Image from the Wikimedia Commons First Introduction
I don't remember exactly when, but it had to the early 1980s. My uncle purchased a Commodore VIC-20. Luckily after he got bored with it, he loaned it to my brother and I. While it did little to enchant my brother, I was fully amazed by it. My uncle had also purchased a Commodore Datasette which used a cassette to save files. While I longed for a Commodore 64, I fully enjoyed the Vic 20. I don't remember what I was able to do or what I saved etc, I remember vividly being able to change the color of the screen. I'm not sure why that stuck with me, but it did.
I don't remember exactly when, but it had to the early 1980s. My uncle purchased a Commodore VIC-20. Luckily after he got bored with it, he loaned it to my brother and I. While it did little to enchant my brother, I was fully amazed by it. My uncle had also purchased a Commodore Datasette which used a cassette to save files. While I longed for a Commodore 64, I fully enjoyed the Vic 20. I don't remember what I was able to do or what I saved etc, I remember vividly being able to change the color of the screen. I'm not sure why that stuck with me, but it did.
Image from the Wikimedia Commons Apple IIc
My second computer was an Apple IIc purchased by my Grandpa for our family. He felt that his grandchildren needed to know about computers and purchased each family an Apple IIc. He purchased it as a Christmas present for us. I believe it was 1985 or 1986.
The Apple IIc had it's own monitor so no more using the television as the monitor. This meant I was able to use the computer more as it didn't interrupt anyone's tv viewing. My school had TRS-80s and I had seen 5 1/4" floppies but I'm not sure I used one before the Apple IIc. In addition to Space Invaders (which I don't think it was the actual game but a knock off of it, which I could play for hours), it was my first introduction to an office suite, AppleWorks.
College
The first college class I took was a Pascal programing course during the summer after graduating from high school. College was my first introduction to IBM and MS-DOS. As exciting as college was, my greatest thrill was in discovering the library had a freely available computer lab that was open everyday. (Okay, so I might have been a touch nerdy.) I went to the second floor computer lab every day. It was there that I learned how to write batch files, use WordPerfect and use Lotus 123. Louis L'Amour had nothing on Lotus and their manual for Lotus 123.
486SX 25
In late 1992 or early 1993, I purchased my first computer. It was an IBM compatible 486SX 25. The 486s were the newest at the time, but the SX 25 was the slowest but the fastest I could afford. I also purchased a Panasonic 24-pin dot matrix printer. Shortly, after I purchased it, I added a 9600k modem to it. Welcome to the online world! (Well, BBSs for sure.) I wasn't introduced to the internet until the Animal Science Capstone course in the fall of 1994. (I remember the professor having us use gopher and Veronica (gopher search engine) and barely discussing the WWW.)
Fast Forward
The years since my introduction to computers have seen me spend countless hours using a computer. Today, the technology that I typically have within an arm's reach is my iphone, ipad, and pebble. Their abilities are truly amazing to me especially when I think about that Vic-20 plugged in the tv in the living room so many years ago.
My second computer was an Apple IIc purchased by my Grandpa for our family. He felt that his grandchildren needed to know about computers and purchased each family an Apple IIc. He purchased it as a Christmas present for us. I believe it was 1985 or 1986.
The Apple IIc had it's own monitor so no more using the television as the monitor. This meant I was able to use the computer more as it didn't interrupt anyone's tv viewing. My school had TRS-80s and I had seen 5 1/4" floppies but I'm not sure I used one before the Apple IIc. In addition to Space Invaders (which I don't think it was the actual game but a knock off of it, which I could play for hours), it was my first introduction to an office suite, AppleWorks.
College
The first college class I took was a Pascal programing course during the summer after graduating from high school. College was my first introduction to IBM and MS-DOS. As exciting as college was, my greatest thrill was in discovering the library had a freely available computer lab that was open everyday. (Okay, so I might have been a touch nerdy.) I went to the second floor computer lab every day. It was there that I learned how to write batch files, use WordPerfect and use Lotus 123. Louis L'Amour had nothing on Lotus and their manual for Lotus 123.
486SX 25
In late 1992 or early 1993, I purchased my first computer. It was an IBM compatible 486SX 25. The 486s were the newest at the time, but the SX 25 was the slowest but the fastest I could afford. I also purchased a Panasonic 24-pin dot matrix printer. Shortly, after I purchased it, I added a 9600k modem to it. Welcome to the online world! (Well, BBSs for sure.) I wasn't introduced to the internet until the Animal Science Capstone course in the fall of 1994. (I remember the professor having us use gopher and Veronica (gopher search engine) and barely discussing the WWW.)
Fast Forward
The years since my introduction to computers have seen me spend countless hours using a computer. Today, the technology that I typically have within an arm's reach is my iphone, ipad, and pebble. Their abilities are truly amazing to me especially when I think about that Vic-20 plugged in the tv in the living room so many years ago.
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