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How old were you when you first used a computer?

Discussion in 'General Discussions' started by Arie, 2010/07/27.

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How old were you when you first used a computer?

Poll closed 2010/08/31.
  1. 5 years or younger

    0.8%
  2. 6-9 years old

    5.1%
  3. 10-14 years old

    5.9%
  4. 15-19 years old

    9.0%
  5. 20-24 years old

    17.6%
  6. 25-29 years old

    12.5%
  7. 30-39 years old

    16.9%
  8. 40-49 years old

    17.6%
  9. 50 years or older

    14.5%
  1. 2010/07/27
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff Thread Starter

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    Be interesting to read some of the stories some of our 'senior' members will share on the subject ;)
     
    Arie,
    #1
  2. 2010/07/27
    Whiskeyman Lifetime Subscription

    Whiskeyman Inactive Alumni

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    I was 40 when I used my first PC. It ran Windows 3.1. As soon as Windows 95 came out a couple of months later I bought my own PC. I constantly upgraded that Gateway 2000 for the next 5 years until I built a new system. That custom system has now been upgraded so many times that I am ready to build something that will last for the next 5-7 years.
     

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  4. 2010/07/27
    Steve R Jones

    Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

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    I actually started on an Apple 3 that didn't have a hard drive...Had to do some spreadsheets with Visicalc..

    Moved up to IBM XT and thought I died and went to heaven since it had a 10 MEG hard drive. I turned it into a really cool machine when I added a 3½ floopy drive to it.

    Then I got REALLY COOL when I added a near death 30 MEG Hard Card which was a hard drive on an ISA card....
     
  5. 2010/07/27
    rasrealtor

    rasrealtor Inactive

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    Was 41. First computer lacked a hard drive, as in Steve's case. Was a Leading Edge with 2 5" floppies and I used it for spreadsheet work. Was life simpler then, or what. :)
     
  6. 2010/07/27
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    I started using my dads old Windows 98 PC when I was about 10. I remember using this program called Kid Pix to draw pictures and mess around with on the computer.

    I ended up getting my first computer in 2004 when I was about 13. Since then I have had a huge interest in computers and I had always wanted to learn as much as I could about them.
     
  7. 2010/07/27
    Byteme2

    Byteme2 Well-Known Member

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    IBM mainframe 360. Then IBM PC connected with 300 baud modem. Been do'n this for a long time.
     
  8. 2010/07/27
    scout321x Contributing Member

    scout321x Inactive

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    I was 21 when I went to computer programming school in the Army at Ft Monmouth NJ. It was 1962. The first computer we used was called a Recomp II. My first programming language was octal. Then an IBM 650 at the school.

    Then one specially designed for the Army that was called MOBIDIC which stood for Mobile Digital Computer. It was built under contract by Sylvania and housed in 3 truck trailers plus one for maintenance. We programmed in octal, then a special symbolic language then in COBOL. This was in Orleans France. We were a logistics support site for the 7th Army stationed in Germany. There were four MOBIDIC computers in all.

    Next I worked on an RCA 301 at the 5th Army Data Processing Center on Pershing Rd in Chicago. We programmed in the RCA symbolic language and COBOL.

    After leaving the Army I worked on an RCA 501, IBM 1620, 360, 1401, 1440, 1460, 370 in various forms of symbolic languages and COBOL. On the 360 and 370 I wrote job streams in the OS Job Control Language or JCL. I was a Systems Programmer on the 360 and 370 using MFT, MVT and VM operating systems.

    I also worked on IBM System/3, System 36, System 38 and AS-400 in various forms of RPG and COBOL as well as the system control language called simply Control Language or CL.
     
    Last edited: 2010/07/27
    rasrealtor likes this.
  9. 2010/07/27
    sparky Lifetime Subscription

    sparky Well-Known Member

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    My first computer was a Commodore PET and I remember I chose it over the TRS-80 since the PET had a real CRT. It had a whooping 8k of memory, standard! Those were the good ole days... ;)
     
  10. 2010/07/27
    jorjab Lifetime Subscription

    jorjab Well-Known Member

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    I was 21 when I graduated from college with a double major in Math and Chemistry and had no idea what I wanted to do.

    Saw a post in the Math department for interview for a job for something called Computer programming.

    I had no real idea what a computer was but it sounded interesting. I went for an interview in New York, where I was from, and started right after graduation.

    The company was known at the time as "Remington Rand Univac ", when I retired 40 1/2 years later, it had become UNISYS.

    I wrote system software to go along with the computers we sold. I never worked on the vacuum tubes ones such as UNIVAC I and II ,but started with the Solid State systems and peripherals such as high speed printers.

