I never met him, but he indirectly is the reason why I
do what I do today.
I was still looking for a teaching job in 1979 and the
economy was not doing well so nobody was hiring. Not as bad as
now, but not good, either.
I knew what computers did but not how they did it and
the only connection I had was I liked to build circuits with
digital logic gates and counters. I had built an alarm clock to
use while in school which was like none other before or since,
but it got the job done. Hint. It used a single 1024-bit by one
memory chip and a bunch of 7493's with a NE555 timer chip as the
alarm oscillator 'cause they'll drive a speaker directly. You
don't want to know the rest.
My graduate advisor suggested I talk to some people in
Oklahoma City who ran a small computer store. I did and it
turned out that because I was an amateur radio operator, they
would teach me about the Apple II and I could then sell them to
customers who were in to amateur radio because they were always
pestering them with questions they couldn't answer.
I was there 6 months plus a little part-time work for
them later, but that's how I got in to computers and also
learned assembly language for the 6502. That doesn't do much for
a person these days, but it warps your mind just the right way
to program other systems and appreciate Monty Python and Cheech
and Chong.
Martin
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