Who or what first inspired your love for tech?

[Cal Jeffrey]

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

Atari Pong Units -

Big Trak -

I LOVED the Big Trak. Me and my brother would play with that for hours and hours.

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.

You don't have to know the inner workings of a computer or any other gadgets to be "into tech." Being a tech enthusiast is about loving technology in whatever form that takes. There are no minimum requirements to be into tech and there are different ways to be into it.

Some enthusiasts love games or maybe gaming systems — they may even collect them, know all the specs for each one. Even if they don't know what those specs mean it doesn't mean they aren't into tech.

Other enthusiast can build a gaming system and still others can build the components that go into the system. Just because the guy putting it together doesn't know how to make a motherboard doesn't mean he is not "into tech" or that he is just "casual" about it. You can have passion about something without having to know how it works.

Do you think every car enthusiast can build an engine or knows what a solenoid is? Same goes with technology.

 

[Kenrick]

My 80386 PC.

 

[p51d007]

In 1972, one of my 6th grade teachers, brought a crystal radio set to school. After finding out it didn't require batteries, to pick up radio stations, it peaked my interest in "stuff". How can it work, without batteries? That lead me into electronics as a teenager, a college degree in electronics and a career in electronics, which also lead me into "gadgets/tech".
And almost 40 years later, I found that same teacher on facebook, and wrote him a long message thanking him, for sparking my interest, which lead to a very nice life & career.

 

[andy06shake]

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.

I loved the Commodore 64 also, Amiga was a fabulous machine for its time, preferred the 500 to the 1200 all the same.

 

[andy06shake]

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.

We got BBC Micros. LOL

 

[treetops]

Warcraft 2 amazed me into pc gaming.

 

[EClyde]

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 ....

That is a lot. I only got 50 cents for not making a fuss when I got stitches after the BB gun malfunctioned.

 

[seeprime]

That's like asking why do I like a certain color. I just do. I just enjoy using and repairing tech stuff.

 

[holdum323]

Tech
A person with EXTREME knowledge or skills with computers or electronically gear (but not including actual game). A positive comment which replaces geek and it's sometimes not as positive effect. My definition!
"Some things for a very old man to learn pass forward those things to others"
TS needs and welcomes all the Techs it can get. I'm hoping I can some day convince someone I know A few things about Computers. Probably will never earn a Tech title but I'll keep giving it my best shot!

 

[TechnoSapien]

My techno-geek powers began to manifest during my childhood when I first witnessed the awe-inspiring power of the TRS-80 in a shopping mall one year. After receiving one of my own for Christmas, I realized I had gained the ability to infuse inanimate objects with a form of intelligent life as I wrote my very first program, in BASIC, that displayed a digital or analog clock on a TV screen, a feat previously believed to be impossible. The feeling of power was overwhelming and I was quite young and impressionable then, but my father made me understand... "With great power comes great responsibility". Thus I vowed to always use my powers for good ... or my good, that is, what was good for me.

Over the following years e-games like Pong, Coleco, and Atari and movies like Star Wars and Tron brought me to the realization of a deeper truth: I was no longer human... I was the future.

When I was 20 years old I got my first actual-paying IT job in the college computer lab and gave up the false pretense of ever going outdoors again, thus my journey towards the digital side was complete. The first task I undertook was writing a program to manage the computer inventory of the college lab which I ironically, but appropriately, named "The Master Control Program".

End of line.

 

[D3z4R1]

Breaking the family computer (an i286) and trying to cover my tracks got me into tech. I’m too embarrassed to say the circumstances o my destruction of said property, but suffice it to say, I did as much research possible (at a time pre-interwebs. lol) to remedy the problems I caused and from then forward have been fixing computers (and by extension, smartphones and mobile devices) for family and friends.

A good majority of my colleagues aren’t computer literate, let alone tech savvy. So when they ask me to look at something tech-related, my initial reaction is almost always: “Are you asking me because I’m Asian? You are, aren’t you?!?” lol

 

[raypozas]

A Sinclair ZX81

 

[hahahanoobs]

When my public school got a PET computer, it was love at first sight.

