While I was commenting on another blog about being a female computer geek, I realized I had a lot of stories to tell. I'm not sure if it would be better to start at the beginning, or just jump around.

If I start at the beginning some of my younger readers may not comprehend what it was like in the good old days of computers when technology didn't change overnight.

But if I jump around I might forget something good.

Today I'm going to write about the first computer I had contact with, the HP 1000. I used it for the first time around 1969, 1970.

The computer was at the high school and I was in middle school at the time. The teacher would collect our hand coded cards (using a #2 pencil) which contained our BASIC program. Then the next class he'd return the printouts of our programs.

When I got into High School, I got to sign up to use it myself.

Unfortunately I didn't really learn much programming then. I got as far as somthing similar to print "Hello World", except that wasn't invented until later. Learning to program is another blog entry.

And I probably still have the paper punch tape of Snoopy and a football that I could print out using the HP1000.