now on the computer is surf the internet, keep the home computers/network running, keep track of the family finances, etc. Once in a while I bust out a game, but find the simpler ones more entertaining than the gigantic, graphics-intense epics sold today.
Jason
I think we are suffering from the effects of Windows--not many really learn how to use a computer on a technical level; it's all point-and-click. The software we buy now is severely bloated, inefficient and full of security holes as a result.
All I do now on the computer is surf the internet, keep the home computers/network running, keep track of the family finances, etc. Once in a while I bust out a game, but find the simpler ones more entertaining than the gigantic, graphics-intense epics sold today.
Jason
Posting Guru
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,288
Likes: 0
From: Leamington, Ontario
Well since I'm just youngin I grew up using computers. I took computer engineering and computer science in high school. A lot of my knowledge is from spending a lot of time on forums dealing with computers (Yeah, I was a computer nerd, but not anymore)
Moderator
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 164,377
Likes: 82
From: MA
I started back in 1982 with my new Apple IIE (Which I still have)..
That is when you got a computer in one box and a ton of books in another.
Used to connect to the internet with my trusty 300 Baud modem and had to type all the commands, No pretty GUI.. Compuserve was the premier ISP..
Took Fortran programming for my degree on an old Digital PDP-11 mainframe..
Then when computers started making inroads at the workplace I was responsable for data collection off the old Magnetic tapes..
When everyone else started having problems I was the guy they went to for help..
Finally after getting laid off I decided to start my own computer business and have been learning ever since.
It is great learning new things while peopel are paying you....
In all this time the computers have gotten faster and cheaper..
First pc:
Apple IIE
128 Mb memory
Dual 5.25" Floppy Drives
300 Baud modem
Price $2,200.00
Currently:
Dell
1 Gb Memory
200 Gb Hard Drive
No Modem needed
Current prices around $900.00
That is when you got a computer in one box and a ton of books in another.
Used to connect to the internet with my trusty 300 Baud modem and had to type all the commands, No pretty GUI.. Compuserve was the premier ISP..
Took Fortran programming for my degree on an old Digital PDP-11 mainframe..
Then when computers started making inroads at the workplace I was responsable for data collection off the old Magnetic tapes..
When everyone else started having problems I was the guy they went to for help..
Finally after getting laid off I decided to start my own computer business and have been learning ever since.
It is great learning new things while peopel are paying you....
In all this time the computers have gotten faster and cheaper..
First pc:
Apple IIE
128 Mb memory
Dual 5.25" Floppy Drives
300 Baud modem
Price $2,200.00
Currently:
Dell
1 Gb Memory
200 Gb Hard Drive
No Modem needed
Current prices around $900.00
Post Fiend
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 6,473
Likes: 4
From: Lafayette, IN
Hey, Donjamer, that Apple IIe didn't have 128MB of memory, it had 128KB of memory, and probably only because you upgraded it. I think they may have originally come with 64KB. Our first Apple II (a clone we bought while we were overseas) came with 16KB, which we upgraded to 48KB at the time.
The first computer I bought in 1995 had a 100MHz Pentium, 4MB of memory and a then-huge 1GB hard drive. I now have a phone with better numbers--200MHz processor, 40MB internal memory and a 2GB memory card. I also paid a tenth for the phone as I did for the computer.
Jason
The first computer I bought in 1995 had a 100MHz Pentium, 4MB of memory and a then-huge 1GB hard drive. I now have a phone with better numbers--200MHz processor, 40MB internal memory and a 2GB memory card. I also paid a tenth for the phone as I did for the computer.
Jason
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Senior User
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 446
Likes: 0
From: MD
I started with a Commodore 64 & I still have it. I used it as a dumb terminal connecting to IUPUI's mainframe computers (Digital 10 & no idea what the IBM one was). I was able to print at the downtown campus or the 38th street campus.
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Ford Parts Specialist
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 88,826
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From: Simi Valley, CA
Originally Posted by lenny1carl
an old Tandy 1000. from then on i'm self taught, no expert and not afraid to ask for help, here or else where
Gone but not forgotten.
