About Me

What Tech Gadgets did You have in 1978?

I have had over thirty years playing with computers in many varied areas from hardware, software, networks and more.

In 1978, when I was twelve, I built my first computer. It was an Electronics Australia, Miniscamp electronics kit. It had a large 256 bytes of static RAM, eight shiny sliver toggle switches for entering data, eight red LEDs for displaying data and eight more toggle switches for setting the memory address the data was to be entered into. It wasn't long before I expanded the the memory to a massive 1024 bytes of static RAM.

Code was entered by hand. The computer hand no offline storage. I had to learn assembly language and then how to assemble machine code with pen and paper, into hand written hex values that where then entered manually into the computer in binary format, via the data toggle switches. (I can still make high speed movements with my hands and fingers that represent me toggling those switches to covert those hex values in binary).

Later I built an external hex key pad. This included two large 7 segment LED displays, so data could be written and read in hex instead of binary.

I think I might have been the very first computer over-clocker in the world or at least a very early one. The Miniscamp's main clock was controlled by a 820pf capacitor and ran at about 1 megahertz. I found that a 680pf capacitor would cause the computer to run even faster. This did some strange things to the execution of code but it gave me a huge sense of achievement.

The High School and Universtity Years

Through my high school years I continued to play and program. When I was ten, I got a Sinclair ZX80 and about two years later a Sinclair ZX81 (after I blew the ZX80 trying to turn it into a ZX81). Ironically my school took ownership of its first computer the year after I left.

I attended the University of Western Australia (UWA) between 1983 and 1985. I also had a Commodore 64 in my life at this time. I became heavily involved with the University Computer Club (the famous UCC) and eventually became an executive member. I learnt a lot at the club and wrote buckets of code.

In the late 1980s I upgraded to an Atari ST (512), later upgraded it memory to 1 Meg. I bought a 30 Meg hard drive and learnt to program in C (I am or was, fluent with many programing langauges over the years, from using machine language with the National Semiconductor's SC-MP and the Zilog Z80 microprocessor; Macro Assembly with Alphamicro, PDP-11, 6502, 68000; higher level languages in Basic, Pascal, Forth, C, C++, Java, Visual Basic for Applications, Access 2, Access 97, Access 2000, VB 6, VB 2005, VB 2007; and I latley have been dabling in Python).

Online Computing

In the early 1990s I progressed into the world of the PC. From that time to the present day I have been employed in various computer and network related jobs that include everything from programming, training, to support roles and most things in between.

I have been online since the days of the slow dual up modem, connecting via phone to the few Perth based bulletin boards, specifically the OMEN (my first modem ran the blinding speed of 2400 baud). I was first exposure to Internet in 1994, when Archie and Gopher were all the rage. The next year, 1995, I got to browse the web via the text based Lynx browser. The rest is mostly a blur, given the rapid expansion of the Internet and associated computer technology. These technologies now dominate nearly every aspect of my life (much to my wife's dismay).

Keep Current with the Site and Blog

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Safe Surfing!