I was hooked. When my school purchased Apple IIe computers, I started playing with simple programs to create animations and do simple data processing. I wanted one of these!
By the time I got to college, I was still saving for my own computer. No one in my dorm had a personal computer. My first programming courses made me use cards and sent me to the sub-basement of the tech building to run them. I knew there were other approaches.
Finally, a friend gave me the first issue of MacWorld and suggested that, instead of an Apple IIe, I might want to buy the brand new Macintosh. Almost simultaneously, our college made an agreement with Apple and student prices for the tiny personal computer made it time to spend my savings. Of course, there was an eight-month wait. I plunked down my savings and bought my first Mac in 1984!
In some ways, I was quite different than who I am today. However, my desire to research the hell out of everything was already in place before I turned twenty. So even before I had my computer, I was reading books about personal computing, programs (not yet called “applications”), and the still infant concept of communicating with other computers via a telephonic connection called a modem.
My favorite guide and the book that became my bible was called Computer Wimp by John Bear. The subtitle was “166 things I wish I had known before I bought my first COMPUTER!” I would quote Dr. Bear to my parents, friends, and family when they questioned me about this “computer business.”
Bear introduced me to the idea of buying a computer based on the software rather than the hardware. He talked me out of my “but wait” paralysis that some better and cheaper computer or program would appear on the market as soon as I purchased something.
Bear’s writing style was accessible and his tone was light. The book didn’t take the heavy technical approach that many people used when they learned the amount of money and time I was spending on my computer.
Computer Wimp made me a backup fanatic. This lesson has saved me, my grade, my work, my class, my students, and my sanity. I became a back-up-alholic! Recently, my computer crashed and my multilayered backups made the recovery nearly painless!
More than the list of lessons, the book suggested that computers were not going to be the exclusive domain of engineers. Communications majors like me could make good use of them. Bear didn’t get everything exactly right. He thought that, “The free standing computer may fade away as small computers are built into various household tools and appliances.” He was partly correct. He didn’t predict the rise of the Internet, but he gave me the tools to find it myself.
Computer Wimp was my starting point. It was the beginning of a lifelong computer connection. My little Mac followed me through college. By the time I got to senior year, I had an account on both Compuserve and America Online. One winter break, I blew the lid off my roommates’ and my phone bill with all of my online time. Going online at that time meant tying up the phone line and being charged by the phone company by the minute. It was easy to overspend. Who knew that I’d spend so much discussing Star Trek with people all over the world!
I became a personal computer person. I became the computer wimp! I upgraded that old Mac and moved on to the MacPlus and to a PowerBook (which I still have), eMacs, iMacs, Macbooks, and Macbook Airs. I have used other types of personal computers both at home and at school, but I have found PCs (I call them pieces of c) far less human-friendly to this computer wimp than my Macs.
Computer Wimp introduced me to the questions, issues, and attitudes that have shaped me as a computer user. Although I did not become an engineer or programmer (yet), my computers have been an integral piece of my teaching and my life. I can’t imagine working without them.
Call me a nerd, a geek, or some other fine term of endearment, my love for computers can be traced back to my dear high school friend’s intervention and the wonderful writing of John Bear. I will forever be a computer wimp!
1 comment:
The Mac was also my first computer, though I was lucky to receive it as a college graduation gift. When I started working at Hewlett Packard, I'd antagonize my management by bringing in graphics from MacPaint rather than using the MSFT/Intel HP machine at my desk.
Also tried my hand at programming a DEC VAX in high school, but mostly played an ancient computer game I think involving shooting at spaceships on a grid--perhaps something like BattleShip--where the output of each move printed out on dot matrix, fan-fold continuous paper sheets.
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