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how did you get started?

My first time ever touching a computer was on a Toshiba Tecra 8100:

prod0214_Toshiba_Tecra_8100.jpg


I'm 16 now, so that must've been around 1998. The computer had Windows ME, and I would play Kid Pix and those free game CDs you used to get in cereal boxes. (Freddy Fish, etc)

The first computer I had to myself was a Tecra 9000 with Win2K. I believe I was eight at the time. Funny story, I actually went through my older brothers crapstash and managed to find an MSI CardBus Wi-Fi adapter. I installed it, and hid an internet connection from my parents :D
Still to this day, I don't think they knew that the old 9000 had an internet connection in my hands.

Next up was an HP Pavilion zd7000 with WinXP. Nothing too interesting there.

Then in 2005, I got a 15" alu PowerBook that I still use to this day :D:D
 
I have a bit of a story to tell as well.

My first computer was a TI-99/4a, soon to be upgraded to a C-128. My brother was the one who did all the programming, I was just interested in games and getting my work done (writing papers, etc.)

After grad school (during which I bought my first Mac to be compatible with my professors' computers) I took a job as an Extension Educator working with youth. I sat in my office one day watching a secretary editing about 100 letters that were to go out. She would open last years, make the necessary changes, save and print the letter, and move on to the next one (while making far too many mistakes). I figured there had to be a better way to do this using a computer. One of the other guys in the office was playing around with FileMaker Pro at the time and suggested I try it. I started learning FileMaker Pro 5 about 2001 and used it every since.

I'm nowhere near a programmer or hardware expert. I have just learned to get computers to work for me and not against me.
 
My first computer i don't remember to much about but it was in 94ish.. i was 4 or so and i remember playing with alot of Mickey Mouse games and golfing games on it. The next computer my family owned that i remembered was a 98 gateway. I dont remember its specs haha then again i dont remember the specs of any computer minus the one i own now. The next computer was my first pc to build which me and my grandfather put together. The next was my gaming pc that i built. It had about 160gb hd, amd processor, asus motherboard and a video card that i updated a couple of times. Then about 2006 i used my first MacBook (could of been something even older)to make a music video for one of my classes. I then got my first laptop which was a dell inspiron about 2001 circa, with a 30GB HD!!! it was so crappy i made it through my senior year of high school with it then got my MBP last year.
 
Geez, I guess I'm showing my age here but my first computer was a Commodore 64, and I had previously learned to use (but never owned) a VIC-20.
 
My dad, brother, and I were at home one day, and he asked us whether we're going to need a computer for schoolwork? Computers were starting to become more commonplace in family homes.

My brother and I didn't know what he was talking about, but said "Yes".


True story.
 
Ntombi said:
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. :eek:
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There is still nothing made today that can compete with the original Atari swivel paddle controller. I could play Super Breakout for hours on end. :D
 
Load "*",8,1

dmr727 said:
The Last Ninja!!!
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Bruce Lee!

That and Archon were my favorites. Ah, the days of tape drives ...

During the 8-bit era, I was that neighborhood kid who came over to your house to play on your computer and didn't leave until you threatened to call my mom.

I remember messing around on friends' and neighbors' TRS-80s, C64s and Apple IIC & Es in the 80s. At one point, someone gave me a book with the title "How to Program BASIC Role Playing Games for the TRS-80" or something like that. Heavy stuff, because I couldn't have been more than 10 at the time.

The first system that was mine was a 8088 clone Commodore Colt that my dad bought for me at the PX. I was pissed because I wanted a Commodore64 because there were more games. Later, I installed my first hard drive in this computer. A whopping 10 megabytes!

First real exposure to Macs was a computer class in middle school in the late 80s. Anyone else remember HyperTalk and HyperCard?
 
Started with a Vic-20, which was then donated by my folks to a local family with 10 kids.

Very sad.

Apple II+ (loved Archon/Bard's Tale/Ultima III)
Apple IIgs (loved Wasteland / Ultima V)
Apple kills Apple II line in lieu of Macs, I get upset and convert my IIgs to a 386 using a PC Transporter.

486/33
468 DX4/120
Pentium 166 MMX Overdrive (beta tester)
Pentium II 266
Pentium III 400
Pentium III 733
Pentium 4 1.5 GHz
Pentium 4 3.06 GHz
Dual Opteron 275 / Mac Mini G4 (I came back to Apple)
Core 2 Duo E8500 (giving to little brother) / Still have Mini (to be replaced when Snow Leopard hits)

So, soon I will be at a Core i7 920 or so and a 2009 Mini.

I built most of the systems listed above.

Edit: I kant spel.
 
the first computer i started using heavily was my good ol strawberry-colored gumdrop iMac (when i was 6. i'm 16 now).

mmmm, kid pix. brings back memories. it was the start of who i am today :D. i still have many designs i made in that hanging on my wall.

