How did you first get into computers? Was it at school? Did you have to use one for your job?Were you like me?

Question

When I say "Were you like me?"
I mean that never in my life have been able to tolerate the thought that some:
Spotty-faced,snotty-nosed,
12- year old little Brat
might know more than I do!!

As a matter of fact, when I bought my new laptop one of the first things that I said was:
"Will little kids laugh at me when they see me carrying this particular laptop?"

They said "Oh No ! Sir1 They'll think you're a REAL COOL DUDE!"
I don't think the sales people were taking the Mickey, at least, not after I'd head-butted a couple of them!

Had a BBC B
My beloved Commodore 64
Sinclair Spectrum

I still remember a letter in a magazine where a businessman was quoted £4000 for a program and the kids in his son's class got together and wrote him one!!
He gave'em £500!!i

A few months ago I bought this laptop of mine.
I remember when Memory was £40 per Megabyte! At that rate the Memory in THIS little Feller would cost £80,000

Hey xThedarkladyx
Well spoken! ANYBODY knows more about computers than I do!
Sorry about the snotty-nosed crack.

I'm sure that you wipe your nose on your sleeve quite regularly! :-) :-)

Hi Mayan,know how you felt!
There was a programme on UK TV many moons ago and a teacher was talking about how all her students were TERRIFIED!
These were all ADULTS, and were Office Managers, and CEO's, and Vice-presidents, and such-like!
The first thing that she ever said to them was:
"Now, I want you to try and BREAK your computer."
[obviously, just by typing]
and they were all just like terrified kids on their first day at school.

Answer 1

may i ask why you are reffering to children as
'spotty-faced,snotty-nosed,12- year old little Brat'?
kids are still children with feelings!
and you feel the need to disrespect them because you have an issue with a laptop or something, after reading that bit i got bored and stopped reading,
i have no respect for people like you!

EDIT:: im 13 and i arent spotty, and i arent a little brat,
i cant say how much you have annoyed me!
kids know more that you because we were born at the
same time as technology, not 100's of years before they invented that particular bit of technology like you.
i dont care if you give me thumbs down, but you annoyed me mister!

Answer 2

I got into computer's from a very early age. I was always a curious child and wanted to learn how to work them so explored until l quenched my thirst for knowledge. I have never liked not having the ability to do something and I guess that can be a weakness sometimes. Now after years of, lets say, 'discovering' how a computer works I now fix most problems that occur on my computer.
The only reason '12-year little brat's' know more than you is because they were born at the time when technology was, and is, at its peak so I think they can't help it.
Thanks to my curiosity I now get top marks in my I.C.T. class!!

Answer 3

I was recovering from a serious illness and because I was bored I signed up for some lessons just in using a PC. I then went back to Accounting and had to learn to use specialised Accountancy systems. I'm still no where near as good as my grandchildren on the net etc or downloading. However, give me an accountancy package and I'm happy as old Larry! I still tend to think of computers as work tools and not something that is used as a leisure activity - but I'm getting better.

Answer 4

I first got into computers as a snot-nosed 12 year old - programming Assembler on by BBC Micro (that's 32KB RAM, kids) in 1986.

I played and programmed and graduated - and I'm still playing and programming. Now the snot-nosed 12 year olds are using stuff I could have written in a couple of days.

I should have opened a coffee shop - I'd be a millionaire now.

Answer 5

Have always been fascinated.

First one was a ZX 81 as I had to save up and missed the ZX80, then the Spectrum 128 and Amstrad 64. By then they had BBCs at work but I really wasn't impressed and when the first IBM clones came out I saved like mad and bought one with 4K RAM (I have a flash drive that puts that to shame)

Rarely played games once I had a machine that could do something.

First Word Processor was Claris.

Answer 6

I was a competent typist in high jobs in my late thirties. Then computers came into the equation, it was about the time I was temping. So everywhere I went to work the computer was different. (So I did a 10 hour course). Remember computers when you held down the Ctrl + B to make it bold then you pressed Ctrl B at the end of the title to take off the bold command; You did this for underlining at the beginning and the end of a word or title. Ctrl + shift + W to underline; Ctrl + Backspace = delete one word to the left. Those were the days.

Answer 7

The first time I saw a computer was in 1979. At that time, home computers came in kit form, and I had a summer job (I was 14 at the time) assembling the kits so that they could be sold on complete and ready to use. The kits were made in Britain by a company called NASCOM, and had 1K of memory, (one millionth of a Gigabyte !). The programs had to be loaded using a normal audio cassette player, and took an age.

Answer 8

Oh i first experienced computers when i was in grade school. I was among the first batch to be trained to use the green monitored computers-apple i think.

I was scared coz if i press a wrong key, i was afraid of something that wud happen. But when i learned to explore and navigate thru programs, i felt a lot confident.

so, piece of advice, just use it everyday -make word documents, compile pictures or play songs. you'll do well day by day. and don't worry about those computer-know-it-alls, they started with something basic too like opening their own computer. i bet u can catch up soon

Answer 9

So, when I got into computers it was with punch cards. Imagine walking around with boxes of punch cards. let's just say it wasn't popular party talk.

But by the time I graduated from College in the mid 70's with a MS in Computer Science, we were celeberaties!

Computing was still very combersome. If you wanted to sort a group of numbers, you needed to build your own sort routines. No spreadsheets, PC's, color screens, etc...

I am still in the computer business, and even with it's ups and downs, I can't imagine how my life would have been had I not started with those dumb punch cards.

Answer 10

Never owned one until I told my Boss I was leaving for a better job (lie) and he promoted me to a position where I had to use one, a laptop.

He went to train me and, not knowing how to open it, I asked for a screw driver.

I knew nothing.

I now train other people 'on the job' so to speak, in live situations where if they screw up, it could cost us thousands.

And I still have no idea what I'm doing!!

For Gods sake don't tell anyone that though.