How Did You Become Interested in Computers?

OmegaWolf747 · 2025-01-25T00:57:04+00:00

For me, my true love affair with computers began 31 years ago in my tenth grade touch typing class, when the clunky old IBM electric typewriters we'd been using were spirited away over Christmas vacation and replaced with a LAN of IBM PS/2 Model 25s. To a modern person, those machines are clunky old beige boxes with less processing power than a modern smartwatch, but to my teenage self, those things were space age!

Blackbird

After using mainframes in college, at my job with a certain defense contractor back in the mid-1970's, we set out to replace avionics circuit boards containing discrete digital-logic IC's and transistors with an 8080-based, programmable design... that, in turn, necessitated using an Intellec 8 microcomputer to do our lab development and prototyping. Once we had the code finalized, we blew PROMs for the programs on the avionics boards. Coding of the Intellec was via front-panel toggle switches for loading each line of code, copying them manually from pages of pencil-written coding sheets. I still remember a favorite definition of an "optimist" as a coder who programmed in ink. Later, instead of using the laborious toggle switches, we figured out how to use punch-tape to store our daily-revised programs and interface the latest program revision off the punch-tapes into the Intellec using a teletype machine's serial interface output each morning. Those were exciting, creative days for techno-development...

broknsymetry

Blackbird we figured out how to use punch-tape to store our daily-revised programs and interface the latest program revision off the punch-tapes into the Intellec using a teletype machine's serial interface output each morning.

The Automated Carrier Landing System (ACLS) computer at NAS Cecil Field would often crash (pun intended) and we had to boot it up with with a small length of paper tape and a reel of mylar tape. The mylar tape was a PITA because it would sometimes come off the spool and unwind everywhere.

Blackbird

broknsymetry At least the mylar tape didn't smell heavily of oil like the paper tape rolls did... the classified storage cabinets we used for the tapes would almost gag me when I'd open them to pull a tape roll to load the programs each day. Mylar caused us some issues in getting clean punch-outs on the aging teletypes we used to punch them, so we stayed with paper.

sempergoofy

For me, my interest was partially genetic and certainly environmentally influenced. My father was a programmer in the Army as early as the 1950s. There is a pic on this web page of him programming an IBM 407 tabulator plug board at Camp Zama Japan in 1955 (five years before I was born).
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/407.html
A lot of museums (even Ross Perot's museum contacted me about getting a copy) use that photo in their computing history displays. Hard to find a better pic of what it was like to program with a plug board. Dad continued his Army career as a programmer (as an activated reserve officer) until he retired from the Army and then continued working for the Dept of the Army as a programmer until he finally retired from working in 1989. I have an older sister who got her degree in mathematics and became a programmer. As a child, Dad would take me to work sometimes and often on weekends. I can still smell the smell of oil from the mechanics of all of the keypunch machines (026's, later the 029's as in g121's pic above) and card sorters and tractor feed printers in the machine room. I got a computer science degree from Ga. Tech and went to work in my first job for IBM as a mainframe systems programmer (None of that application programming for me! Give me control over the entire mainframe! Mwhahahaha!) in 1982. I became a level 3/level 4 support guy for the southeast US and somewhat nationally for IBM, speaking at customer conferences to impart expertise.

Here is an old pic of me at IBM circa 1987 sporting my white button down shirt (can't see my Oxford shoes) giving a tour to some high school students who were interested in computers showing them the innards of a 3380 (a whopping 1.7GB head disk assembly that could crush you behind me). It was neat back then to give torus because I could open up the CPU and show them the chiller plumbing. Hope I inspired the young ones to continue their computer interest.

So, did the genetic influence continue to my son? I certainly encouraged him to follow my footsteps. He went to Ga. Tech (yay!) and got his B.S. then M.S. in civil engineering (well, ok). Then he decided he wanted to be a teacher of higher math (calculus level) to high schoolers and got a teahcing degree. After teaching for 2 years, he realized I was right all along, and is now a programmer making more money than I do. I guess my shortcut advice to start there was less fun than the journey he took to get to the same place.

g121

sempergoofy
are you sure this "computer science degree .. IBM mainframe systems programmer .. level 3/level 4 support guy for the southeast US and somewhat nationally for IBM" fellow is the same guy who cracked a car windshield changing a window wiper? : )) ..

sempergoofy

g121

g121 same guy who cracked a car windshield changing a window wiper? : )) ..

