My tech journey

The beginning

I don't actually remember when I first started using computers. I was in elementary school, and it was an Apple II. They would bring them in to the class for us to learn programming. We started off with Turtle Graphics. Basically, a form of the LOGO programming language.

Soon afterwards, my dad bought a Commodore VIC-20. (We never had a Commodore 64.) Over the next 3 or 4 years my dad bought 3 more computers. A RadioShack TRS-80 Model 100, a Tandy IBM PC clone... and a second IBM PC clone. (The latter was because I was already hogging the Tandy and my dad wanted to use it to.)

I didn't play many games with the computers, but I mostly programmed. I got hooked with the Apple IIs, and being able to type commands and make a little triangle move around the screen. I was addicted. In 7th grade, my math teach let me pursue an independent project on grading period. I asked to have an Apple II. I ended up writing an orbital simulation program that would graph the planets in the solar system. I copied the math from a book. I didn't understand why certain constants were defined to specific values, but years later I realized I had also started teaching myself algebra, and a little bit of trigonometry.

I continued my programming journey on the PC clones, first learning QuickBasic (BASIC without line numbers and with functions!), Pascal, and then C and assembly. I also started publishing my first freeware on BBSes. Naturally, I ended up President of our High School Computer Club.

... more coming soon-ish ...