Computer Journey
By Dave McGraw
Monday, March 08, 2004
I am approaching my 30th year of living with computers, and my first sense of wonder is still with me. It is easy to see that unless our technological society collapses, computers will continue to grow in our lives, taking new forms, and interacting with humans in more and more complex ways. This has certainly been the case in my life, as I have found myself to have been ever-increasingly involved with computer technology for 3 decades.
The first time I worked with computers was in late 1975 or early 1976 when I was an employee of Sourdough Broadcasters Inc. My job was to operate two radio stations, KHAR-AM and KKLV-FM during the night shift. Although it might seem like operating two commercial radio stations simultaneously would be pretty hectic, I found that job to be the easiest one I ever had. The reason it was so laid back was because it was almost fully automated. Each radio station had its own DEC PDP-8/m computer to run the show. I was enthralled with the technology; hooked for life.
That job didn't pay as well as I would have liked, so I eventually found another job that paid a lot better. I missed messing with the computers though, and in 1977 I finally couldn't stand it anymore and put together my own personal computer, an IMSAI 8080. The IMSAI was awesome! It seemed like I could do anything with the machine! I was able to play Adventure, Star Trek, and chess against the computer! I was able to type documents, edit them to be just like I wanted them, and then print out the finished product. I learned to program in 8080 assembler and I wrote my own programs to play Othello, and John Conway's game of Life.
With the IMSAI, I was able to connect to other computer systems through my 300-baud acoustically coupled modem, and I eventually became a subscriber to The Source, through which I was connected to thousands of other computer systems all over the world. In 1979 that seemed amazing. I went on to buy a Compucolor II (1979), Apple ][(1982), and Amiga 1000 (1985). I also learned to program in Basic (Compucolor), 6502 assembler (Apple][), UCSD Pascal (Also Apple ][), C (PC compatibles), and dabbled with Modula-2 (Amiga), and received the Sun certification for Java (Modern PCs).
In the late-80's, I built my first IBM PC-compatible, and I have been building them ever since. I built about 15 different machines (approx. 1/yr) for my personal and family use from about 1987 until I started The Digital Cup in 2002. At The Digital Cup, we build all of our own computers, as well as custom computers for our customers. So far, we have built about 50 high-performance computers. We also run a computer repair service called "The Geek Fleet", where we get mal-performing and/or under-performing machines purring and/or upgraded happily.
So, from that first introduction to the computer, I have gone on to take a personal life journey in the computer space. I have watched the machines evolve into titans of speed and power, and have seen the software develop rudimentary, but very real elements of intelligence, including small personal computers that can checkmate chess grandmasters, and the beginning of the next phase of artificial intelligence as small consumer robots take their first baby steps.