 

[Jmire]

What really got me into technology was when I built my own computer. At first I did it for necessity because I needed a computer, but as I was getting everything ready and learning about PC parts I just fell in love with the fact of how things worked together. It was so much fun to know that what I was building worked and it’s capabilities! I was hooked and now it’s just he most peaceful and challenging to do.

 

[Jackwoz]

Apple Macintosh Performa 630

 

[Humza]

Can't pinpoint exactly, but we used to have a special box for floppy drives (the norm then), and I used to ask my mum to take out Test Drive (DOS). She used to walk her hands through the drives like books and pick the game out.
The remaining process of putting the drive in the slot, typing the commands (which my mum did, hehe) and me eventually crashing the car after a few minutes was pretty joyous on its own.

 

[bolski]

Started with an Apple II computer when I was in highschool. My step father had one and his son was showing me games you could play on it. At that point, I wanted to know how to do the same. First learned the basic programming language, then 6502 machine language/assembler, and then c. Haven't looked back since and have been in IT for over 20 years now and still enjoying it.

 

[lazer]

I was into tech before there was computers. I was always fascinated by things. Anything mechanical or electrical mesmerized me.

 

[MirekFe]

I was into tech before there was computers. I was always fascinated by things. Anything mechanical or electrical mesmerized me.

That's impossible. You were born in 1942, but the first computer came out in 1943. ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer).

 

[Potato Judge]

Mario. But now I just hate him, lol.

 

[Mugsy]

Believe it or not, "Pac Man"... sorta. Back then, if you wanted a computer, you had to build it yourself. The videogame craze was just beginning and my friends and I imaged what our own "Pac Man" games would look like if we could design one ourselves. Using paper and colored markers, I devised "Masked Man" where Pac-Man had a robber's mask and the ghosts were dressed as Keystone cops. Of course, this was all just fantasy.

My neighbor bought a Zenith "Heathkit Z100" computer kit and I watched as he soldiered a zillion tiny transistors till he has a working CP/M computer with a whopping 4K of memory and integrated green-screen monitor.

Then the first affordable pre-built home computers started popping up (I say "affordable" because the Apple had been around for several years but priced in the thousands.) I had been saving for a $99 Sinclair ZX-80 kit but my parents sprung for an Atari 400 (with "peanut-butter proof" keyboard), cassette program recorder and Basic language cartridge for $450. The Atari Computer version of "Pac Man" actually LOOKED like Pac Man where as the VCS version (I never had a VCS) was an embarrassment. But the Pac Man cart was $60, so I never got that either.

I taught myself Basic using books and figured out "Binary" through brute-force trial & error until I figured out how to make my own simple "Player/Missile" characters (this was before "sprites"). There was no one I could ask for help because no one knew anything about computers. They weren't even in the schools.

I never did write that "Masked Man" game.

 

[UmbraEmsisoft]

I was 6-7 years old, went to USA visit my uncle, he bought me an Atari 2600 , then all started here...Atari > Amstrad > Amiga > Sega > Nintendo > PlayStation > SNK Neo Geo > PC

 

[lazer]

That's impossible. You were born in 1942, but the first computer came out in 1943. ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer).

What I am trying to say is that my nature is such that I am drawn into electronic (and mechanical) things automatically. I did not need anyone or anything external to inspire me. Sorry it was not clear.

 

[bolski]

What I am trying to say is that my nature is such that I am drawn into electronic (and mechanical) things automatically. I did not need anyone or anything external to inspire me. Sorry it was not clear.

I completely understood what you meant. Some people take things WAY too literally. lol

 

[MirekFe]

What I am trying to say is that my nature is such that I am drawn into electronic (and mechanical) things automatically. I did not need anyone or anything external to inspire me. Sorry it was not clear.

Okay. Thanks for the clarification.
Although, I did understand exactly what you meant.
Sorry about being a smartass.