[Steve Dallas]

OK...my goal here is to out-nerd every single one of you...

My first experience with a computer was in 3rd grade when we were given punch cards, told to punch out simple arithmetric problems using some codes that were given to us. We got back a printout showing what we punched, and it had computed answers.

Though we had simple calculators in the 1970's, my first experience "programming" came when my dad bought an HP-67 in 1976. It was a RPN calculator, and was programmable, using magnetic strips to store those programs. Some programs were used to calculate latitude/longitude based off of sun/moon/star sightings, others used for tides, and he even had a game which was a lunar lander program in which you had to touch down softly by burning a limited amount of fuel.

Though I had a friend that got an Apple ][ when they first came out, my first computer was a TRS-80 Model 1 that I used in college in 1981-1983. I ended up leaving college and buying my first Apple ][e shortly after that. Later, I got an Apple ][c.

I eventually got an Macintosh Plus and used that for quite a while.

Then came a 286, a 386, a 486 and pretty much a PC computer every 2-3 years of the latest model. Of my computers, I've built 5 of my own, I've purchased 3 from Falcon Northwest, and I've also owned a Mac Centris 650, Mac G5 Tower (Motorola), and my current Macbook Pro 17".

I work in IT, so you could say that my life is computers...for good or bad.