First personal computer nostalgia

If you include programming on larger machines "for fun" as contrasted with "working," then (all dates approximate +/- a year!) 1965 - learned 1401 AutoCoder to solve quadratic equations; learned FORTRAN to check for legal moves in checkers 1967 - used FORTRAN to compute the exact answer to 37**37 (don't ask why - it was "fun") 1976 - saw a friend play StarTrek and Adventure on a timeshare system; had seen the article on the Altair, but I wasn't interested in bit-twiddling and switch-flipping at the time. 1977 - purchased a ProcTech Sol-20, cassette based, to learn BASIC and write my own programs. Two weeks to solder - 6 weeks to get working! My wife became a computer widow. 1978 - added a NorthStar SSSD drive (90K storage!) - needed a Univ. of Waterloo CS grad to help me do the I/O routines! Co-founded Regina Owners of Microcomputer Systems (ROMS). 1979 - got into CP/M as well as N* DOS, added a N* Horizon and Hazeltine 1500 terminal. Also added 8" disk drives which I had my parents smuggle into Canada on their vacation so I could avoid the import tax! Started attending WCCF in SF. Started writing articles for SOLUS News. Became a Z80 / CP/M "snob" - the Apple wasn't a "serious" computer, so I wasn't interested in meeting Wozniak when I had a chance. Wrote a program to test for ESP on the Radio Shack Model I - became one of the first programs to be rejected by Wayne Green's Kilobaud program publishing venture! 1980 - helped found the International NorthStar User's Association (INSUA) in SF. (trivia - John Dvorak was another founding member. He sold N* software mail order thru his "newsletter" The Software Review). REALLY got into BASIC to create real estate multiple listing index program for local realtor. 1981 - founded Interactive Systems, Inc. in Regina, Saskatchewan with 2 partners. Sold small business systems - NorthStar and KayPro. Paid $1333 for a 10MB HD sub-system. Wrote articles for INSUA. Taught multiple "Intoduction to Personal Computing" classes through University extension division. 1982 - Got a Morrow Decision I (which could read both N* hard-sectored formats as well as soft sectored formats). Wrote articles for Sol Libes' MicroSystems magazine. Taught "Introduction to Data Processing" for U of R CS Department. 1983 - Created Docu-Power - a generic boilerplate document processor which worked with any wordprocessor. Became Canadian distributor for Micro-MUMPS for Disk Walters (at UC Davis ?) 1984 - Moved back to the US and reluctantly bought a PC clone, converted Docu-Power to MS-DOS (which added scores of sales to already impressive sales in the low 100's <g> - that's # of units, not $'s). Hooked up with Steve Ciarcia through the Connecticut Computer Club and became an "Ask BYTE" researcher - Steve paid club members $5 for each letter they could answer. Wrote the manual for Steve's Home Control System. 1985 - Reluctantly bought an AT from IBM (but only because I finagled a UCONN faculty discount through a prof I knew there). Co-authored (under Ciarcia's name) the HAL-4 brainwave processor construction articles in BYTE. ... and after that it starts to get too modern. But micros's have always been a passion - even though I am a clinincal psychologist by training, and I work in program evaluation in health care. Bob Stek Saver of Lost Sols