Why did you get into computer?

[Tews]

I got tired of preparing invoices manually and purchased a Commodore PET...the rest is history... Wish I still had it!

 

[smarteyeball]

I didn't get into computers, computers go to me first - only since late 2007, when I saw my very first BSOD, took the system in for repair, go it back and it BSOD'd itself to death more frequently than before. I dove into Vista head first and solved the BSOD. Started posting in Jan 2008... the rest is history.

jcgriff2

.

That is a fine example of an inquiring mind + willingness to delve and learn derived from a specific and driven need negates long term usage as prerequisite for acknowledged 'experience'.

(Nor does that render long term experience as superfluous )

 

[Duke of Alinor]

My job is years of boredom interspersed with moments of start terror.
I live in Silicon Valley and so when the Altair came out it was a natural time sink. Unfortunately I have always been better with hardware than software, which is why I need to be here.

 

[CommonTater]

My job is years of boredom interspersed with moments of start terror.
I live in Silicon Valley and so when the Altair came out it was a natural time sink. Unfortunately I have always been better with hardware than software, which is why I need to be here.

Another s-100 graduate! Excellent.

 

[Wandering Flame]

Because it's the best thing to use for me. Also people are pretty much forced to use it everyday for the sheer convenience of it.

 

[Jacee]

I had to stay one step ahead of my kids.

Got hooked on cleaning up nasty computer infections ...so I had to learn the ins and outs in order to become a 'geek mom'.

 

[jeffro75]

I started with computers when I took a course while in high school to learn how to program on an IBM 360 back in 1974. The course was held at a local university and instantly became hooked. Bought an Atari when they first came out and eventually migrated to an IBM personal computer a few years later. Owned a PC ever since.

 

[sergiogarcia9]

Fun story actually;
I first got really into computers a few years back, i have used Computers almost all my life, but never really known much about them, till about 2 years ago. I joined SF, and installed the Windows 7 Build 6801, and then learned and learned from other members here and from own experience/trying myself.
Now i know how to make graphical material, setup a computer, build a PC, website coding, OS modifying with themes, custom wmp skins, custom dll's etc.
I learned a lot from the members at SF, and for that i'm grateful

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Around Christmas 2007 I was bored so I purchased my first ever PC, I barely knew how to turn it on, fortunately I found VistaForums a month later, I've learned a few things so far.

 

[derekimo]

Around Christmas 2007 I was bored so I purchased my first ever PC, I barely knew how to turn it on, fortunately I found VistaForums a month later, I've learned a few things so far.

I guess there are a few of us that didn't grow up with them around all the time.

 

[MadMaxData]

I started out on an Atari 5200 with a friend. We wrote our own game programs in MS-DOS. Just took it from there. Which is odd because I've never been a gamer...LOL

 

[nokken]

I started out at the age of 6 with an Old Packard Bell "Multimedia PC" with a 486SX and Windows 3.1 / "Packard Bell's Navigator" - Everything about that computer fascinated me. Before long, I was installing Windows 95 on my 5th grade classrooms IBMs (my teacher didn't want to do it).

I only recently built my own PC 2.5 years ago.

 

[CommonTater]

I started out on an Atari 5200 with a friend. We wrote our own game programs in MS-DOS. Just took it from there. Which is odd because I've never been a gamer...LOL

Now that's Ironic...

My first program was a game... number of games on my present computer? Zero.

 

[profdlp]

I had been drinking and...

 

[derekimo]

I had been drinking and...

:roflmao:

 

[jcgriff2]

I didn't get into computers, computers go to me first - only since late 2007, when I saw my very first BSOD, took the system in for repair, go it back and it BSOD'd itself to death more frequently than before. I dove into Vista head first and solved the BSOD. Started posting in Jan 2008... the rest is history.

jcgriff2

.

Wow, John. I never would have guessed.

