I aspire to be a life long learner. In my early years I had the privilige of being born into a family with loving parents who where able to provide for my needs and wants. I have early memories of the first computer entering our house. My parents operated a polutry hatchery out of our farm and my Mom used an early IBM PS/2 desktop computer to track customers and their orders on a spreadsheet. My earliest memories of using a computer are inserting a 5.14" floppy disk with a game called Prince of Persia. I vividly recall the frustration when the floppy disk stopped working before I was able to rescue the princess.
In the small town of Marshall, MN where I grew up there was a local business called "The Computer Man." As our family busienss grew, my Mom would upgarde her computer as new processors were available. As she upgraded hardware I benefitted from the hand-me-downs, growing up with the x86, 286, 386, 486, 686 processors from AMD and then onto Intel's Celeron processor. While my friends were playing on their Nintendos, I was learning MS-DOS and playing Commander Keen.
Customers would call and place orders for delivery and as business prospered I remember getting a second phone line, followed by third, fourth, fifth lines to our house with a full blown phone system like you would find in a hotel.
I have fond memories of the noise our first 9600 baud modem used to dial up the local internet provider. At thirteen years old I was sprung head first into what would become the Internet of today. Netscape Navigator, mIRC, FTP, and telnet all influenced my view of the world.