In 1969 when color tv was in its infancy and I was 10 years old, my father bought us and my grandfather each an airline montgomery ward color tv. These must have been really built on bad thresholds, because they'd break at least every 3 months. We had what they called insurance on ours, so I watched the guy fix them and would then take the tubes to walgreen and test them, then go to a wholesaler called kelsea electronics and buy them for half price. The high voltage tubes were $15, so radio shack had lifetime guarantee tubes, altho you often had to go 2 or 3 times (and bring my father) to get new ones. The university of chicago lab school had a great library with a fabulous book on how to do it. Had to clean the mechanical tuners with silicone (valley) tuner cleaner or the picture was snow. One black and white zenith set needed less repairs, but had a loud motorized tuner with a remote (unusual in those days) that clicked loudly when a hammer struck a metal cylinder when pressing a button. There was convergence, and older black and white sets had 50 tubes in I-f circuits that became detuned involving replacing 20 tubes or getting the manuals and setting choke pots with an oscilloscope, later having one but never did that. Even before that at age 5 grampa worked for att so we all had the ringback number to make the phone ring. It was a way of calling the person on your party line. Dad worked for gm delco radio so I repaired tube radios (even in cars.) In 1975 senior year age 16 at downers grove high school south I learned basic and fortran on an hp2000 mini computer 300 baud paper terminal dialed up by modem using cards not keypunched but filled in by pencil. In 1976 at university of ill. chicago I started in premedicine but used their hp2000 (next version) mini like in high school and they were spending so much money on computers I went into it in 1977 and had majors in chemistry, biology, math, and computer science. Didn't want to get left behind. What I did was work 15 years (some in government) and essentially am semi retired with no kids. Sort of, you know govt. retirements. This is much longer than nick next door who worked 6 months in I-t yet has 2 children. My niece's husband mike/mickey mouse got his law degree and still has college debt with 3 kids and only worked 6 months also. Expensive nanny. I have that android thing going and it is taking off. I donate to soup kitchens (ironically brought them steak to serve the other day), volunteered at the library in computers, and volunteered at the catholic church and hospitals but am now an atheist/agnostic.