Ok, this is not photo stuff but might be interesting.  Can you tell a little of your first intro to computers?  I don't mean the ones like Cray XT4 "Jaguar" supercomputer, ranked among the 10 fastest computers in the world and the single fastest available for open research. I am talking about the first one and where that went.

After my younger brother died in 1999, I inherited his office pc. This was a 256 Dell, upgraded it said! This meant added ram and that was all.  I got an AOL disc and got on the net. Soon, it was a nice and fast 56m USRobotics modem..in high cotton then!   The next was one built by a local company, fast 800hz and fast dial-up modem.  Then, the one I use now, built by a former coworker, ATM64/ Gigabyte based pc.  I had a lot more ram and enough speed. More ram was added later.

The second  one...after getting DSL and a new IP and working to get the AOL junk bugs off, worked fine and is still here even if not used.  The monitor is an old NEC CRT and one of these days I will go flat screen if I can afford a really good one. The old NEC renders color just like my prints and that is a good reason to keep it around for now.

Before 1999, I did not know how to turn on a computer, much less how to use one.  Of course, times have gone by and $$$ spent on software, cameras, all that stuff.

So, how did you get into this?                 TomDart.

Hello,

So let's go back in Time. I received my first "computer" when I was 11 ( for my birthday). it was a Commodore 64 with a tape reader. I still remember the time you had to wait to load a game or an application.. But I never forget that when I turned it on, you can start right there to use it. :o) No you don't wait a lot to load an application but for the OS :o)

After I had a Commodore 128, not too long because in the end of the eighties I switched to a Commodore Amiga 500 this is the computer that pushed me into Assembler 68000 coding. A  beautiful mouse great graphics and sound and 512 Ko of memory. :o) In the middle of nineties, if I remember well I've switched to an AMD DX4 100 Mhz ... using OS2/Warp. (glups)

Now  I can proudly say that my current laptop computer is able to emulate my C64 and my Amiga 500. By the way, my first ever version of Photoshop was the 3.54.

Time goes by ...

Peace.

Aegy

it was at age 2. i went straight into programming (hypercard™).

I see that TomDart wants us to trip (but not stumble) down memory lane,

Can you tell a little of your first intro to computers? 

The first computer I had access to and first learned to program was the Lincoln Labs TX-0. 

That computer had 4096 words of core memory -- 18 bits per word ... a number, or 3 characters, or a computer instruction.  It had a fast paper tape reader, typewriter (keyboard, printer, paper tape punch), a 512X512 point raster display.  Programming was done in assembler (symbolic) code or binary machine code. 

Since that time, I have programmed about 24 additional kinds of computers ... and in about 30 different computer languages -- mostly in assembler language ... sometimes machine code ... sometimes high level languages such as Fortran, COBOL, Pascal, TAL, APL ... sometimes the way I 'solved' the application was even to create a new computer language. 

I didn't begin to use personal computers until the mid 1980's ... I purchased my first notebook PC in the early 1990's ... and purchased my first effective desktop PC in 1998. 

Not long after that (March 6, 2000), I began running the SETI analysis client ... but then built and operated a small SETI farm of about 14 PCs ... until November 4, 2004 and contributed over 30,000 completed Work Units to the SETI project. 

Actual SETI stats ...

SETI@home classic workunits 30,064
SETI@home classic CPU time 306,342 hours

BTW, those numbers were enough to put me into the 99.913th percentile, but that was only enough to get me into the top 4,555 contributors out of 5,233,954 total participants (my stats as of Nov, 2004). 

That's the highlights of me vs. computers ... final score not yet in. 

BTW, computers is not my only interest ... I am also interested in Science Fiction (or Fantasy, if you prefer), Classical music, cooking, photography, history (specifically, the SCA), electronics, Hi Fi (now home theater), Telecommunications (both voice and data), hiking, art museums, and architecture. 

Ohhhh yeah ... BTW, thanks to TomDart for asking. 

--
Martin

Attached Link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=796KD4SNzwE

I was a Commodore GEEK too ....C64,128 then Amiga 500!

Link is to a commercial from back in the 80's 

Commodore Vic 20 3.5k of ram!  My Dad paid an arm and a leg to get it upgraded to 32k!

Err..my first one was Gateway,not Dell.  Ahh..seeing your memories I am a babe in the woods. Interesting posts.     Tom.

