Using A computer...when did you start?

[BillLee/Chandler, TX]

Early 60's in college, then a whole career using them starting in 1964. Still like to "play" with them.

[oldandtired]

My best friend in the mid 60's worked for IBM in Houston. Dad worked for Sperry. I was exposed to them very early, but did not use one very much until 1980 working in Saudi Arabia. We had a mainframe for keeping records. Quite a facility, but then the Saudis had plenty of money. I bought my first computer in 1983.

[peewee2you]

Late 30's, now in mid 50's, started on Dos machine spent 2 weeks couldn't get it to do a damn thing, then about 2am it all came to me, got the thing to talk back, then got it too sing. I soon upgraded it to a color monitor, from there I learned how to build them, went from one computer convention to another, reading on all the best parts etc. and put my first one together, built maybe 15 or so after that, still got Dos machines to this day, have old windows machines and software. You I have a passion for fixing things, or building or making old things like new. The beauty was I like to work on cars, and on computers you had to be clean and grounded using a grounding strap hooked from your rist to the frame of the machine, wow working and building without gettin dirty or greasy, is there such a heaven I ask, oh yes and this was it. Well enough of that I no longer build them too that depth, but am proficient and self reliant on curing pretty much any but or problem that arises.

[felix37]

Started using them in junior high (the early 80's) got our first home computer in 99'.

[jim1932]

I remember in high school they had one... in the math department and you had to be a senior math whiz to do it. I remember using a school apple with dual diskettes (no harddrive, to do simple accounting. We still had to use typewriters and correction ribbon to write papers in in college. My first accounting job there was one ibm XT and everyone took turns on the fantastic "new"program called Lotus. It had 512K of ram and a 20 meg hard drive. and a green monochrome screen.... what a ride. Now I have a laptop, a mac and an IPAD.... and a smartphone.

[Kens 34 PU]

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I'm disappointed that I haven't heard the 2 basic words that every engineering geek in the '70's knew! Fortran and Cobalt! Computer Lab 101 in 1973, we used Fortran to write computer language to add 2 plus 2! You key-punched 100 or more cards to do a simple calculas equation and Lord help you if you got one card out of sequence! Then you fed it into a gigantic card reader that fed a CPU the size of most modern double wide house trailers. After the printer spit out a quarter of a mile of 11"x17" serrated computer paper, it verified to you that in fact, 2 plus 2 equalled 4! Hell, I could have have figured that out on my K&E sliderule!

Oops, I'm showing my age again!

Ken

[28RPU]

Well, funny thing, I got a degree in computer programming in 1968 and went into the military.I didn't use it there and when I got out everything had changed and I lost interest in computers.They were as big as a room then. Fast forward to about 1996 or so and I got a used 486,I think the timeline is right. Anyhoo, I got a real computer in 2000 just like you.

[richard crow]

1955 they called it a slide ruler most of america was built with one. no virrses no crashes no spam fit in your pocket came with a printer pen & pensel. still have it today & it still works

[BillLee/Chandler, TX]

Originally Posted by Kens 34 PU

I'm disappointed that I haven't heard the 2 basic words that every engineering geek in the '70's knew! Fortran and Cobalt! Computer Lab 101 in 1973, we used Fortran to write computer language to add 2 plus 2! You key-punched 100 or more cards to do a simple calculas equation and Lord help you if you got one card out of sequence! Then you fed it into a gigantic card reader that fed a CPU the size of most modern double wide house trailers. After the printer spit out a quarter of a mile of 11"x17" serrated computer paper, it verified to you that in fact, 2 plus 2 equalled 4! Hell, I could have have figured that out on my K&E sliderule!

Oops, I'm showing my age again!

Ken

Earliest (early 60's iin college) was assembly language on a Bendix G-15. When I went to work for an oil company in 1964, it was Fortran on an IBM 1401, later on IBM 7094. Late 60's used SDS 920/930/9300 (SDS was a CDC spin-off) using Fortran again. Then into the Univac mainframes, later IBM 360/370/etc.

