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Reecedouglas1

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 26, 2016
13
2
I think it was around 2000/2001 ,I used to play championship manager a lot , back in the day when I had to share a computer with my dad and brother
 
Like a lot of people my age, from the UK it was a BBC in primary school about 30 odd years ago. I remember learning some basic, and printing some pictures with an inkjet printer.
The first Mac I remember using was one of the classics or colour classics we had in the business studies classroom.
That BBC fascinated me. I was hooked from then on.
 
1985. It was an Ericsson XT. Something like this:

rcm-028-medium.jpg
 
There has to be someone here than can beat 1968 ....... but I did attend several Admiral Grace Hopper lectures/ classes when she was a mere Commander. :D
 
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That would be an Apple // at the the community college I was attending in 1981. They had a dozen machines in an independent study room. I was hooked instantly and bought a Sierra adventure game to play on weekends.
 
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On any sort of a regular basis? 1994, when I bought my first computer.

Until then, I had never used them - and never needed to use them, but had toyed with them on occasion in university libraries, being given tutorials in their use.

However, my first encounter with what was called a computer occurred in the early 70s, when I was in primary school and my brother (who was also in primary school) and I were invited into the local university to see (and play 'noughts and crosses' against) this amazing thing out of a science fiction movie or novel.

That thing took up a whole wall. I was awestruck. Before then, I had heard of them, but had never laid eyes on one in real life.

I remember being informed solemnly by the guardians of this machine that this represented some version of "the future"; candidly, I didn't believe it at the time - I couldn't envisage how such a thing would ever become what we now call 'mainstream', and an essential and core part of our lives.
 
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On any sort of a regular basis? 1994, when I bought my first computer.

Until then, I had never used them - and never needed to use them, but had toyed with them on occasion in university libraries, being given tutorials in their use.

However, my first encounter with what was called a computer occurred in the early 70s, when I was in primary school and my brother and I were invited into the local university to see (and play 'noughts and crosses' against) this amazing thing out of a science fiction movie or novel.

That thing took up a wall. Before then, I had heard of them, but had never laid eyes on one in real life.
S, as we talked about it earlier in another thread, I have used my beloved typewriter and felt no need to have anything else.
My first "encounter" with a PC (the one mentioned in my post) was at work. I mainly played "Digger" and "Worms" on it. :D

I started to use a PC regularly in 1986/1987 when I bought my first Laptop. It was a REIN Elektronik 420 SLC (Made in Japan).

529244-a929412b6d1336fabce79f0eab076927.jpg
 
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In the 70's I used a terminal to connect to mainframes and learned a bit about basic and BBSs through a 300 baud modem. When the 1200 baud came out, WOW it was fast!

The first Personal Computer was an Apple ][ plus around 1980. When we first got it, we had to use a tape recorder to load programs until the two 5 1/4" floppy drives came in. Very cool experience learning how to use it.
 
The first computer I ever sat down at was about 1979 at the American Embassy in Pretoria. It was a huge Wang mainframe. It even had an early Star Trek game on it, as I remember. My iPhone now has more computing power than it did, not to mention my iMac.
 
S, as we talked about it earlier in another thread, I have used my beloved typewriter and felt no need to have anything else.
My first "encounter" with a PC (the one mentioned in my post) was at work. I mainly played "Digger" and "Worms" on it. :D

Likewise, I used my typewriter until the early 1990s.

Then, one day (or week, or month) I had an epiphany. Many new discoveries - VHS cassette players or recorders, for example, were something that I never felt the need to master, and it wasn't really a matter of life and death - technology would supersede this sooner or later and replace it with something better, or, at least, more profitable.

But, I do remember realising in the early 90s, (on a trip to eastern Europe, no less) that computing and the internet were on a par - in their capacity for revolutionary and transformational societal, political and cultural change - with the invention of the printing press, paper and moveable type in the 15th century. I'm an historian by profession, after all, trained to take the long view, appropriately set in a wider context.

That is when I arrived at the conclusion that I had a window of several years to master this technology, or be left behind forever as the world changed around me. I was already a teacher at the university for a number of years by that point. Within months, I had a computer. I then had to learn how to use it, and persuade people to teach me. (And did.)
 
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My first experience with computers was in the mid 70s. Punch cards in college. I loved Basic, but hated PL/C. After college I got a DEC Wt-70 word processing terminal. With my 300 baud modem, I was the first one to hack into the university's computer center. Of course, I used my powers for good and made my living simply printing out theses and dissertations that students had typed into the system. Saved them a fortune not having to have someone type it all from scratch.

I also had a lovely Timex Sinclair. Now that was fun!

In the 70's I used a terminal to connect to mainframes and learned a bit about basic and BBSs through a 300 baud modem. When the 1200 baud came out, WOW it was fast!

The first Personal Computer was an Apple ][ plus around 1980. When we first got it, we had to use a tape recorder to load programs until the two 5 1/4" floppy drives came in. Very cool experience learning how to use it.
 
Likewise, I used my typewriter until the early 1990s.

Then, one day (or week, or month) I had an epiphany. Many new discoveries - VHS cassette players or recorders, for example, were something that I never felt the need to master, and it won't really a matter of life and death - technology would supersede this sooner or later and replace it with something better, or, at least, more profitable.

But, I do remember realising in the early 90s, (on a trip to eastern Europe, no less) that computing and the internet were on a par - in their capacity for revolutionary and transformational societal, political and cultural change - with the invention of the printing press, paper and moveable type in the 15th century. I'm an historian by profession, after all, trained to take the long view, appropriately set in a wider context.

That is when I arrived at the conclusion that I had a window of several years to master this technology, or be left behind forever as the world changed around me. I was already a teacher at the university for a number of years by that point. Within months, I had a computer. I then had to learn how to use it, and persuade people to teach me. (And did.)
Same route. I had to learn on my own how to use a computer. Became obsessed with it and the wonderful software like Norton Commander, Norton Utilities, ChiWriter, Word Perfect etc.
Later, the next challenge was the net. It was hard to understand what the hell it was and how it worked, but the guys at CERN succedeed to walk me through.
 
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