My Computing Journey – Part 4 – Going Online
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My Computing Journey – Part 4 – Going Online

The next phase of my computing journey would have been in High School. I am pretty sure this machine was some kind of Pentium, I don't know a lot of the details beyond that. Like I mentioned last week, some of the specific details get a bit hazy for a bit here, though the next round is decidedly not hazy again. While the main computer was still technically the family computer, I ended up with one of the older machines in my room at one point as well. There are a few key defining moments of this era in my…
My Computing Journey – Part 3 – The x86 Era
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My Computing Journey – Part 3 – The x86 Era

This actually get a bit hazy here for actual computer models, and I spent a bit of time browsing through Vintage Packard Bell machines to see if I could figure out which machines cover this era of my computing. This would have been somewhere between 1991 and 1995, give or take a bit, after we moved across town when I was 11-12-ish and before we moved to Indiana for a bit when I was 14-15ish. I am not positive if there were one or two PCs in this era, there was either one 286 (for sure, for reasons I'll touch…
My Computing Journey – Part 2 – Franklin PC-8000
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My Computing Journey – Part 2 – Franklin PC-8000

Welcome to part 2 of my history with computers. Let's start getting to a much more robust part of my computer using history. The Commodore 64 certainly was the seed, but this machine was what really catapulted my interest. It's the first "Real PC" I used growing up. Technically, like the Commodore and the next chapter, this computer belonged to my parents, but my friends and I used it a lot for quite a few things, beyond just gaming. Though we did use it for gaming. Gaming Visually, it was actually kind of a downgrade from the Commodore. The C64…
My Computing Journey – Part 1 – Commodore 64
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My Computing Journey – Part 1 – Commodore 64

I often offhand mention the idea of "I've used computers my whole life" but I am not sure I've ever really gone into a lot of detail on what exactly that means. (I probably have but my memory is pretty shit these days). I've decided it might be fun to do a sort of, reminiscing series on the various "key computer points" in my life. Maybe that's not quite the right way to put it, but basically, the eras' surrounding specific computers in my life and what I remember about my time using them. I'm considering doing something similar for…
Programming (Part 2)
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Programming (Part 2)

I promised a part two so here it is… The first post can be found here. As previously mentioned, my previous self taught programming experience involved BASIC and whatever the TI-85 uses.  I had my first official taste of taught programming in College a couple of years after High School with C.  My Engineering degree required I take “Programming for Engineers” which was basically C programming to solve iterative math problems.  Most of the programs we did were by the book style involving arrays and graph style equations.  The book for the course was actually two books and we only…
Programming (Part 1)
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Programming (Part 1)

Hey, it’s pointless personal trivia day!  Hooray. Anyway, I’ve never taken up computer programming in any official “this is what I’m going to do for work” sort of level but it’s off and on been a background hobby of mine.  I’ve been considering getting back into it lately which has inspired this historical blog post. The first programming language I ever learned any part of was BASIC.  This was around 1987-1988 when I was 7 or 8 years old.  I know this because, at the time, my dad had gone back to school to finish his degree in Computer Science…