how did you get started?

[wywern209]

I was reminiscing about when i was a little kid no more than maybe 10 or 11 years old and how i became involved with technology(computers and such).Then i thought about stories that some MR members might have about how they got involved with technology. Well my story starts off with my dad getting pentium 3 computer from HP. I was maybe 10 or 11 at the time. anyways fast-forward a couple of years and i break the computer because i was a very inquisitive kid and messed around a lot with the computer and the software and settings and such. well, i ended up killing it basically. And from then on, i've been learning how the computers do things and have never broken a computer since. LOL.

 

[techfreak85]

when i was 2, i used kidpics. on an old Gateway. thats also how i learned to read, and count.

 

[abijnk]

Ooooh, I love story time!!!

Ok, so, when I was in high school I was on the math team (hey, don't knock it, we were four time state champs and my class was never beaten). My junior year I was placed on the calculator team (solving problems you can't really do by hand), and my best friend Jessica was on the oral presentation team. Well, as the year progressed I started to get really good at using the calculator (a TI-89). When it came time for the state competition Jessica needed to be able to rotate a parabola about a point in the Cartesian plane as fast as possible; she could do it on the calculator, but it took a bit of time as there is a lot of computation. So, I set about writing a program to do it for her. And it worked!!!

That was the first program of any kind that I had ever written, and I was hooked. I chose computer science as my major to learn to use computers as a tool in problem solving (and to learn how to code, obviously), and dove into the hardware side my second semester of college by double majoring in computer engineering.

I'm a full blown tech geek now, and I'm not ashamed of it!

 

[Mr. lax]

I think it was called a Vtech? computer. It had a couple games and some learning programs. I spent days on end playing with that. Good times...

I think i might have been 4?

 

[Tomorrow]

My first computer was an Atari 600XL back around 1985 or so. If I had known then what I learned a year or two later, I would have looked into either an early Mac or a C-64 instead, because nobody else I knew had an Atari.

After that, my first PC was around 1992, and my first Mac (outside the old Color Classic my mother-in-law gave me) was my 2006 MacBook.

 

[eawmp1]

I was in a computer club in HS. We used to compete in programming challenges on Apple ]['s. God, I feel old now!

 

[senseless]

Apple II+ with cassette tape for me. RF modulator hooked to TV set for unreadable text. Gosh, everything was SO expensive back then. (But more fun)

 

[MegaMillions]

I don't remember exactly how old I was, but it was in the 6 - 8 age range. That's about when my dad gave me and my brothers our first computers. We had them all lined up on this long desk that had three sections to it, and my dad installed three keyboard drawers. My older brother (12 or 13 at the time) had an SE/30, I had an SE, and my little brother (4 or 5) had a Plus. That's the way it was for a while. My older brothers computer kicked the **** out of mine and my younger brothers, as some of you know.

At some point, we all got upgraded to SE/30s, and I had the most beefed out setup. I had a 1.2GB hard drive, 32mb of ram, Mac OS 7.5.5, an external zip drive, Apple CD Rom drive, PLP Printer, Scanner, and even an additional external floppy drive I think. I did everything on that computer. I created art, animated movies, drawings, games, etc. I learned how to crash it, and then how to fix it. It was awesome. It wasn't until I was about 14 years old that I was upgraded to a PowerMac G4 "Yikes" 350mhz tower, and it wasn't until I was almost 16 that I got internet on my own computer. I'm happy about that because it caused all my explorations on the Mac as a little kid to be entirely creative-based, with no distractions from the internet.

Anyways, I would almost always accidentally crash whatever machine i'd get my hands on, because I would experiment with everything, so when I was younger i'd spend a lot of time biting my fingernails while watching the screen of some Mac, hoping that the start-up disk I put in will boot up the computer.

I could go on and on about my fond memories of teaching myself the Mac as a kid.

 

[SkyBell]

When I was born, my family had an old Epson PC running MS-DOS. It was too complicated for my mom to learn, so my dad was pretty much the only one who used it.

When I was 2 years old, we got a brand new HP with the new Windows 95. My dad pretty much had me on the machine for most of my young life. He wanted to make sure I knew how to use it, because he was sure computers were the future. Well, by the age of 3, I could navigate Windows just about as well anyone could at that age.

At the age of 6, I was introduced to Macs in kindergarten. The computer labs were full of All-In-One PowerMac G3s, with some older AIO PowerMacs, and a few LC II's and III's in some places. Halfway through the year, the school upgraded to the brand new iMac G3's, the Rev.A Bondi Blue. I was very intrigued about this new OS, as I thought Windows was what everyone used.
Eventually I moved away from that school into one that used PC's. But the "damage" was done.