I was born and raised on mac after mac after mac, so I've never even used a pc in my house (although all my schools were pc-only). i'm kind of jealous of all those who were alive when the altair and imsai and such came out, because i wish i could have gone alone with the whole comp revolution instead of trying to understand it backwards. i'm going to restore an altair and imsai soon with my dad, so i've been researching basically all major pre-1990s comps like crazy. it feels like it would be easier to understand having lived through it than by reading article after article. i remember seeing wargames a few years back and saying "WHAT? that's how you used a computer back then!?". it's kind of really cool though
 
cpit said:
the first computer i started using heavily was my good ol strawberry-colored gumdrop iMac (when i was 6. i'm 16 now).

mmmm, kid pix. brings back memories. it was the start of who i am today :D. i still have many designs i made in that hanging on my wall.

I was born and raised on mac after mac after mac, so I've never even used a pc in my house (although all my schools were pc-only). i'm kind of jealous of all those who were alive when the altair and imsai and such came out, because i wish i could have gone alone with the whole comp revolution instead of trying to understand it backwards. i'm going to restore an altair and imsai soon with my dad, so i've been researching basically all major pre-1990s comps like crazy. it feels like it would be easier to understand having lived through it than by reading article after article. i remember seeing wargames a few years back and saying "WHAT? that's how you used a computer back then!?". it's kind of really cool though
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cpit, it sounds like you have a pretty cool dad.

Let me tell you, you've got it pretty good and you should appreciate that you're on the leading edge of the networked evolution. I'm not even close to being a real fogey - those guys who USED punch cards (I've seen one, but never used one) - but life back in the day of BBSs and 2400 baud modems may seem romantic to you, but in retrospect, was pretty slow.
 
Signal-11 said:
cpit, it sounds like you have a pretty cool dad.

Let me tell you, you've got it pretty good and you should appreciate that you're on the leading edge of the networked evolution. I'm not even close to being a real fogey - those guys who USED punch cards (I've seen one, but never used one) - but life back in the day of BBSs and 2400 baud modems may seem romantic to you, but in retrospect, was pretty slow.
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yea my dad is one of those guys who's gotta have it all when it comes to technology. lucky for me ;)

he and my mom tell me stories about when they had to use punch cards back in the day. there are actually a few piles of them rubber-banded together in my house (right by some 1970s/80s photolithography masks and a few old broken silicon wafers. they hold onto some random but pretty cool stuff from back in their days). yea i'm not one for patience when it comes to computer speed, so if i had been alive back then i don't know how "into computers" i would have been. but then again i wouldn't have known what i was missing out on until a couple decades later. i got my hands on some popular electronics magazines from way back, and the excitement at something that is considered so simple today is just amazing.
 
The first computer I ever used was an Apple IIe, around 6th grade or so. I managed to con my parents into getting me a Commodore 64 a year or so later for Christmas. I suppose this was around 1984-85. I had some friends in high school who ran a BBS or two, and we would swap games around. My circle of friends had a wide variety of hardware, including the Commodore 64, the Atari ST (very cool machine for its day), and the crown jewel...the Amiga. We were all insanely jealous of the guy who owned that one.

One of the things that truly got me hooked on tech was a class I took in high school called Diversified Technology. It was by far the best class I ever took in high school. We got to use CNC machines, program robotics, PLCs, and use AutoCad.
 
JNB said:
I got started in 1959 or 1960 by dismantling anything that could be plugged in, generally to Dad's frustration and my near-electrocutions.

The rest, they say, is history.
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/Signal-11 starts digging a pit

/lines pit with rocks
/clears the area of debris and brush
/starts a fire with two stick and some twine, straight out of the boy scout manual

"Tell us about the days of punch cards and dumb terminals unca JNB!" ;)
 
JNB said:
I got started in 1959 or 1960 by dismantling anything that could be plugged in, generally to Dad's frustration and my near-electrocutions.

The rest, they say, is history.
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BTW, fond memories.

I remember upset the old man was the first time I took apart the family computer and had a hard time making it work again.

I think it's a common geek experience across generations.

Dad: "You did what with WHAT?!?"
 
Signal-11 said:
BTW, fond memories.

I remember upset the old man was the first time I took apart the family computer and had a hard time making it work again.

I think it's a common geek experience across generations.

Dad: "You did what with WHAT?!?"
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yes, my dad got quite mad when i broke the family computer about 7 years ago. i didn't physically take it apart, just over-experimented w/ windows 98 and s*** happened :D
 
Captain Awesome said:
Kid Pix Studio was the awesomeness.

Do they still make that program?
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yup. There are two of them:
1) from Broderbund released on 2004
and
2) from MacKiev released on 2004 and later updated in 2006 and 2008.

I wish I had it when I was a kid.
My first computer was IBM with 286 or 386 CPU (not sure) at school, it had a hard drive (WOW!) and I remember myself making extremely simple apps on C and BASIC (BASIC was in school curriculum, but I liked C more).
 
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