Using A computer...when did you start?

[Hotrodladycrusr]

In the mid 80's I worked for Burroughs/Unisys and used a computer at work. Got my own PC in the house in 1999 I think it was. My cousin gave me his old one. Got AOL internet access in the house in 2000 and in 2003 started working for the local cable company so my high speed internet here has been free ever since. Two desktops, one laptop and one smart phone now.

[Frank The Plumber]

When I fed quarters into that stupid pong machine when I was just a kid I knew that the world would be ruined by it.

[John Kennedy]

9th grade- Fortran punch cards. After that it was Radio Shack Trash-80s and 5 1'4 floppys.
At home in '91 Windows 3.1.1 and slow dialup AOL

[JeffG]

On a Varian 620i main frame with 11 inch Ampex tape decks and 2 k of core memory, in 1978. Next was a Commodore 64 and HP 1000 E series main frame. Fun stuff.

[Django]

In Junior High, about '85. First Mac in '87. Bought my own Mac in college in '92. About 5 of us in the graphic design program bought our own so we wouldn't have to deal with the labs on campus. We ended up teaching our professors a thing or two as well. So professionally, every day since 1992.

[Lars99@aol.com]

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My first, an Apple II. My wife used Compuserve to communicate with someone in Japan. It helped to free me of a central office and was able to run business from almost anywhere. Tried IBM once in the 90's and went back to Apple and never thought of changing again.
Thank goodness I took typing in high school!

[Gumpy]

learnin new things every day....just got a new computer take along thang..

[Charlie Stephens]

Gumpy,

Check out classes at the local adult school or Junior College. I first used a main frame computer when I was at UCLA studying Engineering. Punched a lot of paper cards. My first "PC" came while working at Hughes Aircraft about 1980. The software was "Lotus" (similar to EXCEL that everyone uses today) and I had to load it from a 5 1/4 inch floppy disc each time I used it. I was also lucky that I was one of the few guys that took typing in High School (I knew that I would need to type my own term papers in College).

Charlie Stephens

Originally Posted by Gumpy

...dad u need to take a class...

[fordman]

on an engineering job in 1964 IBM 650 fortrans language (took 25 tons air cond to keep from overheating) , went into into day to day computer and applications as I want. still don't have it mastered.

[robert dick]

got my first one in 2008,a Gateway, took some classes in C++ at the local college--still can't say i'm very proficiant--but then again i prefer my slide rule to a calculator.

[Gumpy]

these computers are gettin small and thinner!

[mrtexas]

Ha ha, at U of Washington from 73-77 I was punching cards for a mainframe, same when I went to work in 77. I had only a single course in Fortran at college. Wow that first punch card machine with a memory was something! With that I didn't have to re-type the whole 80 characters when you made a mistake. Woe is you if you dropped your box of hundreds of cards, hadn't numbered them and had to re-sort them again.

Sometime in the 80s I got my first PC. In the 90s-2010 I was programming a propriety computer based on Pascal for running an oil refinery.

[37slantback]

55 pound CPM system in 80 or 81. In 87 I got a PC clone. WooHoo!

[al's28/33]

My first when AOL was the way to go.......1996 ?

[Gumpy]

google gettin to be a go-to friend!

[ford38v8]

A hand me down Macintosh Classic about 1997 ?

Today it's a Macbook Pro, and I don't know when this happened, but I no longer use a computer... it uses me.

[FL&WVMIKE]

I got an early start, but, foolishly gave it up.
I programmed the ole IBM 1400 series, back in the sixties with Autocoder and COBOL. I had to do a little de-bugging in machine language.
I liked COBOL, especially when you had to de-bug someone else's program. COBOL was a language where you used COmmon Business Oriented Language. Even then, some programmers made up thier own words.
Too many eighteen hour days burned me out.
MIKE

[rick r]

mid 60's on an I B M 1620. just learned enough to get a passing grade. still have very basic skills on a modern personal computer.