How Do You Do, Fellow Kids?

[xendrome]

Hey everyone!

Xendrome here. My first contact with computers was back in kindergarten and elementary school, I only remember bits and pieces but I believe the first computer I used was an Apple Macintosh II around 1986, and I remember playing Oregon Trail and Elevator action in 3rd or 4th grade on some later model Mac in our Library in elementary school.

Later down the road, I traded a friend a bunch of stuff to his family's unused IBM XT 8088 which ran at 4.77mhz, this was my foot in the door to my current career. Looking back, that system at the time was about 10 years old, and the power supply finally gave up, but I learned a lot.

My first real computer was a Packard Bell Legend with a 486 DX/2 50mhz, 4MB of ram, 420MB hard drive and a 9600 baud modem. I had no idea about BBS's at the time. Another friend's dad was a computer tech, and he was able to pass down a lot of knowledge which lead me to BBS's, which I ran one from about 1992 to 1996, after that everything changed, starting with local-dialup and WINSOCK, then AOL, CompuServe, etc. You know, all of the things that made computing and online access more accessible for the masses like availability and pricing.

Since that time, I enter the workforce at 17 first working for Gateway Computers in 1997 and Dell Computers in 1999, some smaller stents after those to include an e-Commerce startup (GoCo-Op), a global monster (Siemens) and a local computer repair shop. I then decided the corporate world was not for me, I didn't want to call a 800 number when I needed to talk to someone in Human Resources, I landed a position with a local .gov in 2005 and have been there ever since. Now in my 21st year with a title of "Information Technology Director". I plan on retiring at 55 (9 years to go) and moving to a small log cabin in the middle of Montana with no internet (no not really, but, probably).

Anyway, I hope this project grows and I'm here for the long haul. Check out my BBS utilizing ATDT at https://www.dosbbs.com

[Spoffy]

Nice to meet you.

Nice intro on the BBS, that old dial up sound certainly sets the mood.