Saw the future in 1985 and took my group into shared "mini" computers (DEC Vax) and then Unix on Sun workstations. Been in the Unix world since 1985, internet shortly after. (Anybody else remember when the Usenet newsgroups were all there was?)

First computer at home was in the early 80's and was an Osborne CPM machine. Bought a NeXT in 1991 (Steve Jobs' company and computer between his Apple days).

Like somebody said, I have more compute power in my wrist watch than those first computers back in the early 60's

PS: It's "COBOL", to be avoided like the plague! An UGLY language.

[flat-v8]

I didn't know really anything about computers or could afford one, until sometime in the early 80s, I was doing a small electrical job in someones house, fans, light fixtures etc. when finished I told the customer, total $75.00 He offered me a complete computer system instead of money, it was my very first PC! An IBM pcJr 128kb ram, cga monitor, no HDD, bootable only with DOS 5.25 floppies, I had a blast with that thing! Added sidecar memory modules that actually increased the size of the desktop itself, maxed it out to a whooping 640k, then overclocked the 8088 processor to a screaming 10 mhz! With the external 336 modem I got online to chat rooms and forums, then it was time for an upgrade, so I sold the pcJr. for $800.00 and the buyer was thrilled to get such a fast machine! Ha Ha! I have building and tinkering with computers ever since, and nearly every one is overclocked gaming rigs for college kids. Just finished building a i7 960 quad core system, with dual Radeon's in crossfire, and 8 gigs of ram. Smoking fast! Boy how times have changed.

[Clem Clement]

The SR-71, The US Air Force's famous Blackbird, was the last aircraft designed by a slide rule.
Clem

[1931 flamingo]

I was working at IBM when they introduced the PC. WE used to sit around the shop and wonder who would buy one of these. Who knew? Can't live without them now. Glad I kept my stock though. On another vein, Kodak stops making cameras. Unreal.
Paul in CT

[amodel25]

Originally Posted by Kens 34 PU

I'm disappointed that I haven't heard the 2 basic words that every engineering geek in the '70's knew! Fortran and Cobalt! Computer Lab 101 in 1973, we used Fortran to write computer language to add 2 plus 2! You key-punched 100 or more cards to do a simple calculas equation and Lord help you if you got one card out of sequence! Then you fed it into a gigantic card reader that fed a CPU the size of most modern double wide house trailers. After the printer spit out a quarter of a mile of 11"x17" serrated computer paper, it verified to you that in fact, 2 plus 2 equalled 4! Hell, I could have have figured that out on my K&E sliderule!

Oops, I'm showing my age again!

Ken

X2...I was in college in 1969 and had to take a course in Fortran programming. The computer was an IBM 1620, filled up a whole room. The room had a window unit air conditioner and 2-3 times a day the computer would have a "thermal shutdown". Let it cool down and try again.......

[wga]

First computer - abacus! Still have my K&E slide rule, kind of a rite of passage at the time.
Fortran, used BASIC to program my calculus homework, and quant analysis. Besides the mainframe, used a teletype with a phone set into a receiver on the teletype. Loud and clunky.

[Shu47]

Oh yes Ken...I remember college in the 70's using Fortran and Wat5 (sp) and punch cards and using machine language with on a PDP-11 and then later using Cobal. I am glad those days are gone

[1oldtimer]

In the 80's in school on one of these:




and on one of these :

[Ray Parson]

this dam thing cost me to dam much money spend spend thats all i do now i cant get my emails to com thrue theres a photo of a lock cant get the dam thing to cleer itself get its time to have it looked at

[Binx]

Late eighties in the Air Force. Hated it. Email late 90's hated it even more. Waited for the phone to ring so I knew which email was really important. Drove my Lt's crazy.

Lonnie

[51 MERC-CT]

Got my first 'puter' before 'lectricity'

[fordy_nine]

My firstcomputer experience was at college, using IBM system with punch cards and Fortran IV software - not very user-friendly. Started using computers at work in early 80's, First practical (IBM PC) home computer was in 1994. BTW, I repaired radar systems during my Army time that had analog computers - like electrical slide rules...Bob L