As for home, I had gotten a locally built computer from my grandfather running Windows 95 when I was 6. Got an HP Pavillion running Windows 95 from the same grandfather when I was 8. Stepdad bought me a brand new HP Pavillion running Windows XP when I was, which I used until I was 13. (I might note that it had two motherboard replacements, one graphic card replacement and two re-installs in those three years. It was enough to make me hate PC's for a while.)

After that, I bought a few older Apple's, a Mac Classic, the same model iMac G3, an Apple IIc. Finally got my first brand new Mac, a Mac mini in 2006 and the rest is history.

 

[Ntombi]

I've been a tech freak since before I can remember, and loved using the Apple ][s, ][Es, and ][Cs at school, but that was it.


Until

:cue celestial choir:


I came home from summer camp in late July 1984, and found an original Macintosh in our home. My mother had no clue what to do with it, but she knew it was the wave of the future, so she coughed up the bucks (not easy) and had it waiting for me and my brother to figure it out. We've been a Mac family ever since.

My brother made a ten-year detour into Windows for the gaming ability, but he's coming back with his next purchase. As much as I've had to use Windows for various jobs, my personal computer has always been a Mac. The furthest I've strayed since 84 was a clone in 1991, but that was short-lived, for good reason.

 

[Hrududu]

My first computer experiences were at home on my dad's Commodore 128 system with Muppet Keys and the Koala Pad for drawing. Later on, that computer would become my first until I got a Macintosh Plus. My dad works as a computer programmer, and was a member of our local Commodore club. We only had Macintosh and CMD computers in our house, so naturally I became a Mac guy.

 

[mscriv]

In the early eighties my parents had a friend who was really into computers. When we would go over to his house he would show the kids all kinds of cool stuff and let us play games on it. I'll never forget how excited he was to show us that he could make his computer sing "Happy Birthday".

A few years later my brother in law who at that time was just my sister's boyfriend would let me play games on his Tandy 1000. In 1989 I was introduced to my first Mac in my eighth grade computer class. I don't remember the model, but the lab was filled with the all in one units that had like a 5 inch screen and a floppy drive on the front.

Now if we're going to count game systems as an introduction to computers, then I got my start with the Atari and Space Invaders.

 

[Ntombi]

Now if we're going to count game systems as an introduction to computers, then I got my start with the Atari and Space Invaders.

Oh, yeah! Me too! We went from pinball machines in our game room to the first Atari and yes, Pong, all the way through to the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 before I left for college. Oh, the carpel tunnel syndrome those games caused.

 

[doubleohseven]

I too had one of those V-tech learning laptops when I was 4, and I loved that to death, until my parents bought a HP Desktop in 1999 running Windows 98. I was next to them throughout the whole installation and setting up of it. Shortly after, my parents bought me software titles such as Sesame Street, Teletubbies and Blue's Clues to learn with. By 2001 (when I was 8) I had like 12 Educational Titles. Loved them all.

By the time I was 6, I was installing software on to the PC's at school and at home. It was basically Next --> Next --> Next --> install to C drive --> Waiting for Installation to Complete --> Finish. From that age onwards I've been helping out my family and friends with basic computer problems and typing out things for them because they think I type faster.

When I was 13 I started saving up for my MacBook, and bought it when I was 14. I love it to death! At the same age, I was able to set up a home network by myself (I set up my home network with an AirPort Extreme Base Station; could do it blindfolded it's that easy IMO). Also at the same age, I learnt how to setup a PC and a new computer out of the box (we were moving at the time).

 

[kymac]

it was computer class in kindergarten.. the school was brand new and 100% macs.. my graphic design career began that year with the help of kidpix!

my parents bought us a lot of reading and math games.. like put-put.. pajama sam etc. for our gateway at home at a very young age

 

[coolwater]

I came home from summer camp in late July 1984, and found an original Macintosh in our home. My mother had no clue what to do with it, but she knew it was the wave of the future, so she coughed up the bucks (not easy) and had it waiting for me and my brother to figure it out.

What a great decision by your mom! That's truly amazing. Was your mom a teacher or professor? or doctor? lawyer? engineer? If not, I really admire your mom's insight or foresight. Let me meet your mom!

 

[toolbox]

O these threads are fun.

My first experience was when we bought our first computer ( i believe i was 5 at the time) it was a 286 with a 40MB hdd running dos 4. Dad used that for his business work. We also had a dot matrix printer connected to it as well. Over the years whilst at primary school i was introduced to apples due to there great educational programs.

