I've had this thing for computers and technology since I don't know when. When we were young, we couldn't really afford computers. I remember we had just one color TV and actually it was my grandma's and it was in her room. She slept early so we could only watch TV until 7:30pm. Thankfully The Transformers were on from 7-7:30pm on Thursdays (to the best of my recollection) so we were still able to watch them. Saturday mornings are of course cartoon days, likewise.
I remember there was also a time when we'd go to our next-door neighbour's house to play Atari games. Those times I felt the same things as when I first "hopped on" the internet back in 1995. Anyway, for some reason, someone gifted us an Atari 2600 (the compact 1984 edition). Playing Pacman, Pitfall, Frogger, River Raid, the Gremlins, Q-bert, Pong (I think), Space Invaders, Missile Command were just wonderful and memorable times.
When visiting relatives in California starting in 1989, we loved going to the arcades to play video games. In fact, when we went to (the original) Disneyland, 11-year-old me and my younger brother opted to use up all our quarters (25 cents) on video games there than watch the Main Street Electrical Parade. While I wish I could've seen the Main Street Electrical Parade to add to my been-there-done-that list, but you know it's not something I really regret so much doing. I chose what I wanted to do that time, and that was play the video games. I loved it.
When I was in early high school, around 1990, we still could not afford computers. But I lusted over the rows of computers at the "computer club" in school. I remember the very first computer I ever used were one of those silly XT PCs that booted on those floppy 5.25" floppies and that displayed only green-on-black pixels. I remember being so intrigued at being able to program using BASIC. It was love at first sight.
It was around the same time when we used WordStar and, if I remember correctly, PrintShop. We never really owned a PC until around 1994 when an uncle donated an old AT&T XT PC to us. I loved it like crazy. I made my own "OS" on top of DOS, using BASIC and then later Pascal, and well, it was really just Computer Love. This was probably during a time when Windows 3.1 was already out in the market.
But then the very first GUI computer I ever touched was a Mac. It was a Macintosh SE, probably running System 7. It was owned by another uncle who had it kept inside his garage storage room together with his music gear (guitar, bass, keyboards, amplifiers, and so on) - i.e. stuff that are probably not for daily consumption. Not with a family with four children. I think at around that time, his family also might have already had a DOS- or Windows-based PC and thus, these things from my uncle's younger years were in storage. But nonetheless, using it, to me, felt like magic. All over again. Like I've never felt since the first time I actually touched a computer. Nope, there was no guilt.
My first (computer) love was puppy love. This was the real deal.
In 1995, we eventually had enough to buy our very first computer at home, and we bought the best from what we can afford back then. It was a Pentium PC with Windows 3.1, and a 800x600 color display. Over time, I'd buy an external Iomega Zip drive, and even an internal one. But through this very first Windows PC we had access to the internet.
The internet was another "whoa" moment. Yahoo was front and center back then of the internet. But being the platform that almost everybody else used (and considering it was my mom's money), we just upgraded our PC to the next Windows or the next Pentium and so on.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of 3 of "My tech journey."
hehe. the disneyland bit is a cute story :)
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