AW Monday Meme #7

The days just fly by! Here we are at another Monday. And a Happy Chinese New Year,to you as well.

Today's little quiz is about computers and you.

1. Do you remember the first computer you ever used? If so, tell us what you remember and why you were using it.

2. Do you remember the first computer you ever bought for yourself? What was it - if you know details like how much memory it had or anything funny about it, share!

3. What kind of computer are you using right now? Any particular story about you and your computer experience you can share?

4. Is there one thing about having a computer that is particularly important in your personal history? Something you wouldn't have done or known unless you had a computer? Some big change having one made in your life? - for example, I met my SO 15 years ago because I bought a Commodore128 that had a floppy disk in it for an online service called Q-Link. We would never have met if I'd bought a different computer.

Dawno's answers:

1. The first computer I ever used was in 1976 at college - it was a terminal in a computer lab hooked up to a big mainframe - I think it was called a VAX. You picked up a phone, hit a couple numbers and set the handset into this cradle beside the terminal. I was learning Basic and doing simple programs in a special computer class for humanities students. I loved it.

2. The first computer I ever bought for myself was a Sinclair ZX81 that I ordered from an ad in Science News magazine. It only had 1K of internal memory, no color or sound and a flat (i.e., keyless) touch-sensitive keyboard. My monitor was a little black and white tv and the re-writeable 'memory' was a cassette tape in a tape recorder.

You could also get a 'printer' which was a thermal tape printer that printed on a tape about the width of a cash register receipt. I think I had this idea that I could use my computer for all kinds of nifty stuff - but I soon found out that I'd have to learn a lot about programming to get it to do anything - although I did play around with it for a few years. I still have it in a box in my storage unit. That and the Commodore Vic20 I got next and the Commodore128 I got after that. The 128 was finally a computer that I could actually use for a number of fun things - word processing with clip art graphics, games, chat, etc.

3. My current computer is a Sony VAIO laptop. It's a few years old now but my sweetie got it for me because I needed a new laptop and I picked this model because it was small. The keyboard is much more compact than my work laptop (an IBM) and I have small hands. It just fits. I actually wanted an even smaller one but by the time we got to ordering they didn't have them anymore. I'll probably end up with a new laptop eventually, but I'm pretty fond of this one.

4. See the example up above for my answer to #4 - of course I wouldn't have this blog if it wasn't for computers! Nor would I have discovered the two wonderful online forums I've participated in for the last few years: tehSoapbox and AbsoluteWrite's Water Cooler

Hope you'll do the meme!

AWMondayMemes, dawno