In The Beginning...

I first became interested in computers in 1979, when NCR released the world's first electronic hotel posting machine and IBM just released the PC jr. For me, that made me think one day every business would have a computer so I'd better learn something about them!

Back then there were two PC operating systems of repute; CPM and MS-DOS. I learned both, but the Microsoft flavour, thanks to their famous IBM licensing agreement, quickly became the defacto standard. (Apple was something I messed with as a side with a IIC, a couple flavours of laptops, and managing a mixed network.)

But me, being a bit of a simpleton, decided to investigate programming (YIKES!). We had FORTRAN, COBOL (remember those?), Pascal, BASIC, and something really cool  called C and C++ (pronounced "C with classes").  Yes, I dreamed in C on the nights I slept. 

Where things diverged for me was my passion for photography. Being an artist opened my mind to software as art and thinking in terms of objects instead of lines.  Of course, it was during that time I also got elbows deep into the hardware side. 

It saved my clients money to swap out mother boards and processors, sometimes RAM, as new configs hit the street.  It was the wild west of SOHO computing - until Dr. Dobb's Journal published a cover story in December, 1994 about a new front end for the world wide web called Mosaic.

That graphical front end, I believe, kickstarted the modern Internet. Suddenly everybody wanted a webpage as much as they wanted email and their own domain names. Yup. I was in that era and did my share of websites!! In fact, that's why if you ask me for a website I'll direct you to my friend Scott - I'm not doing them anymore. (Although I am still pretty handy with JS, CSS, SQL and PHP.)

The growth of networked computing also led to a rise in home computer use along with connected devices like smartphones - along with confusion for people that aren't hip to the tech curve - which can also mean there are scoundrels who take advantage of that innocence. Yes, I have heard horror stories of people going to buy a simple computer, and end up spending way more than they needed to. Or a simple repair done wrong and mushrooming into failure, or unnecessary charges.

Recently a lady posted on a FaceBook group for suggestions on a laptop for streaming media and for printing. One fellow responded with a paragraph about his laptop and that to get a "good" one she would have to spend about $1,000. Another fellow responded with two paragraphs about how easy it was for him to build a desktop and how she could too.
My response actually addressed the question. I said if that's all you want to do, consider a Chromebook for about $150. It's designed for cloud computing, won't set you back much at all, and supports USB peripherals.

Anyway, I also did turns as a reporter, photojournalist and editor, prior to joining the firm in 2010. I've assisted the business on many fronts over the years, and as I considered retiring I had to ask myself what next?  Well, based on never having stopped providing support to people,  just because I had the answers, why not? It's what I really enjoy doing! I hope you get to share my excitement assisting you.

• Bill