I see that TomDart thinks,

I am a babe in the woods.

Maybe ... but with all of the friends/helpers here, you're not ever lost in the woods. 

--
Martin

p.s. To get a very different spin on "Lost in the Woods" please view and follow
the daily onlline comic, "Little Dee" by Chris Baldwin.  The first strip starts here. 
Also can be seen/followed on ModernTales here. 

p.p.s. If you want to be amazed again, why not ask another innocent question
next week ... ,
"Do you remember your first camera" OR "... first car?" ... OR "... first girlfriend?"
... OR "... first wife?" ... oooooopppppssss ... wait! ... let's not go there.  [grin]

Attached Link: VIC-20 Ad

Hey David, my first was a VIC-20 too. If it was good enough for Bill, it was good enough for me. ;'P I really loved that thing. I even had a cartridge to expand the memory to the 32K max (wow). Load programs via tape drives didn't seem like it took forever back then, everthing was new and exciting. I did get a C64 after that and that lasted me quite a while. The next computer I used at home was an IBM-compatible 486 PC, my folk's. Much later, started my Mac life with an PowerCenter 150 Apple clone. Loved that too. Then got a G3, G4, and now an 2.4 GHz Intel iMac. At work I've used numerous computers too, currently running a 2GHz G5.

When aegipan and TwoPynts mentioned,

tape

That made me think of a machine about the size of an upright refrigerator ...
and wonder how well a Tape Drive would fit in a bedroom. 

--
Martin

I remember, back in the day,  using my 300 baud modem with my C64 to access BBS's (before the internet)  and getting into a HEAP of trouble with my parents when I racked up a HUGE phone bill calling ALL over the USA!

When I upgraded to the Amiga, i was using a parallel port digitizer called Computer Eyes (something like that) to record B&W video to my GIGANTIC 20 meg harddrive!   Wow!

I so wanted to get Newteks Video Toaster back then....but the Amiga 500 wasn't  that upgradeable! 

Attached Link: RAND

Nice link there Martin. :'] I also did SETI (over 1000 work units). And Joe, I was a BBSer too. No BS! ;'P Once in a while I'd call long distance and get into trouble when the phone bill came, heheh. Speaking of computers, check out the RAND corporation's idea of the "future home computer." My iMac or wife's MacMini would blow their minds. And what the heck is that big valve wheel for -- to access the nuclear reactor?

I think that's to wind up the dynamo power source!

Attached Link: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp

Hey Kort...hate to be the bearer of the RAND URBAN MYTH!  That's a Photoshop work  of  a  submarine maneuvering room console!

I see that TwoPynts found a picture of the home computer in 2004 made by

RAND 

Thanks!  Awesome! 

... and wondered,

what the heck is that big valve wheel for

I think it works the rudder on the spaceship. 
... and reminds of the Earth spaceship in "Flesh Gordon (1974)"

--
Martin

I know Joe, thanks. Still funny though. ;'] So, what is that in your new avatar? WOE?!?

yeah... funny and a cool photo manip (it had alot of people going thats for sure!)

My avatar...thats me wavin a GLOW stick (slow shutter speed to get blur!)

Long ago I learned Fortran 4. Or better: I should have learned, because all I was interested in when at school were the holidays.
I hated computers. Then I got a letter from Australia for an exhibition of my paintings over there, and the guy talked about mysterious things like Internet, e-mail etc.
So I decided to buy a computer. I was advised to get a compaq with a Pentium3 500MHz and 64mb of ram. Later, I doubled that ram, found out how easy that was, sold the compaq and assembled my own puter, a P IV 3Ghz with 1,5 GB of ram which I would love to upgrade any time soon, when money allows.

I still mistrust puters, but to paraphrase Deckard from my all time favourite movie Blade Runner: "Computers are like any other machines, they're either a benefit or a hazard... If they're a benefit, it's not my problem."

I had the same with digital camera's. It wasn't untill I saw works in a catalogue that were printed from pics taken with a digital pocket camera that looked as good as mine that I had paid what would be now 70Euro a piece for 4x5inch transparancies that I started to doubt. And it wasn't untill when coming back from a two weeks holiday I realised that what I had paid to get my 20 slidefilms developed was about as much as a pocket digital that I decided to stop playing Neanderthal man and accept progress.

its this one im on now (well allmost lol).my son is an IT wizz... he keeps upgrading his ..... so i gradually get the bits he doesnt need.... and mine gradually gets upgraded..lol

@Joe, lol, I didn't realize that your face was in there...I thought it was mist or something...

