Blue's Age poll.

Which age group do you fall in?

  • Total voters
    47
Wrote my first "real" program in 1983, in BASIC. That was on an Amiga 500. I was already 32 - but I was immediately hooked. The program was a trivia quiz - I made it up.
Here's one of the questions from the category SCIENCE:
What was the average velocity of the winning car at the Indy 500 last year?
That would be 1982. I don't want the name of the winner, just the average velocity.
Anybody?
 
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Frothingslosh said:
Indeed. My first programming class was back in 1981, when I was the ripe old age of 10.

I almost miss learning BASIC on those old Apple II's.

Almost.
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Way back when there were only a few classes, mostly at college level. You taugh yourself or you did not do it.
 
Let me add the first program I ever wrote was on a punch card computer system. Don't remember the computers name, but it was huge. It took me about 25 cards to get the words, "Hello World" right the first time. lol Of course assembly was the first along with its assembler, and Fortran following shortly thereafter. Cobal, Basic and pl/1 did not come along until sometime in the 1960s if my memory holds out. I believe pl/1 was for business as well as scientific, although I have never used it.

The first business computer (a microcomputer) I used (1978ish), weighed about 50 pounds, used an 8" diskette with a 75K memory. Back then a bit and a byte meant something. The computer had 8K ram memory. I wrote an inventory (pretty extensive for Basic) and had to chain it together because of the 8K limit. The whole program was 64K long. Given that it had to at least chain about 8 times. The screen was black and the letters were green. Prior to, after and during this time, there was a war as to who would win for the personal computer between Microsoft, Tandy (radio Shack) and IBM and each had their own platform. Guess who won????????


Had a lot of fun then, now there are so many ways to go, so many languages on can use, etc. one cannot keep up. Quit trying a few years ago.
 
My first computer experience was programming in Fortran on a Digital PDP-11 in 1977.

The only input was mark sense cards, one card per line. We could submit our stack of cards once each day. It was so annoying when one smudge on a card would end that day's opportunity.

I still remember one error that would happen on the first line.
UNKNOWN LANGUAGE: FSN

It was expecting FTN for Fortran but a smudge on the R mark changed T to S because an S was indicated by marking both R and T.

The only output was a 132 column dot matrix line printer. It printed whole lines at a time. Occasionally the operator would let a couple of people into the room. That printer was the loudest computer device I have ever encountered.

It could print a graph by putting an asterisk in a particular column on each line.

The following year they upgraded and we used terminals which were a real revolution.
 
Hahaha all of your stories are about epic programming and awesomely old machines. Mine story is an 11 year old kid wanting to host a video game server 'cause he was bored of the real game and wanted to make a better version for him and his friends.
 
BlueIshDan said:
Hahaha all of your stories are about epic programming and awesomely old machines. Mine story is an 11 year old kid wanting to host a video game server 'cause he was bored of the real game and wanted to make a better version for him and his friends.
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Kids these days... :p

I joined this forum when you were 10. :eek:

I need a mid-life crisis. :D
 
First code was BASIC on a BBC Micro Model B (32K) around 1985-86

I was 6

Been hooked ever since :D
 
BlueIshDan said:
Mind you that was 11-12 years ago! lol

EDIT:
YOU JOINED IN Dec 2002!! Holy shit this is an old forum!
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Actually, I joined a couple of years before that but the site was hacked in 2002 so everything before that was lost.
I think Vass joined shortly after me, it's hard to remember those good old days and who did what and when. I do remember people were good fun with lots of innocent harmless banter.

Col
 
ColinEssex said:
Actually, I joined a couple of years before that but the site was hacked in 2002 so everything before that was lost.
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Didn't you get blamed for that as well? If not I think you should be :cool:
 
What does any of it mean?

Why are we all here?

Who invented liquid soap and why?

Why is it a pair of panties but only one bra?

Why is there braille on drive-up ATM machines?

Why is it a penny for your thoughts but you have to put your two cents in? Who kept the other penny?

Why does Jim never have a second cup of coffee at home?
 
I am 18 years of age - Closely coming to 19.

I say that with hesitation - due to people stereotypically thinking of people my age as mindless drunken messes. But my oh my am I the opposite

I do think in some cases knowledge does come with age. But on the whole, Knowledge is for those who seek it.

I seem to be the baby of this forum so far :D

Please don't treat me like it :p
 
ConnorGiles said:
I do think in some cases knowledge does come with age. But on the whole, Knowledge is for those who seek it.
Click to expand...

We should all get more experienced and knowledgeable as we get older, but that does not mean that an older person is necessarily more knowledgeable or experienced than a younger one, we all lead different lives, some do not seek knowledge, some do not have the opportunity to experience different things in life, and we must always remember that in this fast moving world knowledge can quickly become obsolete.

Brian
 
Very true Brian, Knowledge can indeed become obsolete (I wouldn't say entirely) , but a very well known phrase "Knowledge is power" is a very strong statement indeed.

But which one will end up on top, I wonder :p
 
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