Are you an old bastard?

[mangocrazy]

I shall compile the results of this poll using Lotus 1-2-3.

Not Visicalc?

[Yorick]

I was in IT 28 years. Can't remember a single thing about any hardware.
Wasn't interested.

First 15 years as a programmer. I just used what they had
13 years as DBA. If the machines weren't good enough for what I needed, I told them to buy better.

[ChrisW]

I shall compile the results of this poll using Lotus 1-2-3.

Happy to do a presentation in Freelance Grpahics when you're done

[Cousin Jack]

I was in IT 28 years. Can't remember a single thing about any hardware.
Wasn't interested.

First 15 years as a programmer. I just used what they had
13 years as DBA. If the machines weren't good enough for what I needed, I told them to buy better.

Typical bloody software geek! Proper engineers worked to make best use of the hardware they had, software 'engineers' (spit!) took the easy route and made the machines work harder so they could have an easy life.

[Demannu]

When I was an engineering personage, we had paper tapes to run a NC punch press (HEC80).
I remember it was akin to being given a handwritten first edition of the bible every time you ran certain jobs.

[Yorick]

I was in IT 28 years. Can't remember a single thing about any hardware.
Wasn't interested.

First 15 years as a programmer. I just used what they had
13 years as DBA. If the machines weren't good enough for what I needed, I told them to buy better.

Typical bloody software geek! Proper engineers worked to make best use of the hardware they had, software 'engineers' (spit!) took the easy route and made the machines work harder so they could have an easy life.

We made the software work. My magic was SQL. I could make it do magic.
That's why I went into DBA so I could improve them to make the SQL better.

[Cousin Jack]

I was in IT 28 years. Can't remember a single thing about any hardware.
Wasn't interested.

First 15 years as a programmer. I just used what they had
13 years as DBA. If the machines weren't good enough for what I needed, I told them to buy better.

Typical bloody software geek! Proper engineers worked to make best use of the hardware they had, software 'engineers' (spit!) took the easy route and made the machines work harder so they could have an easy life.

We made the software work. My magic was SQL. I could make it do magic.
That's why I went into DBA so I could improve them to make the SQL better.

At one time I could write SQL. Not well, but I could manage the simple stuff, I had a man for the complicated bits.

[Yorick]

Typical bloody software geek! Proper engineers worked to make best use of the hardware they had, software 'engineers' (spit!) took the easy route and made the machines work harder so they could have an easy life.

We made the software work. My magic was SQL. I could make it do magic.
That's why I went into DBA so I could improve them to make the SQL better.

At one time I could write SQL. Not well, but I could manage the simple stuff, I had a man for the complicated bits.

It just worked in my head. I worked with some clever guys, but often they'd ask me to help if it was nested 3 or 4 times.

I was even asked to produce and run training courses

[JackyJoll]

My parents were married at the time of my birth.

[Sunny]

When I got my Amiga A500+, my swotty mate got an Amstrad 'PC' with a 80286 CPU. My first proper wintel 'PC' was a Celeron 300.

My first computer was when I was very young: a Spectrum ZX81. It was second hand, with a broken tape deck, so every time me and my brother wanted to play a game my mum would type in the entire game code from a book. Every single time, because it had no memory once it was switched off.

(My mum used to program with punch cards and a computer the size of a room back in the day. Still, that Spectrum game coding was a proper martyrs task. My mum's ace.)

But when I was 14 or so, we got a 'proper' one for me to use for school work, I remember going with my parents to buy it: an Amiga 500+
*high five*

[Mr. Dazzle]

I've never really been interested in software, but fascinated by the nitty gritty of how a computer actually works. As in, it's all just transistors switching on and off, but how does that become Doom?

Inevitably though you rapidly get into some very hard-core maths trying to find out

I can highly recommend Ben Eater's YouTube channel for anyone who interested in the start of an answer though!

P.S. my local Waitrose is on "Ada Walk" which is near Pixel Place, Wizard Way and Kernal Close. New build estate for the IT nerds

[Pirahna]

I'm only 60, the first "CNC" machines I learnt to use ran on binary tape. I haven't made this up. We also had CNC lathes that used a peg board to program them. The first CNC's that resemble today's machines were made by Moog, we got them in 1982.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I'm only 60, the first "CNC" machines I learnt to use ran on binary tape. I haven't made this up. We also had CNC lathes that used a peg board to program them. The first CNC's that resemble today's machines were made by Moog, we got them in 1982.

I used to work quite a lot with filament winding of carbon fibre. So essentially wrapping string around a stick I a very careful (helical) way using a CNC machine.

One of the old boys started out doing exactly the same thing, but entirely mechanical with planetary gearboxes you had to change all the bits in to get the design. Like a giant 3D spiragraph!

[Count Steer]

I shall compile the results of this poll using Lotus 1-2-3.

I'll mail them to the membership after printing address labels using the dBase membership database.

[Cousin Jack]

I've never worked in IT.

I've never worked in IT either, just had a lot of jobs where I have used IT.

[Couchy]

Had a ZX81, I remember sitting programming it for an hour to tell the time. My grandma saw it and said I have a watch for that and it just works. She didn’t get the computer at the time which I guess was 1980/81. Tbh it was years before they became properly useful for the normal person. From there I got a spectrum and we had BBC micros at school. I learnt to program all of them and gave it all up at 16 to become a sparky. I often wonder what happened to those who went to uni to carry on with computer stuff in 1984. Did they earn a ton of cash or just sit in a dark office and still are ?

[weeksy]

I often wonder what happened to those who went to uni to carry on with computer stuff in 1984. Did they earn a ton of cash or just sit in a dark office and still are ?

They're mostly lurking on forums being argumentative wankers

[Mussels]

There's still money in IT, the trick is knowing something that people are desperate for.
I really need to improve my statistics skills, that's what is in demand at the moment. Like most people I hate them but that's why they pay well.

[KungFooBob]

So far there are more forum users over 56 than under, no real surprise so far

[Greenman]

We could all just age ourselves by posting our first personal computer (well we do all work in IT)

Mine was a Sinclair Spectrum 128k +2.

Spectrum 48k for me.