I got started with computers using a Commodore 64 somewhere around 1983. In the beginning, I typed in simple programs from magazine articles and because I had no storage they were lost when I powered the system off. Later, I splurged and bought a cassette tape drive so I could save the programs and buy games. Next, I bought a 300 baud MODEM to connect to computer bulletin boards. It was the kind where you dialed using a telephone and when you got a carrier tone you unplugged the handset and plugged the cord into the MODEM. The MODEM is the only thing I have left from that era, and here that beast is.
In case you’ve never used one, you could actually read text faster than it was received, so you often waited for the letters to appear on the monitor.
In my last job I worked remotely for about seven years and had to have so much hardware I had to add a window air conditioner to the room to supplement the central air to handle the heat everything generated. Since I retired, I got rid of most of the computers, but still have a much beefier infrastructure than I actually need. I did pick up a few Raspberry Pi single-board computers that I’m playing with. This website is running on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ on PoE.
One of these days I need to get rid of all the various cables, cards, and adapters I accumulated over the years. I deleted many gigabytes of source code, code libraries, and downloaded documentation a few years after I retired. Some of the files dated from my first job in 1997. It was actually a very strange feeling to get rid of stuff I had spent more than twenty years working on, but I was having thoughts of going back to work and thought that may be a way to out an end to them. I really did love what I did for a living, and still catch myself looking at job postings. This website is actually an attempt to wean myself off programming.