Who or what first inspired your love for tech?

[Cal Jeffrey]

It goes without saying that if you are a regular TechSpot reader, you are into technology in one way or another. Some of us are professionals, and some are hobbyists. In either case, none of us were born tech enthusiasts. We all have a story about who or what got us into our technological interests and professions.

For me, it was the first time I saw someone program a computer. Some older, mischievous kids at school had programmed an IBM 5150 to have a little, animated character stroll out to the middle of the screen and flip everyone the bird. It was silly, but it got me interested in how they did it, and I began programming myself. My broad interest in technology sprouted and grew from there.

Whether it was an inspirational figure, a particular gadget that you had to have, or and anecdote like mine, who or what got you interested in technology?

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https://www.techspot.com/news/72330-who-or-what-first-inspired-love-tech.html

 

[ThrakazogZ]

Two things. The Atari Pong home system and the electronic programmable toy Big Trak.

Atari Pong Units - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrK3428OV7I

Big Trak - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PSjeyPqfIQ

 

[USAvenger]

The Nintendo Entertainment System. That was 30 years ago. I was 5 at the time. I am one of those PC Master Race nuts now but I'll always credit my NES and SNES with starting me on the path that has led to a great career in the I.T. sector.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Maths teacher 3rd grade...geometric and mystery numbers (a/k/a algebra).

Take 7 coins of same size and lay them down together and really look at them.

Programming on a teletype came 7 years later.

 

[HIC99]

I got into computers for two reasons, the Atari 7200 (I'm not that old it's just what my parents had) and my dad bringing home random computers from work. And as far as I know I have been using old beat up computers for as long as I could remember. And one day I tried to build up my own computer and gave up on computers in total for a while because I couldn't figure out how to make it work. Coming to now days, if I still had all of those old computers I could make them work again.

 

[Evernessince]

I can't really pinpoint any one instance but to give an example, I would say my RaidoShack build your own radio kit. It's one of the first electronic devices I built and it was a load of run.

 

[TomSEA]

The original Pong stand-up arcade game.

 

[mcborge]

It all started with a book I got as a kid called, Inside the Personal Computer.. An illustrated introduction in 3d. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhHWF67--is

 

[Satish Mallya]

Playing games at a friend's house made me want my own PC.
When I figured out how the thing worked, and made logical extensions to that understanding e.g. 'the hard drive from this computer should also work in another computer', and 'the folder called SAVE probably has the information about the state of the game - backing it up and overwriting it should let me revert saves'.

It was that intuitive understanding of how the thing ticked that made me want to know more about related technologies, so I could do more with them.

That, and my first PC was a lemon - it was either learn to fix it, or give up on having a PC.

 

[cliffordcooley]

In a nut shell it was nice shiny components on PCBs of the 70's and early 80's. I have always been intrigued with electricity and electronic components.

 

[SantistaUSA]

I always loved tech, started with video games (atari, super nes, N64 etc) but I really started to get into it when my parents gave me my first PC (Pentium 120Mhz 16MB RAM) when I was 15 or so, I'm 39 now and learning how to build/repair computers is very satisfying to me

 

[J spot]

Something that I've always noticed is that there are a lot of people who "are into tech," and truly do believe it, but they don't read any tech websites, much less even know what basic things like ram is. There are many people who because say they have an iPhone, they are tech savvy people, but truly lack that tech curiosity. I'm not trying to criticize, just that they don't have that perspective of the things they don't know.

I think that curiosity about tech is something that you have or don't. I know a lot of teens who LOVE video games, XBox, Playstation, etc. Open up a computer, no curiosity as to what's the ram, the CPU, the hard drive, etc, and how it all relates. And truly do not care. No true perspective of what say 8GB would means, etc. But they would consider themselves tech people. (Particularly in school, a lot of students start taking computer science because they play video games and like the internet, but coming in they don't even know what rams is.)

Reminds me of Bababooey. Since he liked to buy gadgets he got a show called Techno Beaver, yet he probably didn't even know what a Core2Duo was, because it's not something that he follows. But lets give him a show because he likes to buy gadgets.

They are casual people.

 

[DavidBailey]

Ray Bradbury, and others from long ago science fiction.

 

[Igrecman]

The arrival of digital photography in the mid 90's.
It made me buy a computer, a scanner, Photoshop 5.0 up to CC.
And of course a few decent cameras in 20 years or so.
I was an early adopter and believer, even though everybody were saying digital photography would never surpass conventional photography. I have to admit it seemed like that in 96, but it evolved and improved amazingly fast. I guess it was the same for video.

 

[TreyDio]

1976 Texas Instruments programmable calculator. I wish I still had it.

 

[MirekFe]

I was 3 years old when I started using computers.
I would sit beside my dad for hours, watching him program and the like, memorizing everything he did.

He taught me how to program in Assembly on the Intel 8085. :-D

We would also build computers together.

 

[LooZy]

I was five when my uncle brought home a sinclair ZX Spectrum, plug it in the TV set and wrote some BASIC programmes.
That was magical and I was done !

 

[Nobina]

I had a PC early on when I was like 5 and I was curious about it and was always exploring new features and messing with settings. I would regulary break something software wise and so my dad would give me ****.

 

[andy06shake]

That would be my beloved ZX 48k Spectrum my parent got me when I was 5.

 

[Dimensive]

Sega Master System. I was 4-5 when my parents got one for me & my brother and it spring boarded my love for tech.

 

[MarkHughes]

Started with the Atari 2600 but really took off when my dad bought a Commodore 64 home and I discovered it could be programmed (I was 12 at the time). From then on that has been my main use of computers. I was still using an Amiga untill about 10 years ago.

 

[EClyde]

My first radio back in the late 50's. It had an alligator clip that I attached to a lamp harp making an antenna. I listened to WXYZ in Detroit

 

[Uncle Al]

When I was a boy my father challenged me to make an "explosion proof switch" which caused me to go through his workshop and gather every bit of junk and take it all apart. I settled on an old mercury switch from a T-stat, mounted it within a clear casting I created and pumped some nitrogen into the chamber, sealing the sides with the wire and amazingly it all worked. He had a nat-gas test rig at his office so we put it in there and tested it all morning with NO failures. After that I was hooked on ALL tech and have been ever since. Oh yeah, for winning it he gave me a crisp new $20 bill which was a fortune back in 1962 ....

 

[Linoleum77]

My dad's IBM XT and Pac-Man Coleco Mini Arcade.

 

[Endarial]

I was in kindergarten and my principal wheeled in a Commodore 64 on a cart. The school had just got one, that had to be shared with all the classes. Each class would get to use it for a few days a month.

At the time, I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was amazing. Ever since then, I've been interested in computers and tech in general.