I remember in year three staying back after class and just sitting browsing the system and mesmerized by the GUI, the double clicking and the flashing menus. Year 4 i had a Color classic in the class room and every morning it was a rush to get in the room and play some prince of persia before the day started. This same year we bought a second computer for home it was a Acer Aspire 34tls, running windows 95, 16MB of ram 1.2gb hdd and 8x cd drive. (the cd drive got replaced later with a 24x)

year 5 still with macs in the class room i believe it was a quadra 605 once again prince of persia when we could ( the teacher wouldn't let the kids in the class room unless he was there). Year 6 still macs, year 7 we had two in the room later replaced by some windows NT shitboxes


High-school - Not a mac in sight! We then upgraded the Acer to a IBM Net vista with a 800Mhz P3, 128MB ram, 20 GB hdd and 4x Burner running duh duh duh Windows ME ( i had to reinstall about every 2 weeks ) I was given two macs this year (2000) quadra 605 and a Se/30 which i still have to this day and work fine.

2005 is when i bought my self my first mac it was a Mac Mini PPC, running at 1.25 GHZ with 512MB ram ( i upgraded it to 1GB) 40 GB HDD (upgraded to a 120 5400RPM). 2006 i bought my first laptop, Macbook Black Gen 1, 2008 i bought a Second hand Powerbook G4 and today 2009 i have a Macbook Pro which is in the signature.

 

[Ntombi]

What a great decision by your mom! That's truly amazing. Was your mom a teacher or professor? or doctor? lawyer? engineer? If not, I really admire your mom's insight or foresight. Let me meet your mom!

You're good. She's a Professor of English Lit and Women's Studies now, but she was a freelance writer at that point, which is why coming up with three grand for a computer on a hunch was no joke.

She went back to school to get her PhD, and we used a PowerBook 100 to write her dissertation. She wrote the text, but I made it fit the technical requirements of the university and dissertation committee.

 

[coolwater]

You're good. She's a Professor of English Lit and Women's Studies now, but she was a freelance writer at that point, which is why coming up with three grand for a computer on a hunch was no joke.

She went back to school to get her PhD, and we used a PowerBook 100 to write her dissertation. She wrote the text, but I made it fit the technical requirements of the university and dissertation committee.

Your mom is truly amazing. How old was she when she went back to school?

 

[chrono1081]

Mine is a long one...

I started with a Leading Edge IBM compatible which I had no clue how to operate cause it was so old and my parents had no clue how to run it but I liked it anyway cause it played a few games (all in yellow and black screen). I was maybe 6 or 7 at the time.

Eventually it died and I always wanted a new computer. I read magazines and such on them but my parents would never get me one. One day, they went to the Sun store (remember those?) to buy a new computer. I was soooo excited when they brought the box home until I opened it up and found a Smith Corona word processor. The idiot at the store said that it was "better for kids". Wow is he wrong. I think I was 10 or 11 at this time.

Years passed and eventually I got a handme down from a relative. It couldnt get on the internet or hardly run but it was at least something to play with.

I was still reading computer magazines, and taught myself HTML from a book and would write webpages in my notebook at school waiting for the day I could put them online.

Eventually my parents said "we are getting a computer!" well I didnt fall for that one again because they got a webtv. But at least I had internet!!!!

By this time I was learning C++ from a book and started working since I was 16, at age 17 I finally begged my parents to get a computer and I would make the payments. They did. It was crap but it ran Visual Studio 6 and HAD INTERNET. It was a "Gateway 2000" and cost $2500 and had a (actually ****** for the time) 450mhz pentium 3 processor and 16 or 32 mb of ram, 4 gb harddrive.

Now I'm 27 and have had around 17 computers and work in IT.

 

[toolbox]

Now I'm 27 and have had around 17 computers and work in IT.

I am 22 and also work in IT, i seem to accumulate a lot of parts / machines. I have two iMAC G5s that a client replaced due to various problems. I will be tinkering with these later.

 

[0098386]

Age 2 or 3; played around with my dads Spectrum.
Age 5; got a Commodore Amiga and TV for my bedroom. Let the fun begin! Came with Deluxe Paint 3 and Turrican 2.

That was a perfect system. Fantastic games, creative software, printer support. Was basically a PC fused with a console. Used it daily up until we bought a PC in 1996.

 

[StealthRider]

In first grade (1996ish...?) I was the first kid ever to type a paper on one of the ancient IIe machines that the school was still using. Then, they switched to PM5400s (the all-in-ones), and because I knew the restart quick key thingies, I somehow became the tech guru. Didn't have my own machine until a friend of the family sent me an old B/W G3 in 2001...an iMac and two MBPs later, the rest is history. Slooooowly switching the family over.

 

[Ntombi]

Your mom is truly amazing. How old was she when she went back to school?

Close to 50. She's pretty cool.

 

[Captain Awesome]

when i was 2, i used kidpics. on an old Gateway. thats also how i learned to read, and count.

Ohhhhh god I remember Kid Pix. This icon somehow invoked huge nostalgia on me:

Kid Pix Studio was the awesomeness.

Do they still make that program?