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.

I was just reading an article about how children are only learning how to be comfortable with computers which isn't necessarily an entry to becoming an IT professional.  In my Dinasaurs blog entry, I touched on my start in computers.  But that isn't how I got into IT.  I didn't get into IT until years later.