Age

[Jim Brain]

To help keep the median age down:

I became on 1971 (34)

First PC was a VIC-20 in early 1982, because my Dad would not let me buy 
an Atari 2600.  Fate just seemed like a mean Dad back then.  Paid for it 
myself.  $300 got me the unit, 2 games, no storage.  Played the games, 
put it in a box, and forgot about it until late '83, where I found my 
7th grade homeroom filled with VIC-20's.  The math teacher (it was his 
room) took me under his wing, showed me the PET 8032's in the high 
school with a 300 bps direct connect TNW-103 modem.  Dialed my first BBS 
at the time.  That was the start of the love affair.  Bought a 64 in 
1984/5, and used it until my senior year in college, 1992, where I had 
to break down and get a PC.  The University of Illinois got me exposure 
to Sequent (undergrad accounts) IBM RT-11, RS-6000, and PLATO, for those 
who know what that is.  Used to dial into the local modem bank to the 
machines from the C64 using Novaterm to do homework, and had a PLATO 
emulator for the 64, but can't find it anymore.  I also developed a 
taste for UNIX in college. I managed a student lab at one point.  Before 
I took over, we swapped out some funky 80186 3Com server hardware 
running the lab for OS/2 1.3 (No workplace shell).  Later, MS came and 
talked to us about the greatness they felt was Windows NT for powering 
the labs.

Left UIUC with a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, but 
software jobs paid more, so went that route. 

I skipped the Amiga train (paid for AmigaWorld magazine for years, but 
never got an actual unit), so mainly I collect CBM 8-bit stuff.  I had 
some Northstar stuff for a while, but never got into it.  I try not to 
buy new PCs, creating Linux boxen at the house from parts I get 
upgrading other's people's PCs.    They make great peripherals for my 
CBM units.

I've never seen a real PDP of any vintage, though I did get a private 
tour of the NCSA building with the Cray and the Thinking Machines 
hardware (NCSA hired undergrads to admin the boxes)

Jim


-- 
Jim Brain, Brain Innovations
brain at jbrain.com                                http://www.jbrain.com
Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, Old CBM computers, and Good Times!