My Love Of Computers
Where do I begin? At the beginning, of course. A long time ago in the time of none, I was shopping at K-Mart. My fascination with electronics always took me to that department and I had to browse through it every time. On this particular visit they had a huge clearance sale on Atari items. They had great prices on the Atari 800XL and even had the monitor, printer, disk drive, tape drive, and a word processing cartridge on sale. My kids had the Atari 2600 and it always worked great, so I looked closely at this and found that it was reaching out to me and causing voices inside my head to say, “You’ve gotta have this!” I entered the land of some.
Proud of the bounty I had just acquired and the huge 64k memory, I set out to learn about computers. The color monitor was fascinating. Soon I was able to make colored patterns scroll across the screen and “hello” scroll the screen indefinitely. Next came the simple programs that could be created which couldn’t do much and I could find no use for, but I felt great fulfillment just being able to do it. The tape drive was tricky. I found that data tapes did not have to be used. The inexpensive cassette tapes worked just as good. When cload was typed in, the tape had to be at the exact location for the program stored on the tape to work. The tape drive had a counter otherwise; this could have been an even bigger problem. I purchased a disk notcher so I could use both sides of the floppy disk. This saved big bucks because the disks were expensive.
As I became more and more fascinated with the computer world, I began my quest for knowledge at the magazine stand and bookstores. A huge magazine caught my eye. It was the "Computer Shopper". This magazine had wonderful articles in it and tons of advertisements and reviews. This was more thrilling than the Sears Christmas catalogue I loved as a child. It didn't take long for me to find my dream machine. The Atari 512 ST was the computer that was definitely for me. The advertisement stated that you could put a disk in it that would hold an entire volume of encyclopedias! As a wife and a mother of three boys, this machine would take some time to acquire.
Before long, Atari ceased to exist and the computer I dreamed of was no longer available. So I had to find another dream. Other computer-makers also disappeared. This was the transition to a more universal computer language. Up until this time, each manufacturer had their own unique language for their computers. Bill Gates had introduced the Dos system that would revolutionize computers and then the Windows system that would make computers much easier to use. I didn't even know how to pronounce this new word, Dos. It looked to me like it meant the number "2" like in Spanish.
One day I decided that I really wanted to get a new computer so I went to Radio Shack. I fell in love with the Tandy 1000TL. They had a package with the computer, monitor, keyboard, and printer for $1299.00. Considering the prices of computers I had seen in The Computer Shopper, this seemed to be a very good deal. This deal seemed even better with the 90 days, same as cash. This computer had 640k memory! That seemed like a lot. It also came with programs that my kids could use for schoolwork. George, the salesman, was very helpful and carried it to my car (I couldn't leave the store without it.). This computer was an 80286 with a 5 1/4" and a 3 1/2" single density drive. It booted from floppy and I think it had Dos 3.0 and GwBasic along with a desktop environment that aided in navigation. Later, I added a 40 meg hard card. My son has the computer now and it still works.
As technology progressed, and I continued to browse the pages of my favorite magazine, I wanted more. More is always better when you are referring to computers. My next move was up to a Packard Bell 80386 from Montgomery Ward. This system was $999. It had Windows! This computer had a 70 meg hard drive and I think it had 2 megs of memory in addition to the 640k. I thought that this was all I'd ever need. The hard drive had so much space; I knew I would never fill it up. It came with Windows 3.1, MsDos 5.0, and a mouse. The mouse was something I had not had before. It took a while to master it. I decided to wait on the software and the printer.
The day came to finally buy a printer and some software for my powerful computer. I purchased the printer and carried it home anxious to get it connected and running. Sadly, the printer required a computer with 8 megs of memory. Needless to say, it didn’t work. It had to be returned. My quest for software was fruitless. I realized that I had been left in the dust of the newer Pentium II computers. The only software I had was from the old 286.
It’s time to move up in the world to a newer computer. This time it was a Packard Bell with a Pentium II 150 mhz with a 1 gig hard drive and 8 megs of memory. It had Windows 95 and some bundled software. This was truly a dream come true. I can’t tell you how many times I banged my head against the wall dealing with resource conflicts. I bought a Jaz drive and it nearly drove me crazy getting it to work, but I finally did. Later I discovered that I needed to move a jumper on the card to the designated irq and it installed easily. I don’t know how I made it work before. I learned about blue screens and illegal operations. I learned to format and start all over when things got out of hand. It’s truly amazing at how many times you can format a disk. It’s surprising that I didn’t wear it out. This was before Windows 95 second edition.
All good things must come to an end, as did my “dream machine”. One day it finally bit the dust. I took it to a computer shop for repairs. The technician told me that it wasn’t worth repairing. This was when I decided to build my own computers. I used what I could from the old computer and only bought what I needed for the new one.
Since that time I have been building my own computers and have acquired quite a stash of miscellaneous hardware, much of it obsolete. I learned along the way how much more economical it was to stay a step behind the leading edge of technology.
I retired from a telecommunications company where I had the opportunity to work with computers and computer networks during my last few years. I learned a lot about networking during this time. What can be better than doing something you really enjoy?
Today, I have a home network so I can have a computer close-by when I need it. When the children and grandchildren come to visit, we don’t have to take turns.
My Words Of Wisdom
I learned what I know about computers from trial and error. If it doesn’t work, try something else. Never give up. If it can be done, I can find a way to do it. Don’t ask me how I did it. I probably can’t tell you. If anybody else can do it, I can (within reason, of course). Blue screens are an integrated feature of Microsoft operating systems and you’re not a criminal when you perform an illegal operation. When in doubt, wipe it out. System restore, use it more. Don’t go online without antivirus protection. Update! Update! Backup! Backup! You can’t have too many copies.