What experiences with computers have you had? I am going to talk a bit about computers. Anyone who really knows me knows that I have had a long life with computers.

My first computer was of course the oft-used H-89.

I got a Compaq MS-Dos machine.

I got an AT.

I got a 386 Laptop.

I ran a bulletin board system. I used a couple different softwares over the years.

First I ran Opus. 1.03 or some such if memory serves.

Then I switched to UltraBBS, by a talented but early up/down kid Bob Farmer.

Then I ended up running EZYbbs by Peter Davies from Australia. All in all and by far the best I ever ran/used. I also had PCBoard but never really got into it and never saw why it was better than UltraBBS.

All these ran ANSI screens for a colorful introduction, since people were starting to get color monitors for their own homes. RGB and then even CGA. Wow. What progress.

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The H/89 was a great machine. I lived in St. Joe, Michigan, which is where Heathkit was homed. I got my first computer from Wayne Wilson, who worked at Heath. I was an avid hobbiest using this application for law. I mainly used CP/M but occassionally HDOS. I used WordStar 3.x. SuperCalc. A daisy-wheel printer from Brother. Before I left St. Joe, I had installed a H/37 and 47 cards for “soft sector” 8” and 10 MEG HD with 8”.

During that time there was a change coming. Digital Research, which owned CP/M, was contacted by IBM to write an operating system for a new architecture computer they were developing. The owner of DR went parasailing or some such - he blew off the meeting. His competitor was then contacted, and Bill Gates agreed on behalf of his company to write the software.

I got a “PC-compatible” from Heath/Zenith when they came out. It ran HZ’s version of MS DOS, and at that time HDs were not readily available to people like you and me.