One of the first computers I had the pleasure to use

I am an old man.

I recently visited a client who was telling me about the first computer they got to use which was a TRS-80 (similar to the one above).  Coincidentally that was one of the first machines I got to use as well.  It made me think about my history with the PC and how I ended up with my own computer consulting firm 30 years later.

• 10 x=x+1
• 20 print x
• 30 goto 10

This simple program taught me the most important fact about computers:  dependency.

I taught the computer how to count in about 30 seconds and as my high school computer teacher said “It took Ernie and Bert 5 years to teach you how to count to 10 and it took you 30 seconds to teach a computer to count.”  In all fairness Ernie and Bert were great teachers but the computer was a better student.  Besides my computer teacher was a bit of an idiot (whenever he clicked on the backspace of the keyboard he would say “look pacman’s eating up all the letters…munch….munch…munch.”)  But I digress.

So here I am 30 years later with the conclusion of dependency.  I never realized how important dependency is.  In a computer, it could be argued, that the motherboard is the main piece that keeps the computer going.  Without the motherboard no power would be distributed; no peripherals could be connected.  But without the CPU the motherboard would be as useless as the cardboard box it came in.  The CPU and Motherboard are dependant on each other.

The same theory can be help true for the internet and the inter-dependency between sites.  I will talk more about this in the future.