I started out a few years ago, writing programs for my TI-84 calculator (see this site), and gradually got bored with it and moved on to computers instead.

My first computer was one I built last year, when Vista was out and Windows 7 in beta.

When I installed the RC, I joined SF, and that's where I have learned just about everything I know.

I was in Corporate Finance, Accounting Policy (FASB), sales & use tax audits/law for most of the the last 20 years since college. But the end result was always the same -- the 1040, 1120, 1065, etc... at the Federal level, then the 10,000s of State and Local tax returns. I should mention that I did dabble with some systems work along the way - DOS, BASIC, IBM Mainframe VS COBOL II, JCL, TSO, ISPF, IMS, VSAM, ISAM etc..... Oh yeah... "AB-END's" - Abnormal termination of programs that produced... memory dumps in pure hex.

I like working with the "unknown" - no two systems are alike and the end result to one user (solution) is not always necessarily the end result to another.

April 15 is tomorrow... tax help anyone ?

John

 

[Zzz]

I first got into computers when I got my first IBM PC installed with Windows 95 when I was around 8 years old. I've been into computers ever since albeit less today but I still love em to death.

 

[Grumpy Old Tom]

My first venture was a Lytton programmable calculator in 11th grade, 'way back in 1971. You did your programming steps in octal and they had a card reader with special cards that you had to punch holes out of according to the octal code of the instruction that you were using.

In college two years later, I was taught to use a keypunch machine and FORTRAN IV as part of my engineering curriculum. Then my schooling was interrupted by my gross stupidity.

10 years, a wife, and 5 kids later, following a job loss, I'm back in school. I pick up a research job to help make ends meet and they want me to do some programming. I say "Sure, where are the keypunch machines?" and they look at me like I'd asked for a stylus and clay tablets! They said you program on the VAX, I said, cool, what's a VAX? and so on...

It's been a love-hate relationship ever since. Often I think "The 'better' it gets, the worse it gets!"

 

[CarlTR6]

I had been drinking and...

:roflmao::roflmao:

 

[cokeonice]

Techno nerd

Wow! Some of us are showing our age!

I guess I am next!

When I was going to university, my first major was "Accounting" (ack!). One of the "Business College" requirements was "Comp Sci 237". This was one of those "overall" classes to familiarize students to "Comp Sci" concepts. The labs for this course required doing some basic BASIC programming on a DEC 10 writer. This was basically a little work table with a keyboard and printer built in. NO monitor!! As you typed a line of code and pressed "enter/return", the line of code would print on the piece of paper in front of you. When you were done, you hit run and it would spit out the processing results...assuming you coded it correctly!

The course was taught by a teaching assistant (TA) as opposed to a professor. My wife (at the time) took the same course in the evenings with a professor. She got an "A" out of the course and I got a "D"! I decided I hated computers and anything to do with computing after that.

However, I got a job in the "Data Control" office where I worked. They taught me how to setup JCL on an IBM mainframe (4341) to run mailing label jobs for their mail order business. I got so good at it that the Systems Operations people offered me a job working in the Computer Room as an operator. I mostly made sure that all those mailing label print jobs that I used to submit kept printing and did some JCL abend work. But I found that I LIKED doing this stuff! The Systems Analyst there took me under his wing and made sure I had access to the PC lab (PC's were NOT on all desktops back then).

From this I decided to buy my first PC; a Radio Shack Tandy 1000; 8086, 128K RAM, 2 x 5.25" floppy drives, and I used an old black and white TV as a monitor. My former brother-in-law gave me my first hard-drive. It was a 5.25", half-height, 10MB hard-drive! I thought I was rocking!! I installed the hard-drive myself and upgraded the RAM to 640K by using an expansion card. From there I have always built my own systems and have built hundreds for other people over the years.

I have been working in IT in various capacities for 25 years. I am now an IT Director and manage a staff of four. I am also studying toward the MCITP (server administration) and I have and maintain a CISSP certification.