How Long Have You Been Using a Computer?

Lon · Post by **Lon** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 6:55 pm

I started using a computer in 1973, at the same time two salesmen came to my office demonstrating a Sharp calculator that they were selling for $360 USD. The calculators only did simple calculations but we placed an order for three of them and could hardly wait for them to arrive. Within two years they were half the size and banks were giving them away to new depositors. The computer that we used gave us direct access to client data that was stored 3,000 miles away. That was the Stone Age---------wow----- how things have changed.

CARLA · Post by **CARLA** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 6:58 pm

Since 1972 way way way back in the stone age. :wah:

QUINNSCOMMENTARY · Post by **QUINNSCOMMENTARY** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 7:10 pm

Lon;967420 wrote: I started using a computer in 1973, at the same time two salesmen came to my office demonstrating a Sharp calculator that they were selling for $360 USD. The calculators only did simple calculations but we placed an order for three of them and could hardly wait for them to arrive. Within two years they were half the size and banks were giving them away to new depositors. The computer that we used gave us direct access to client data that was stored 3,000 miles away. That was the Stone Age---------wow----- how things have changed.

Needless to say you aren't referring to a PC. I have to of the earlier Apple II still in my basement and I bought them in 1983-84.

Odie · Post by **Odie** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 7:14 pm

woah, most of my life at work, probably at least 20 years or more.

ButterflyPrincess · Post by **ButterflyPrincess** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 7:34 pm

since about 1997:)

Lon · Post by **Lon** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 7:45 pm

QUINNSCOMMENTARY;967427 wrote: Needless to say you aren't referring to a PC. I have to of the earlier Apple II still in my basement and I bought them in 1983-84.

You are right---------not a PC. My first PC was a custom job that cost me about $4,000 in 1983--1084---------The world of DOS.

CARLA · Post by **CARLA** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 7:55 pm

Yes in 1972 I worked on the old keypunch and verify machines making cards for the mile long server that ran our applications at the hospital I worked. You made the cards, verified then and put them in the hopper and it ran the billing application based on the cards I punch. Oh boy was it noisey...:wah: wasn't to bad took up the entire basment of the hospital.

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 2:12 am

I didnt know how to turn one on 5 yrs ago.

Now look at me, Im in your bedroom making you pull your hair out ! :-6

Post by **Betty Boop** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 2:42 am

1986 I think, when I started work as a secretary. Damn thing kept crashing so you did double the amount of work as the boss insisted the old handwritten records were kept as well. :rolleyes: :-5

Post by **spot** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 3:03 am

I wrote my first program in 1968 on a batch machine with a window into the operations department to submit tapes and collect printouts.

I think I actually touched a computer the first time in 1970, that one I could book hour slots on and use a Teletype terminal instead of tapes or cards.

Three years after and six months into getting paid for the first time I was forced out of Operations when the firm I'd joined discovered I could program, they thought that was a complete security hazard so they paid me to program instead at which point I learned how all over again, there's a difference between being able to and doing it full time. Two years later I relearned a third time when I was teamed up with someone good at it, Franco, and got taught by him. Then five years on I relearned a fourth time when I read the best programming book I ever came across, Principles of Program Design by Michael Jackson. Since then I've just improved incrementally (and gone rusty on occasion when I've been doing other things, it takes a while to get back onto the ledge) but those five learning processes changed what I did entirely from what I'd done up until then.

There's no comparison between those simple mainframes and a PC. I reckon if you set me down at any working 70s computer today with a full manual set and a friendly operator I could get up to speed on it in a day. There's no computer in any High Street retail shop today that I could do that with, even if I said how I wanted it configured and which packages to install on it. They're too complicated to grasp in their entirety. There's only two machines I've understood from their hardware all the way up to their applications and both have been obsolete for a quarter of a century. I'm not sure it's possible for anyone to have that degree of familiarity with a computer any longer unless it's the sort that controls their washing machine. They've a lot in common with third generation mainframes, strangely enough.

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 3:19 am

They're too complicated to grasp in their entirety

Funny. My brother makes his living doing the same and he lives in fear of losing his job because hes been faking actually really knowing his job.

crazygal · Post by **crazygal** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 3:36 am

I haven't a clue when I started using a computer. I've been using one for most of my life. I've been using a PC for about 20 years and didn't get my own until 5 and a half years ago. I just got a new one a couple of weeks ago.

mikeinie · Post by **mikeinie** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 4:04 am

Word Perfect sometime in late 80's (around 1987).

The Rob · Post by **The Rob** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 10:50 am

IBM System 34 in the mid-'80s. I knew nothing about computers at all; I just plinked at a terminal as part of my inventory control duties.

Later, when I was made aware of a thing called a personal pc, I couldn't fathom why anyone would want one. Wouldn't a nice word processor do the same thing for less money? I had not a clue what a modem did at that point.

In the early '90s a neighbor friend invited me to play around with his brand-spanking-new Sony Vaio desktop with a whistling-fast 28.8 modem. I was first intrigued, then obsessed. We had our own (IBM Aptiva E2N) within a year.

southern yankee · Post by **southern yankee** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 2:46 pm

i am still pretty GREEN. about 2 years ago. I know how e mail and get on line. that's about it.

hoppy · Post by **hoppy** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 5:19 am

Long enough to P O people and get in trouble a bit.