Computer
Things I have done with computers or electronics in my personal life, for fun, not necessarily as part of my career or professional life.
High School Spark
In my youth, I never had a home computer. Home computers did not come into the economy until the 1980s when I had just graduated from public high school. In fact, I don't think I owned my own computer until the early 1990s.
In 1978, thanks to my science teacher, Luck Public High School had a computer terminal installed in a small glass room in the library. It was connected an HP3000 computer to the University of River Falls through a time-sharing network connection. There was no monitor. Anything you typed was printed out on continuous green-bar paper. Any response from the computer was also printed.
In the beginning, a lot of us used a social chat program to communicate with students at other schools who also had a time-share network connection. One feature was being able to code in BASIC programming. My teachers enthusiasm to share some simple programs with us was the spark that started my love of coding and eventually led to my career in Information Technology.
In 1979, my senior year in high school, I earned extra credit by coding a class attendance program. Toward the end of first period, the girl gathering attendance would give me the list and I would get out of my Math IV class early to enter the data and print out a tardy list that was given to all teachers. I also created my own 4-H project called Computer Programming. My project entry to the Polk County Fair was a booklet I put together showing off all the BASIC programs I created that year. (Blue ribbon!)
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