    For the first few years, most of the coding I did was in machine code.

    When IBM PCs first came out, I began working with MSDOS, gradually working my way up through the various OS releases.

    I enjoyed programming the entire time, as I thought it was fun.

    Arie, this one was a fun poll. Thanks!
     
  11. 2010/07/27
    rasrealtor

    rasrealtor Inactive

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    Does Pong count? c1978
     
  12. 2010/07/27
    Tom Emmelot

    Tom Emmelot Well-Known Member

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    I was 27 in 1977, when my first computer was a Chess Chalenger!
    My dad was a radio amateur and when we find out that the computer was not quick enough, we try to speed him up with a other cristal! We got a little approve!
    So we got 4 other Chess computers and the last won i still got, a Conchess Ambassador, still working!! Then in 1984 we bought a MSX 1 with the Cassette deck! And we both my dad and i started to program just for fun in MSX Basic ( Yes the M is from Microsoft) My dad bought in 1987 a MSX 2 Home computer with 2 3.5 disk drives! And we start also to program in Machine languish and Pascal! I got my own MSX 2 a few years later that won had a video composer build in and i edit a lot of movies with that machine! I started also programming in Hi-Tech C and MSC DOS 2.0 could work with Scsi drives scanners and later even IDE drives,
    I had a MSX BBS till 2000 and wrote a uuencode decode for the MSX BBS to send programs and other things with the mail! I wrote that in Hi-Tech C and made that in to a machine languish version to work with the BBS program's. I also Tranlate the MSX-DOS version 2 from English to Dutch for the programmer that made that version in Holland, some 75 commando's like DOS 6.0 So in 1998 i got my first PC with Win 95 on it. Now i do all the Lay-outs for a Sign factory, for the customer and all the production lay-outs, for neon glass and cutter program's. Also keep a lot of computers working and keep them clean. I am a Beta tester for Trend Micro for almost 10 years now. Work at work with Vista, here at home with Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.
    So chess got me to the computer!

    Kind regards,
    Tom
     
  13. 2010/07/27
    drfredkin

    drfredkin Inactive

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    My first computer was an IBM 650, which I programmed in 1955 during the summer after my junior year in college.
     
  14. 2010/07/27
    Queuedecoton

    Queuedecoton Well-Known Member

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    About 10 years ago when I was 74. Pretty much taught myself, am now teaching others.
     
  15. 2010/07/27
    Abdalk

    Abdalk Inactive

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    I started my computing life with windows 95
    The I upgraded my self knowledge up to now, while am typing these litters.
    Hahahaha
     
  16. 2010/07/27
    broni

    broni Moderator Malware Analyst

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    I came to US, when I was 32 (1986) and I had no single clue about computers.
    Two years later, I bought used Commodore 128 and that's how my addiction started :)
     
  17. 2010/07/27
    Ramona

    Ramona Geek Member Alumni

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    I was 49, and the first Exec. Secretary at the University where I worked, to have a computer with word processing software. The disks were 5½ ", and the application was DisplayWrite, if I remember correctly.
     
  18. 2010/07/27
    broni

    broni Moderator Malware Analyst

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    Oh, my love is here :)

    Great to see you Ramona :)

    Someone was recently asking about you...
     
  19. 2010/07/27
    MinnesotaMike

    MinnesotaMike Geek Member

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    I was 32 when I got my first one at home. I had use Apples in college and Windows 3.1 at work. It was an IBM Aptiva with a massive 2GB hard drive, back in 1996. There was no way I would ever fill that up. Ha. I've had several systems since then. You know how it goes, never enough power! :D Now, my current system has 750GB installed with 2 500GB external drives at the ready.

    Hey Ramona, great to see you here!!!
     
    Last edited: 2010/07/27
  20. 2010/07/27
    Ramona

    Ramona Geek Member Alumni

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    broni and MinnesotaMike,

    Good to see you guys too!
     
  21. 2010/07/27
    Sanssail

    Sanssail Inactive

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    I was 21 in 1961 and took a course in Fortran II . The machine was an IBM 1620 with paper tape input and output. When I graduated as a Chemical Engineer in 1962 the company I went to work for also had an IBM 1620. That was the start of a career that lasted until 2001. Early work was on the 1620 but soon changed to the IBM 360.

    Then the Digital PDP-8 , DECsytem 10 PDP-11 , VAX and ALPHA (running VMS). I was managing a data centre in later years. It wasn't until retirement that I bought my first PC.

    It was a satisfying career.
     

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