ABOUT ME

 My first computer (it wouldn't be considered much of one by today's standards) was a real monster.  I thought it was the ultimate in super computers for at least two or three days.

 The keyboard was gigantic.  Some calculators had bigger keyboards  and each key had at least three different functions.  It quickly got to be a royal pain typing each game I wanted to play in each time.  

 Soon I went high tech,  a link cable and a data cassette enabled me to save the games I really enjoyed and even purchase a few pre-recorded ones.

 My next machine, in fact my next three were Commodore 64's.  If you don't know what a C-64 was my suggestion is that you go to your favorite search engine and look it up.  You MIGHT actually find a listing, probably in very very very ancient history, maybe the stone age.  I remember how happy I was to get my first modem. I think I spent  6 months signing up with all the local BBS's  (remember the BBS systems?? If not check ancient history <G>)

 The next few years was spent  mainly in the realms of FidoNet ,  skipping from BBS to BBS having fun and on occasion getting into some good flame wars.  Ahhh the flame wars.  Messages weren't near instantaneous like today, sometimes   there might be a lag of 5 or more days between the time you sent a message and your reply depending on where  the recipient was and how often they got online.  You had plenty of time to form your reply and since most people read their messages offline (many BBS's limited your stay online) a person could stay up all night  just tweaking that scathing message so it was just right - controversial but just inside the rules for the group you were posting  to..    Ahhh  the bad old days...

 During this period I  gradually worked myself up to a better system,  a dedicated monitor so I could watch television and  use the computer at the same time,  Extra drives to increase the productivity of my machine and even making a gigantic leap in modem speed from 300 baud to 1200 baud! (a LONG LONG ways from the DSL  I have today!)

   From there I went to a XT'   (what was I going to do with all that storage space, a whole 5 MEGS?) and finally worked myself up to this old machine I use today.

   During that period I have learned a  bit about computers, all without any formal schooling, and have tried to forget some things I learned.

Later I may add  more to this page. If enough people ask..<G>