Tell your story

[Cy]

We are having really good growth in the team and as one of the newbiez I thought it might be nice to take a minute and "tell my story".

All of you other noobz feel free to jump in on this thread! :)


I've been working/playing on computers since about 1981. I have built up a home lab to help me study for my profession - IT/IS. I joined the SETI distributed program shortly after it came online over two years ago. As I've added to my home lab my numbers have slowly gone up and I hope to make it to 10,000 by the end of the year.

I spent most of my time crunching SETI as an independant team but started looking around at the bigger teams to see if I was interested in joining one. There seems to be only two types of teams, those that are to big and those that are to small. After watching overclockers.com for some time I decided it had the best feel to it, the best energy level, so here I am. :)

Cy

[Godfodda]

Well, I've already given my SETI history in a previous post, but I'll add in some computer history, too. :)

I started on an Apple //e back in the early '80s. Also messed with a C64 around that time. Quit until '93 when I bought a 386. Went to 486 in '94 (still have it). Quit in '97 (divorce is a wonderful thing). Re-entered in '00 with a Celly 400 (my first step into Pentiums and a total GUI OS). Earlier this year was my first self-built Pentium system (same as current but with a 733 and many fewer fans). And then came overclockers.com. :D

[Sir-Epix]

Well I got my first computer when I was in the 8th grade. It was a 486 Compaq Perserio. It had a 66MHz DX2 processer, 8MB of Ram, 520MB hard drive, and was an all in one unit. I started messing with software, and hardware. This computer had its fair share of problems, some helped along by my exploring. Luckly Compaq has a good warrenty, and I got to learn a lot by parts breaking. I upgraded the CPU myself about a year later. I then went into the high school, where I took computer related course. I had to start in typing, and was head of my class with 147 word per minute by they end of the year. I then went to VB and learned how to program. I excelled in that language, and while outside of class made a operting system shell with a friend. It was good enough for him to go to a computer competion in Houston Texas. This was a big thing, because not many people get to go. I could not go, because I did not have a high enough GPA. You needed a 3.75 and I had a 3.2 :( I then built my first ever computer, which is the Celeron system in my sig. I then heard of the SETI project and I had to do it for two reasons. It shares the same birth day as me, and I do believe in ETI. I then started C++ and misc. hardware installiations. I also collect computers, because I can never through them away. I currently have a collection of 6 computers. Not bad for someone who is only 19. Last summer I was the head of an IS department for a local medical billing company. I then went to college, and dropped out of the computer field as a job. Sorry, I plan on working for NASA as a Planet Finder. I am currently studing Geology and Physics as my majors. Along with that I am studying advanced Mathmatics and Astronomy as my minors. This is not a solid thing, but I am sure that it will stay this way. Only thing that might change will be math as a major, and physics as a minor. I now only do computers as a hobby, and to crunch SETI, because I am an addict. