Tech

Geek nostalgia

A chance comment today led me back to the first computer I ever touched.

It was 1978 or so. Dad was head of maths at Heathland School and he brought home the department's latest toy so he could learn about it during the summer holiday.

Like a large number of 30somethings then, my first experience of a computer was a Research Machines 380Z. Enclosed in a large black metallic chassis, the computer was powered on by means of a key and used low-density cassettes as its storage.

We started off by playing hangman, but a few school holidays later I was prodding about in BASIC and exploring what I now understand to be machine code. (Back then it was just numbers and patterns, some of which did interesting things, others made the computer sick.) Before too long I was spending way too much time devouring manuals that today bring a smile to my face. Those where the days when system guides were painstakingly typed out, with hand-drawn diagrams.

For too long I wanted to buy a 380Z of my own. I wanted to name a software company J103 after the awkward key sequence that told the machine to continue what it had been doing before being interrupted.

I've put those dreams aside me now (besides I'm not in need of a doorstop), but it's a joy to briefly trip back there.

J> 103