Yep. Same genius who dropped a raised floor panel on his finger once.

Edit to add: One of my old sayings, "I've crashed bigger systems than this!"

sempergoofy

Heat84

Heat84 I'm still waiting for sombody to say their first computer experience was the room sized computer from WWII.

My father served in an MRU (Machine Records Unit) in Korea during the conflict. The pic I posted is from 1955 after the MRU withdrew to Japan. That's as close to WWII as I can get you with my story.

sempergoofy

sempergoofy My father served in an MRU (Machine Records Unit) in Korea during the conflict.

If you are in to history...
Story of creation of Army MRUs in WWII here:
https://www.discerningreaders.com/the-story-of-world-war-ii-and-ibm-machine-records-units-mrus.html

After Japan (where my elder sisters and mom also accompanied my dad on that tour of duty) came Germany where the cold war was in full force. Dad served in the 7th Army 36th AG at Patch Barracks as mentioned in this history:
https://www.usarmygermany.com/Sont.htm?https&&&www.usarmygermany.com/units/7th%20Army/USAREUR_7th%20Army%20H.htm
I came along as a (whoops!) baby in 1960 while dad and the family were still in Germany. His programs accounted for, among other things mentioned in that article, Elvis, as he served.
In the mid 1960s, we were in Colorado Springs at Ent AFB (now site of the US Olympic training facility) while the Chyenne Mountain complex was being built. That is where my memories of the machine rooms start. Dad also deployed to Vietnam doing the machine accounting for all of the men and materials to Army commanders. My only signficant recollection of when he was in Vietnam was a black and white polaroid he mailed home of the trailer containing the computing machinery being relocated beneath a Sikorsky flying crane.

Sparkchaser

Damn, I'm old. My first real "computer" was working with an Intel 4004 with 512 bytes of memory. Hand assembly of the code and punched into memory one byte at a time. It has to be all up hill from there!

dave

Heat84

Not from WW II, but certainly any respectable computer required false flooring in a room of its own.

g121

dave Not from WW II, but certainly any respectable computer required false flooring in a room of its own.

The University of Waterloo "Red Room" early 70s .. i was there a few years later ..
[https://uwaterloo.ca/computer-museum/sites/default/files/styles/uw_is_media_x_large/public/uploads/images/73-07-13_001-1.jpg]

dave

g121

I, working from DEC UK in the late 1970s, was in Massachoochoo on business for a week. My boss called me up and said I should get my arse up to U. of Waterloo to look into some PDP-11 software problem they were having. All I really recall about that trip was that I said "it's snowing hard up there, I am dressed for New England autumn, you're buying me a coat".

g121

dave said I should get my arse up to U. of Waterloo to look into some PDP-11 software problem they were having.

: ))

bbbc

Seeing displays like this at Best catalog showroom, JCPenney, Monkey Wards / Montgomery Ward, and Sears.

impy001

In the mid-60s I was working in Montreal at the Canadian office of a US oil company (first job after collage). I asked for a transfer to the Toronto office and was willing to take anything available. This turned out to be a computer trainee position.

At the oil company in Toronto I worked on an IBM 1401 and an IBM 1410. These were in the process of being converted to IBM 360-30 and 360-40 machines. I worked on the conversions. The first year was quite confusing as I was learning and using three different (but similar) assembler languages plus COBOL.

After a couple of years I changed jobs and joined another company (electric utility) that had an IBM 360-65 MP (dual processor). Here was more conversion work using IBM 360 assembler language. The older machine was a Univac II vacuum tube beast from the 1950s. As I remember, it was huge and water cooled. The magnetic tapes were steel not mylar. Paper tape was involved to get stuff from remote offices.

I changed jobs again after five years to where I worked in an operating systems group on various IBM and Amdahl mainframes. I got into PCs as a hobby in the mid-70s using a Xitan Z80 S100 machine. And also an Atari game machine.

Eventually everything sort of blended together and my job changed to network planning and support. The environment grew into hundreds of PCs, many Intel based servers, a bunch of mid-range UNIX boxes, and a large mainframe. These were connected via a Token Ring network which later became switched Ethernet with an ATM layer two switch at the center.

And I did get to hear a couple of lectures from Grace Hopper during a Guide conference.

