On 2008-09-12, Harold and Susan Vordos wrote:

I've often read DoN's comments in wonder. How he has learned so much about
computers boggles the mind.

Well ... I've been *very* interested in computers for many
years. First exposure was to a desktop programmable calculator by HP (at
work -- I had no way to afford one at home), and I learned that I liked
the process of programming.

I was already an electronics technician, and even had some
patents for circuits which I had designed.

About 1976 I was able to get a computer in kit form (the Altair
680b), and it was at such a low level that I had to learn a lot more to
program it (in machine language). As the computers grew and acquired
languages I was able to learn more and more, and for the last few years
before I retired I was a unix network systems administrator.

Note that there are facets of computing where I don't know as
much as some others here -- because I've never done much with Windows,
and have particularly disliked it. :-) I am learning the Mac OS-X (with
a Mac Mini) since it has a real unix hiding under it.

It is sort of related to how I learned machining. I saw what
machine tools could do for me, and managed to become friendly with
professional machinists at work and learn a lot from them, along with
chances to use the machines there to augment what I learned.

My machines at home started with a drill press made from a stand
and an electric drill, then a Unimat SL-1000 (which was lathe, mill, and
drill press -- among other things), followed by a nice sensitive drill
press. This was the limit in my apartment -- but once I got married, I
had more room to set things up, and more tools started coming in and
teaching me what they were good for.

Like CNC operations, I ignored computers until
they had grown substantially. I now realize I should have grown with them.
Probably never be anywhere near as sharp as DoN, but at least I'd be able to
understand them to some degree.

The main thing is to get the interest, and then play with things
to learn. Often it helps to have a project in mind to use the computer
for -- just as you can learn a machine tool better if you have something
in mind which you want to do with it.

But mostly -- I've never been afraid to *try* things to learn
from them.

You, however, had motivation to learn deeply about the areas of
machining which you considered your own -- and we all can learn from you
on that.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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