10 Things I Love: Computers

As I am closing on the end of this epic ten part series that I thought I’d never finish, I think back on my entire experience with computers. My history with 1′s and 0′s goes to before I even hit puberty, but has lasted with me to today and well beyond.

It’s not just that I love computers and technology, I understand it. Most of what I learned is self-taught through mostly trial-and-error. If I did something that messed it up or made it worse, I would try another approach and often find results.

My journey with computers first began at the age of ten when I received my very first computer. It was the Atari 800xl 8-bit computing wonder, featuring ATARI BASIC. So l33t.

And this is what I looked like when I got it:

Yeah, I know.. the suspenders. And don’t even get me started on that shirt. Lets just say it was soon after this that I stopped letting my mom pick my clothes out for me. I’ve already entered this picture in the Flickr “Total Humiliation” Photos pool.

The Atari could not only entertain with hours of Missile Command, but also featured the built in ATARI BASIC operating system. Basically if you entered no video game cart (yes, cart, like in cartridge) it would default to the blue screen you see to your right. You could then input BASIC commands in the old-school style:

10 START
20 PRINT “HELLO”
30 GOTO 10

Amazing, isn’t it. I had a subscription to 3-2-1 Contact Magazine (basically a kids magazine for future tech nerds like me), and they would print a little BASIC program at the back of their magazine every month. They usually made pretty colors on the screen, or extremely obnoxious 8-bit noises that would drive my mom crazy. Every once in a while you get a real gem, but they were really built to teach you basics of programming.

The only kicker? You could spend hours designing elaborate.. or well, as elaborate as you could get with BASIC.. programs, all to be foiled by one flick of the power switch. There was no memory or storage. They had a floppy external drive, but it was like $10,000 and you could only buy the storage during the vernal equinox every other leap year.

At the age of 12 I received my first real computer. It was described as the first “portable computer”, only because the keyboard could attach to one side and it had a handle. Otherwise it weighed about 50lbs and was about as mobile as a large screen television.

It was a Compaq Portable PC, featuring an 8086 processor (this is way before Pentium, folks), 128kb of memory, a 5 1/4″ Floppy disk drive, and 10mb hard drive. Yes, MEGAbyte. It also contained a 9″ CGA Monochrome green and black monitor built in, and of course the detachable keyboard.

Once I got the handle of DOS and such I discovered computer games like Leisure Suit Larry and Space Quest. I began hearing about this newfangled piece of software called “Windows”, but my computer was way too crappy to handle it at the time.

At some point I got a 1200 baud modem and discovered BBS’s and chat boards, and that was all it took; I was hooked for life. Not only had I found something that allowed me to do so many things on one device, but it also allowed me to be social at the same time.

I got a Compaq DeskPro a few years later, and a couple laptops along the way. I began to learn how to upgrade my PC’s instead of having to get a whole new one. I was like a sponge, soaking up every little bit of knowledge I could gather.

By sixteen I was building my own computers and mastering everything Microsoft put out, as well as delving into more technical side of software. I took computer science classes for easy credit, arguing in great length with my teacher that there was a much easier way to do what he was trying to teach. Let’s just say I got thrown out of class a lot.

At nineteen I worked in the community college computer lab as a technician/helpdesk person. This gave me the excuse to use four of the lab computers to leech off Napster, pausing every once in a while to show someone how to save their Word document to their Zip drive.

Now over ten years later, I’m still heavily involved with computers. I use my technical skills in my everyday job as a web developer by always staying on the new developments and upgrades. I’m always pushing for the next great thing, looking out for that next piece of software that will make my life easier.

My love of computers isn’t going away anytime soon. Technology keeps opening more and more avenues for interaction between devices and your home PC, and with each step I am right along with it trying to find a way to adapt it to my own life.

With each passing day I find my life more and more integrated with technology, and I am not afraid. I for one welcome our technological overlords, and will help round up the non believers.