I retired from this job in 2002. Now PCs and networks are just a fun hobby.

David123

The old days of my computers. I had friends that bought Atari 2600 and wonder why I didn't. I said I wanted a computer. From watching all the SiFi shows and visiting Radio Schack in it's hayday. I ended up buy Ti99A from J.C. Penny of all places. My wife was mad at me till she played some games on it. Had to update to Commodore 64 with 1 disk drive. Then went to the C128. Ran a BBS for a while and got for free from my father PCs IBM 8088 with green screen(did not have a modem). Like the 8088 so well I bought a Packard Bell 286 with color monitor (no mouse). It had a big 20meg hard drive. Down the road I wanted to upgrade the 286 BUT do to the way it was built I could not. Bought 386 stripped down unit from a repair shop. Ended up on taking parts out of my 286 to get the 386 to work. Still using Dos at the time. Tryed some of the pay services but could not see spending the money. Move and found out I could get DSL. Went round and round with the phone company on it. Over a year later they said it could be install. I thought good I could turn off 1 phone line. New computer was a Compaq and had internal DSL along with a modem. So I setup a network of sorts so both computers could get online. Today I am on my 3rd AMD Ryzen 5 5600. Thinking about a new build.

RayGeode

Using DEC PDP 11 for CAD in digital logic design through the mid to late 80s. 1990 was the year of the big Windows 3.1 rollout. I bought a clone. Some upgraded WIN version later, I learned C programming on it which got me a significant job later on. I also owned an IBM PS2 with a 10 MB HDD around that time which was a mistaken purchase by a close family member. The clone was a much better bargain though the monitor and keyboard of the PS2 were pleasures to work with.

urbanriot

I feel like it was seeing Ultima 1 or something similar on a business computer and it blew me away, it seemed more advanced than anything you could play on an Atari and this was a few years before Nintendo and the like. I had to know more, started reading Compute! magazine to find out more, bought a used Atari 800 from a business that didn't understand computers and later upgraded it to an Atari 800XL. From there the rest is history...

Rich221976

I thought I posted but guess I didn't.

I got into computers at a very young age. I was around 7 or 8 when I hooked up my friend TI 99/4A to his TV.

I was over his house at the time and just helped his mom hook it up. Granted the hook up was easy. It was setup as the video games systems. One of the schools I went to when I was living up north found out about that. I ended up helping them setup their Apple IIe's up.

From then on, I was interested in computers and electronics. When I was even younger, I would take apart my electronic toys and then put them back together. I remember during Christmas opening up my presents that I would get told by my dad not to take apart my toys. LOL.

My first computer was a Tandy 1000HD. I was able to buy it with money that I won from a radio station.

I then got the parts needed to put a hard drive into it. I still remember Deskmate. I then got myself a dot matrix printer. G-d this dates me. LOL. It was great I was able to get more of my homework done during high school with the computer. I was also using word perfect back then as well.

I was able to obtain copies of different software from school. Had most of the game shows games on floppy disks.

I then went to college and ended up with getting three AS degrees and a bunch of certificates from school. My degrees were in AS: Electronic Engineering: Electronic Specialization. AS: Electronic Engineering: Wireless and Telecommunications. I also got one in AS: Computer Engineering: Computer Networking w/Cisco.

I ended up getting three degrees because the programs were so close together that most of the classes counted for all three degrees. One was award because when I did the extra classes I needed to get the two degrees, counted for a third which was cool.

Now I am working on a BA degree in Cybersecurity and Project Management. My current employer provides approximately 5000 a year for tuition reimbursement. So I am going to use that to get the degree.

Now I work for a large tech company. I work from home. My job was always setup to be work from home. I got pretty good income coming in now. Benefits are great. I been at my job for 9 years now.

Now I am just trying to increase my skills to move up in the company. We have plenty of opportunities I just need to get up to date with some of the technology.

antdude

My life story. When I was a callow back in the rad early 80s in PA, I didn't know anything about computers. My loving parents bought a Texas Instrument 99/4A to learn computers since it was the future. I was actually scared of it since it was new until I learned it could do computer/video games (e.g., Munch Man, TI Invaders, Alpine, Amazing Game, Tombstone, etc.) like my Atari 2600 VCS and public arcades. https://zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/toys.html for my detailed history. 😉

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