On the drive in this morning, a precarious thought struck me: I have been working in the IT field now for 17 years! I have been using a computer for three fourths of my life. All I can say is, wow time flies!

My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000 with its programs loaded via cassette tape and attached thermal printer. If I remember correctly I had a 128 KB memory module plugged in for performance! Oh the joys of starting a chess game and then going outside and playing for the 30 minutes it took to load assuming I didn’t have to flip the cassette over. The freakishly small and flat keypad was difficult to type on but it was mine!  Those were the days!

My first real computer was an IBM PCjr which was a great little machine for my high school days.  For my birthday one year, I remember getting a laser mouse that sat on a metal mouse pad with grid lines painted on it.  My Dad thought that the mouse was the future (at least that is what the IBM sales guy at the computer store told him).  The mouse came with solitaire and he bought me a paint program because it would be so easy with the mouse, it was not.  So yes I have been wasting time on solitaire since the mid 1980s, way before everyone else! In college I bought a 386 then began building my own machines.  The love affair had begun.

To Be Continued….