First personal computer nostalgia

Well, I thought I'd put my two cents in: 1976 - Dad worked for Coast Guard and would bring home a printing portable terminal. Played 'Star Trek' games on the CG's Convergent Technologies machine. 1977/78 - Hands-on C3 machine at Coast Guard district in Michigan while waiting for dad to take me home after school. Played lots of 'Rats' on this machine. Learn how to IPL the machine.... Get bitched out by MIS because they use that machine too.... 1978 - One of Coasties who lived just down the street had an Apple I. Played Flight sim and played with voice output on this little machine. Got the bug, worked all summer and bought myself a Kim I kit - and a BB gun.... 1980 - got an Intellivision Computer add-on. Started programming in Basic. Worst keyboard I've ever used. 1981/82 - a family friend GAVE me his Atari 1200xl computer and tape deck. Enter lots of programs from magazines. Things really start going for me. Got very good in Basic and 6502 machine language, got a drive. 1983 - June 12th, my 13th birthday. I got a MPP 300 baud modem for my 1200xl. Went crazy with BBS'ing. Started phreaking to support my habit. Phreaking led to hacking. First Unix experience. First electronics project - a scanner using a pen plotter, fiber optic cable and detector on joystick port, basic program. Lived on a boat from 83 to 85'. FBI confiscates then returns system. No charges filed. I guess they couln't figure out how to get incriminating info off of custom formatted floppies with encription. 1985 - 1988 - Continued hacking and phreaking. Dropped out of school due to family troubles. Got job, moved in with computer buddy. First hard disk in 87'. Started doing component-level modifications of my 130xe, more Atari stuff. Ran own bbs from 85' until joining the Navy. CP/M and MP/M exposure. Bit by feds in 87' and stopped doing things that might get me jailed. 1988-1991 - Navy, did some repairs on our tactical computers but didn't have my own machine with me as we were highly mobile infantry and an Atari setup does not fit in a Seabag.... Read 'Soul of a New Machine' in Okinawa, Japan. 1991 - Got out of the Nav, broke my leg and was bedridden for several months. Atari 800 with tape deck and a Spartados X cart. Wrote 'Worleyword' word processor (line editor) to keep in touch with Russian Penpal I aquired in Saudi Arabia via shortwave Radio Moscow program. Output is to a 40 - column, four color pen plotter. Got back most of my Atari stuff and start BBS'ing again. Tried to draw a circle on screen first by using PI as a base. Circle looks wierd. Teach self trig to support graphics coding. Circles now look right.... 1992 - First job as computer tech. First exposure to GUI - Win3x then OS/2 2.0. BBS goes back online as Cheez Daddy's 1993 - OS/2 2.11 comes out. I'm sold and never look back. My BBS - Cheez Daddy's House of Funk goes online. Worked on networking modules for Carina Net and several other BBS-related coding projects. Figured out how to write a word wrap - kick self for writing WorleyWord as a line editor. 1995/96 - First Linux experience. Don't like it much. Very immature and intimidatingy different. Warp Connect comes out, first Internet Exposure, first TCP/IP exposure. This is COOL.BBS goes down for good in March 96'. Not much demand left because of Internet. 1997 - Realize I've got more money than I can spend as a bachelor. Tried real hard to drink it all but have some left over. Started collecting computers at thrift stores etcetera. Realize Windows NT is not going away. Get good at it in self-defense. Get good at repairing Laser printers in self-defense. 1998 - Linux is getting better and so am I at it. Doesn't replace OS/2 as my main OS but gives me confidence enough to begin exploring Unix seriously. Get Solaris for X86 and twiddle with that for a while. Get SCO 1999 - first major aquisition. Data General MV4000dc mini. Repair, refurb, os install first AOS/VS exposure. First 9track drive. Got it on the internet via ethernet and tcp/ip. It was a gift from a customer. Digging Suse Linux on X86. 2000 - Second major aquisition, Sparcstation. First unix on non-x86 platform. Repaired and got it on internet via ethernet and tcp/ip. Third aquisition Micro PDP11. Fourth aquisition, Vaxstation. First VMS exposure, first Vax exposure. Got OS installed, on internet via ethernet and TCP/IP. Fifth aquisition IBM system 36 - not up yet. Amiga 4000 in the works. This years OS exposure is great, Redhat, Solaris sparc/x86, VMS vax, AOS/VS II, RT11, SCO, X on OS/2, Netbsd and FreeBSD on Sparc. Realize working a regular job sucks. Start my own company. Try not to starve. Marry a beautiful and very understanding woman. Try not to starve...... Regards, Jeff -- ----------------------------------------------------------- Jeffrey S. Worley President Complete Computer Services, Inc. 30 Greenwood Rd. Asheville, NC 28803 828-277-5959 Visit our website at HTTP://www.Real-Techs.com THETechnoid(a)home.com -----------------------------------------------------------