I first became aware of computers in about 1957, when I was in the fourth or fifth grade. At that time computers sparked my interest such that when other children were playing cowboys and Indians, I was imagining myself a computer programmer. By coincidence, years later when I chose a profession, it was programming computers. The first electronic computer was the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (the ABC computer) which was built in 1938. The first commercial electronic computer was built about 1950. Therefore, my experience with computers goes almost back to the beginning. That is, I started programming in 1968, about eighteen years after the first commercial computer, and thirty years after the ABC computer. Therefore, my experience spans more than half of the time computers have been in existance. There are many stories I could tell - most of my own, but also some that I have heard from people who have been in the business much longer than I. |
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