Why did you get into computer?

[thefabe]

I got into them kinda late. My first one was one I found taking out the garbage and found a tower in the trash. I took it into a shop and they said the only thing wrong was someone removed the optical drive. I had it replaced and was hooked from their. After my injury at work had a lot of time on my hands and have always been one that needed to know how things worked. Before long I had about 10 working systems built from scavenged parts. That's about it. Fabe

 

[archie123]

split up from a long term relationship (8 years) at the age of thirty and suddenly found myself with too much time on my hands , i could only drink weekends so i bought myself a PC to fill in time between pubs

 

[Everlong]

My Dad and his friend were in to computers. I used to be in to football and just playing on my N64 when I was a kid. I went with my Dad one evening to his friend's house as my Dad was going to see the new computer he had just built. I'd seen computers around the house all the time, but never knew they could be built by any ordinary person lol, so I was pretty amazed at what he had done. Though I did think he had built each individual part himself lol, and then I kinda took an interest and stuck with them ever since.

 

[Luckystar]

I was given a Commodore 64 at the ripe old age of 7, started playing video games then and still to this day, although my intelligence has gone further since then and now i really play with PC's and not just games, the tutorials here sorted that out.

 

[archie123]

I was given a Commodore 64 at the ripe old age of 7, started playing video games then and still to this day, although my intelligence has gone further since then and now i really play with PC's and not just games, the tutorials here sorted that out.

i started with the ZX81 then spectrum then commodore ha ha , then nothing but consoles for about 20 years till ten yeras ago i got another pc

 

[powerful]

Hi, by mistake, in 1968 I was still at UNI and working for the Gov'mt in QLD Aus. Since I was studying Economics they had me in Internal Audit. The dept had just received a new IBM 360 computer (had it's own air conditioned room) the boss came up to me and said "your that UNI kid aren't you, you better get in there and work out how to run this damm computer" I remember the IBM 80 cards and the excitement of EBCDIC, now there's one for the memory books.

42 years later, now with Economics and Computer Science degrees I have recently retired.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello powerful, welcome to Seven Forums!

 

[wpurcell]

Ha! I swore up and down that I had no use for such contraptions, but my sisters insisted I needed one, that I'd like them. Little did they know! I bought my first about 4 years ago at the age of 52. A "late bloomer"!

 

[Zepher]

I really got into computers after playing around on my friends Amiga 1000 back in 1987. that was a kickass computer for its time.
8bit stereo sound and a true multitasking OS that could boot off of an 880K floppy.
During that same time, I would borrow my friends machines, Acorns, Amstrads, Sinclairs, and C64's to play games with.

I ended up buying my first computer, an Amiga 3000 in 93 and then building my first machine in 95/96.

 

[Cato]

My first computer was an Apple //e, with extended memory...128K, color monitor (not RGB), dual 5.25 floppies. That was '85, I think. Joined an Apple User Group, met for pizza once a week with several people. At the time I was just over 40 years old and to my surprise there were several my age and some older, but for the most part it was a 15-25 y/o age group, and I think they helped me to deal with my own kids who were pre-teens.

I haven't been without a computer since then, but I always had the fear of having one "blow up" and not knowing what to do except buy another one, so I started doing my own repairs, of which many were caused "because" I started doing my own repairs. But I learned. Sometimes the hard way.

Built my first for myself in '08 and have built 3 more since. I just finished one for my wife that she didn't think she needed until I got it done. She had been using a 2001 model Compaq, and it was getting a little slow, to say the least.

I have no fear of anything going south now, because I "think" I can fix anything that goes wrong. In fact, it sort of gives me a little thrill if I feel like something is not right, because I have an opportunity to find out why, and maybe learn something else. The only time I watch television is during Cardinals baseball season, so me and my computer spend a lot of time together.

 

[carioca]

I got hooked to the Harris system Rupert Murdoch had installed at The Australian in the late 1970s and decided I'd have to have something like this at home. Quit my job and worked casual 3 days a week to investigate these things, got a quote from IBM for a DisplayWriter system and decided I could do better and get a more versatile system not tied to any brand.

Ended up investing in Godbout S-100 bus boards, built a card cage, stuck in an Z80B board, a 64KB static RAM board, an Interfacer IV, a Disk One disk controller board and a diagnostic board I built myself using 100 LEDs. Added a Fujitsu daisywheel printer and twin Qume 1.2MB 8in floppy drives and built my 'Intelligent Desk' housing the lot. Eventually stuck in an IBM 20MB hard disk as well.

I guess I ended up just below or just above IBM's original quote of $9500 for the WP system LOL.

It sort of went on from there... Spent more on IT stuff than on my house, with the result that at 74, I now have to finish my 'stone tent' in the country myself (while still tending six-seven PCs and their paraphernalia at home, much to the dismay of my long-suffering wife!).

Cheers,

LMH