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 6,521
Likes: 2
After the Army I went to school on the GI Bill (electronics) and on graduation day I was sitting in the coffee shop with a friend. I was reading the sports section and came across an ad from Univac looking for people to test for Field Engineer positions to work on a new machine called a computer. I called and my friend and I took a battery of tests the next day. We were hired and drove from Texas to Utica, NY to begin 6 months of training on the Univac Model 1 file computer. I spent the next 16 years fixing computer systems before I left hands-on and started selling computer maintenance contracts (mostly DEC and Tandem) to corporations.
Hotshot
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 13,589
Likes: 2
From: NW burbs of chicago
we had a real ghetto pc with about 16 megs of ram in the early 90's, but my budddys dad needed a pc for work, I was introducted to AOL in 94 (internet went public in 92...)
in 95, i convinced my parents that we needed a computer for "schoool work" it was a pent 133 mhz packard bell with 24 megs of ram and a 14.4k modem, it would take 5 minutes to download a picture, but this trhing was BLAZING fast....
then in 98 we got a 400 mhz celery gateway with win 98, 64 mmegs of ram, a 10 gig hard drive and a huge 19" monitor.....
I went to work for an isp in 2000 till 05 and started building my own puters for myself and freinds.. I majored in puter science, but after a semester changed majors cause I hate math and programming....
In my group of freinds, I still get the call for any kind of puter questions that arise...
in 95, i convinced my parents that we needed a computer for "schoool work" it was a pent 133 mhz packard bell with 24 megs of ram and a 14.4k modem, it would take 5 minutes to download a picture, but this trhing was BLAZING fast....
then in 98 we got a 400 mhz celery gateway with win 98, 64 mmegs of ram, a 10 gig hard drive and a huge 19" monitor.....
I went to work for an isp in 2000 till 05 and started building my own puters for myself and freinds.. I majored in puter science, but after a semester changed majors cause I hate math and programming....
In my group of freinds, I still get the call for any kind of puter questions that arise...
Post Fiend
Joined: Jan 1997
Posts: 23,165
Likes: 18
From: Enjoying the real world.
Started out with 6502 assembly language around 1978/79 on an Apple II (not a II+, IIe or IIc, those came later).
Since then, in order, computer languages:
6202 assembly language
Apple Integer BASIC
Applesoft BASIC
Commodore CBM BASIC
Z80/8080 assembly language
Turbo Pascal
Microsoft BASIC
8086 assembly language
Microsoft GW-BASIC and its variant, IBM BASICA
Turbo C
Microsoft C++
then C++ with MFC.
Perl
Shell scripts
PHP
and a dabble ASP/.net
Number database packages along the way, everything from Btrieve to Oracle and Sybase.
Operating systems:
Apple DOS
Apple Pro-DOS
MS-DOS
CPM
CPM/86
Commodore CBM platform (really not what you would call an OS)
Macintosh
Windows (all its varients since version 286)
Linux
Solaris
Free BSD
Probably left something out... but that's the gist of it. All self taught.
Since then, in order, computer languages:
6202 assembly language
Apple Integer BASIC
Applesoft BASIC
Commodore CBM BASIC
Z80/8080 assembly language
Turbo Pascal
Microsoft BASIC
8086 assembly language
Microsoft GW-BASIC and its variant, IBM BASICA
Turbo C
Microsoft C++
then C++ with MFC.
Perl
Shell scripts
PHP
and a dabble ASP/.net
Number database packages along the way, everything from Btrieve to Oracle and Sybase.
Operating systems:
Apple DOS
Apple Pro-DOS
MS-DOS
CPM
CPM/86
Commodore CBM platform (really not what you would call an OS)
Macintosh
Windows (all its varients since version 286)
Linux
Solaris
Free BSD
Probably left something out... but that's the gist of it. All self taught.
Posting Guru
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,288
Likes: 0
From: Leamington, Ontario
Wow Ken, I would never be able to teach myself that many languages! I learned turing in school (Yeah I know its not much of a language) and I just could never really wrap my head around Java and I had a really great teacher to help me along the way.