My very first computer, in 1990, was a Macintosh IIci with 40MB hard disk, with an Apple display, a Personal LaserWriter and a copy of Aldus PageMaker. All for about $15,000... no kidding! I wanted a Mac because I didn't want to learn computer languages (Microsoft was still at MS-DOS at that time...). Just one year later, I was working professionally with sweet programs like Adobe Photoshop...

In what order I do not know but I'll try stay coherent

Texas
Spectrum
Commodore 64 (First programming experience)
Mega Drive (Won via a competition)
Game Gear
Snes
Playstation
PC

Intresting topic , Memorie's flood back of gaming then buisness :)

My first one was a Commodore 64 and my monitor was my TV screen, boy how times have changed. Thank goodness!

ZX81, Dragon 32, Amiga then PC.......Steve

Intel 386, with a monochrome monitor...  :)

TI 99, Followed by the Vic 20, then real step up to the Timex Sinclair 2068, then (am I boring you yet?) 8088 clone with a whopping 2 MB, thats right 2 MEGABYTE, RAM, 5 1/4 floppy, 3 1/2 floppy, and a 20 MB hard drive, upgraded to a 286 with 4 meg a ram using DOS and GeoWorks (made windows run faster!) and 40 MB hard drive.  Thats when a 150 MB hard drive cost 200 bucks! and a 14.4 modem was 249.00.  Since then, countless PC's to my current scrap heap (2g ram, 1tb HD, Dual Burners, etc etc etc)

EH :)

 I feel young...

My first experience with a PC was with windows 3.1 in grade school (I was 7?)
Then the school progressed, Win 98, 2000, and XP

But when I was 13 or so, I discovered an old Apple II in the science room

Eventually I grew into home made machines. Dad was a communications engineer for the army back in the day. So, all the computers have been home made for as long as I can remember, from random parts here and there. 

About 6 months or so, I got an MacBook Pro, and fell in love with it. 

Gotta love the Macs. Quirks aside, my new iMac with 24" screen is the best machine I've ever used. Okay, it isn't overly expandable (got 4 GB of RAM in it though) and if on part of it fails, the whole thing has to go into the shop, but still...it is a beaut! Enjoy your MacBook.

Got a kit for the ZX 81 and 1K memory with tape recorder. Built the 81 and tried recording while typing on the keyboard! OOOps! upgraded with the memory pack.
Next came the Spectrum 16K upgraded the memory to 32k.
The Dragon 32 was also bought at this time. Had a lot of fun typing in pages of programmes and then trying to find all the faults in the printed sheets. (Even got some to work too).
Atari was the next to follow.
Then a BIG Jump to the PC. Have had four or so of these all faster and bigger memory than the last.
Now I feel very old!!!
Oh got an Acer laptop now too.

My first computer was an 8080 which I wire wrapped from an article in Radio Electronics around 1978. I purchased the chip set from them. I have a picture of version 2 of it in my galley.

It had 256 characters of storage. I programmed it in machine language. The stack started at the top of the 256 characters and the program started at the bottom. When they meet in the middle it was program over.

I programmed a Star Wars X-wing in characters on the screen and could make it chase down a target, but when I added the fire code it blew up.  

Neat..this thread is quite a trip through nostalgia lane.

For me it was

Jupiter Ace (looked like a white zx81, 4k of RAM, 3.25M z80 Processor used FORTH as it's langauge)
zx81 (1k ram but with a 16k expansion pack that always fell off, 3.25M z80 Processor)
Amstrad CPC464 (64k RAM, z80a at 4MHz and a monitor!)
Atari STe  (512k RAM, 68000 processor at 8MHz)
PC (4M RAM, 486 sx overclocked to 40MHz)
PC (128M RAM, 486 DX4-100 overclocked to act as a 120)
PC (500M RAM, pentium 2 at 450MHz)
PC (748M RAM, athlon 1400)
PC (1G RAM, Sempron 2200 overclocked to act as a 2800)

Time to replace this one and build again q6600, 4G ram  is in the firing line :)