Age is 43, started trying to build 6502 machines after being exposed to a KIM-1 in college. Then tried to build 1802 machines. Actually got one to sort of work! Then I talked my dad into a TI-99/4A for "writing school reports" (which it did, plus a whole lot more) and have stuck to it. Now have several full-up 4A rigs plus a Geneve. Also played with Atari STs and Falcons, and dabbled with an 800 briefly. Now (in addition to the 4As) have several 386es and 486es running a variety of FreeDOS and linux, and a Slackware main system next to the Geneve and the 4Mb 520STfm. I learned programming in FORTRAN using punch-cards on an IBM mainframe at school, where I met a fellow who had built an 8080 machine in a file cabinet in his dorm room, and programmed it using punch-cards from the Computer Center. I have played with several VAXes over the years at work, including an intimate experience with VMS 4 on a MicroVAX II that was running the TI cross assembler for our TOW missile launcher software development (based on the SBP9989, a close relative to the 4A's TMS9900 and Geneve's TMS9995). Played peripherally with a TI 990 mainframe and programmed a real-time hardware-in- the-loop simulation on a 68000 ExorMACS. All in all, it's been a blast, and I wouldn't change a thing!