How Did You Learn About Computers/Internet?

[QuirkyJessi]

http://www.bloggeries.com/forum/blog...html#post14251

^ That thread got me to thinking. I grew up in a time where I've pretty much always been exposed to computers. I took classes in high school solely focused on web design and learning HTML....as required courses. In college, part of my general courses I had to take included computer science and such.

The little tidbits like using quotes around search results...I was told those many years ago as part of a normal curriculum. And the rest I picked up along the way as I spent tons of time online and learning the ins and outs of computers in general. It's a way of life.

But that stuff hasn't been around for ever and even many of the younger people here wouldn't necessarily know all the tricks of the trade.

So after much rambling and background info, how did/do you learn this stuff? Did you have classes in school? Did you have a family member teach you? Do you pick up things on forums and such? Share please.

[Keleigh]

Well, my dad has worked part time at the now defunked CompUSA for the last 15 years so that is what initially got me in to computers. I then, in my early teenybopper days, fell in to the craze of creating fan sites for entertainers. Ohh, the days.. lol. Then in high school I took computer programming classes, Qbasic, C++, and Java. I really loved programming, still do but after graduating I kind of fell out of it. :-( I hope someday to get back in to some classes for languages like PHP and MySQL so I can make my sites more dynamic... unless I find someone kind enough to spend time and teach me. lol I have gone unsuccessful though. :-(

But yeah, that's my story.

[ghing]

I learn about computers/internet when I was in elementary.. I don't have any class at that time... I just told myself that someday I am going to learn lots of things using this technology..

when i was in high school.. in my senior year.. that's the first time I learn the basic things that we need to know when it comes to computer/internet.. MS applications..

then I want to learn more so I take up computer science in college.. and here I am now.. I learn lots of things but I don't want to stop learning.. I know I need to learn more..

[SomewhereElse]

IT was the only thing I was any good at when I was at school which could keep my attention. It carried on from there and 16 years after I left school, I still learn something new everyday. I was self taught. Bought a PC with 3.1 on it and started there.

[Inhibitor]

Great. I feel old and now hate you all.

I first learned about computers because my parents bought me a TRS-80 Color Computer in 1980 (when they were first released). I had already taken a college course in computing (or, as it was called at that point, "data management") from which I learned nothing I hadn't already learned on my own, with the exception that using punch-cards for data storage was a pain in the ASCII. (I was high-tech...I had a cassette drive.)

I spent more sleepless nights than I can count my junior and senior years in high school, staying up teaching myself BASIC, and later some rudimentary assembly code.

Basically, I've been immersed in science and mathematics since grade school, and when computers came along it was the most enrapturing thing I had ever seen.

I've taken exactly two computer-related school courses in my life...the afore-mentioned Data Management course my junior year in high school, and a required "Introduction to Computers" course my first year of college. I got an "A" in that one, despite having erased my teacher's hard drive when she tried to check my final lab project.

This project was to (I kid you not here) write a "Hello World!" program with a print option. Being a know-it-all smart-ass, I wrote a subroutine that put up a login prompt when she executed the file...after three incorrect tries, it displayed a flashing "Goodbye World!" and formatted the hard drive.

OH, but there was a conference about THAT one. (Still got my "A", though.)

I'm going to stop now, because I'll write a few thousand words worth of reminiscences about how I got into computers, and you'll all never log back into the forums again out of self-defense, in case I start up again.

"Self-taught"...I should have just typed "self-taught" up there at the beginning and hit "Submit Reply". Really, I should have.:lurk-2:

[QuirkyJessi]

This project was to (I kid you not here) write a "Hello World!" program with a print option. Being a know-it-all smart-ass, I wrote a subroutine that put up a login prompt when she executed the file...after three incorrect tries, it displayed a flashing "Goodbye World!" and formatted the hard drive.

Lmao!

And you can ramble all you want. I wouldn't have asked the question if I weren't truly interested.

[prinzcy]

Self-learn.

Then I take Science Computer in University but that doesn't help much because I'm sux at programming.

[Sevenheartz]

My dad knows a lot about computers so naturally, as I was growing up I got into them quite early. I am still very interested in computers now, and even plan on getting into a career with them. I love programming, so I plan on taking it in university - I'm taking it now in High School.

[skleiner]

I learned on the computers that had the dos disk's on the 5-1/4 inch floppy -they were really floppy. I worked for two guys who were manufacturer reps, and spent most of the time smoking wacky tabbacky - and learned from trying and books.

Telemagic was popular, and we had a 2400 kbps modem..woo-whoo!

[enterpriseJM]

Happy to see I ain't the only old geek here. I think I remember seeing a picture of a computer when I was in senior high school and that damn thing took up a whole huge room.

I worked as a crypto specialist in Vietnam, but it was all typewriters and big friggen code binders. The most high-tech thing we had was the big slab of phosphorus grenade that would melt the safe down in just a couple minutes.

One of my first jobs back in the world was for a flooring company and I went on an estimate with the boss after a job one day. He lost the sale because he was bad with numbers and didn't want to give the lady a price on the spot. He had to go back to the office and run the figures through his desktop calculator. I kept thinking he'da got that job if he could pack something like that, maybe a little smaller, around with him to his estimates.

A half dozen years later, while doing an estimate for my own flooring business, pocket calculator in hand, the customer had me come to the kitchen table to do my figuring and there was a, Apple Powerbook right there on the table. That estimate took an hour or so longer than usual.

The next day I was at the only local computer store ordering a custom built IBM clone - 8MB hard drive, 2MB RAM, a fast modem and all preloaded with MS-DOS 5.0 and MS Works. I read something about Windows 3.0, but the salesman said I didn't need that, even though he was pretty insistent that I should get the Powerbook he showed me the night before.

It was less than a week before I discovered CompuServe - before they were bought by AOL. Man, I was in my element - a new element I just discovered. In another week or two I was adding RAM and tweaking settings after installing the newest version of Windows, 3.1.

When Windows 95 came out, I was working on CompuServe in several forums as a sysop - tech support - and decided to take the bigger leap into the ether. I discovered the World Wide Winternet and, jeez, it was like goin' to the big city for my birthday.

Never took a class or did any book studyin'. I spent a lot of time on forums asking questions and reading other people's threads about their computer and web building experiences. I registered my first domain before I could do any code, but I thought a WYSIWYG editor would do me just fine. I learned quickly it wasn't and that I wanted to do more. I just keep picking up * as I go along and enjoying ever' minute of it. Now I'm branching out to doing blogs and havin' a blast.

Thanks fer askin'. You're sorry now, hu.

Jim