Computers

Discussion in 'Other Reminiscences' started by Walter Smith, Mar 9, 2015.

  1. Walter Smith

    Walter Smith Veteran Member
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    Computers are not exactly something new, but it's something that didn't existed when we were at school. So, how did you adapt to computers? Or you didn't period? :) My brother was one of those cases, he simply refused to work with one, so lucky him!

    I recall the first time I used on, I spent over 30 minutes typing a text and in the end it asked me if I wanted to save changes... Puzzled I said no! Well, I lost it all!!
     
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  2. Mal Campbell

    Mal Campbell Supreme Member
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    My story is a little different. In the early 80s, I was a secretary working for the US Army, and I got assigned to the office that provided computer support to our whole building and a bunch of the Army depots. At the time, it was mostly mainframes, but they were starting to use UNIX-based microcomputers (imagine something a bit bigger than an old PC that could handle 8-16 users). Anyway, my boss had absolutely nothing for me to do, and I hated sitting around doing nothing, so I kept pestering him to give me something to work on. Finally, in a fit of pure desperation (to get me out of his hair), he threw me a book on Basic programming and said, go write me a program to do XYZ (I don't even remember now). So, I read the book, logged onto the system and started programming. It took me about a week, and I brought him the code - he was dumbfounded. He told me later that he never expected me to be able to do it. Anyway, he saw my potential, and got me into an intern program, where the Army sent me to school to learn about UNIX and C programming. Thank you, US Army for a great career!!

    I can remember, in 1984 or 85, we got an IBM PC to play with - they wanted to get our impression of it to see if it could replace the microcomputers. We played with it for a few weeks, and we all agreed that it was useless and would never amount to anything. This was before Microsoft wrote Windows and they thing was about $5,000!! I wish I could go back to my 1985 self and tell her to invest in Microsoft and Apple!!
     
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  3. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I was the secretary-treasurer of a Grace Brethren Church in Anaheim, when the church bought a Coleco Adam computer in the early 1980s. Shortly afterwards, I bought one of my own. There was no hard drive, and the computer used cassette tapes or cartridges rather than disks. When the system turned on, it booted to a word processor that was actually more like an electric typewriter, in that letters were printed as they were typed. Everything else required a cartridge or tape. There was almost nothing available in the way of commercial software. It came with a Smart Basic cartridge and a few games. The computer came with a printer, and the printer had to be connected in order for the computer to work.

    In order to do anything practical with it, other than using it as a typewriter, it was necessary to learn the Smart Basic programming language. Fortunately, Smart Basic was very easy to learn. I wrote a database program for the church financial records, later adding modules that would make various reports. On my own computer at home, I wrote a few computer games.

    Later, I bought a TRS-80, which used either cassettes or floppy disks, and came without a hard drive, and with a whopping 4KB of RAM, upgradable to 16KB, which of course, was more than anyone would ever need. Once I had a 5MB hard drive installed, I thought I'd never fill the thing up. Still, there was very little available as far as commercial software went, so it was necessary to be able to write your own programs if you wanted to get good use of it.

    For our ambulance company, I wrote a database that would collect all of the information from our run reports, print out the reports that were required by the state, and automatically bill patients, as well as 2nd and final notice letters for billing. I also wrote computer tutorials for EMTs and EMT-Paramedics.

    At that time, writing your own computer program did not seem like such a feat because it was pretty much necessary in order to use the computer, and Basic wasn't that hard of a language to learn.

    I ran a computer BBS from the mid-1980s to sometime in the 1990s, first using MS-DOS, then some of the early versions of Windows (which crashed continuously), and finally OS/2, which was an amazingly stable OS.
     
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  4. Michelle Stevens

    Michelle Stevens Veteran Member
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    I was really unfortunate because my high school introduced computer science as an option one year too late for me to study it. Instead I went on to study computer science for two years at university and I often regret that I didn't study it further. Although I was able to write computer programs when I was in my late teens, I've forgotten everything I learned and I have no doubt that the languages we used have been consigned to history a long time ago.

    Although he could never program a computer, my Dad learned to use one pretty well and used it at work for many years before he retired sometime in his seventies. I'm not sure whether the firm he worked for ever provided any training or whether he taught himself how to use it, but he taught me to use my first PC as I'd never had the opportunity to use one at university
     
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  5. Sarah Price

    Sarah Price Veteran Member
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    I went to college so I could be a computer programmer so I've been comfortable with computers for a LONG time. I do remember back in the 80s, sitting down and using one of the new Apple computers offered at the school I went to and I was amazed how intuitive it was to use. Of course, back when I was looking for work mainframes were still "the thing" but I could only find a job working with PCs. I am SO GLAD I did. As it turned out, the PC explosion happened within a year or two of getting my career off the ground. I still remember my first job before we even had a network. Wow!
     
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  6. Ruth Belena

    Ruth Belena Veteran Member
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    I was approaching 50 when I first became computer literate. I was never taught or shown how to use a computer. I learned it all by myself. I had previously been using a word processor - again self taught, although I was trained as a touch typist.

    I ordered my first computer as a separate tower, keyboard and mouse and a huge monitor, which in those days took up so much space! I had to set it all up myself, and I'd never even touched a computer before.

    Somehow I have managed to learn all I needed to know about computing, emailing etc. I've also been able to set up a website and blog. When I created my first website, it required knowledge of html, so I had to learn that.

    I remember my father telling me in the 1960s that computers were the way of the future. At that time a single computer would up fill an entire room and you probably had to have a math degree to work with them. I thought then that there was little chance of me ever using one!
     
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  7. Mal Campbell

    Mal Campbell Supreme Member
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    I think that's the key to any technology, not just computers - a willingness to learn. My mother-in-law never used a computer until she retired at 70. Her sons kept talking about facebook, and how they were getting back in touch with all their old high school friends, and she got interested. So she bought herself a laptop, with a little help from one of her sons, and learned how to use "the facebook" as she calls it. And through that, she's learned how to use email, and how to upload photos and print them.

    My mother on the other hand, refuses to learn. She keeps telling me she wants to learn how to use the DVR - I've sat down with her at least a dozen times, and gone through it. I've written instructions for her. I've done everything I can to help her, and she still doesn't know how to do anything other than turn the satellite box on and change channels.

    I have to admit, while I am very computer literate, I refuse to learn how to use a cell phone. I don't know why, but I just don't like them. I make phone calls and I have learned how to use the gps to get directions, but that's it.
     
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  8. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I first became acquainted with computers in the early 1980's. We had moved to Spokane, and needed to find a rental. There was a local rental agency where you paid $40 and they gave you a list of rentals to check out. They used a computer to do this. You would tell the operator how many bedrooms, what area of town, and similar pertinent information, and she would run you a printout of all the houses that were in your price range and fit your requirements.
    I ended up applying for a job there, and mostly did phone work, calling landlords to sign them up for the service and getting information about the rental properties.
    These were then entered into the computer, and updated as they were rented. The computer was one that ran on MS-DOS , and we had two floppy disks we used and updated every day. One disk had houses, and the other one had duplexes and apartments; so we had to change disks anytime we had to go back and forth from houses to apartments.
    After that, i didn't have a computer until about 10 years later, when my daughter was in the military and stationed in Germany. We could email back and forth, and that was about our only way of communication at that time.
    I have prerry much had a computer ever since, and primarily for keeping in touch with my family.
     
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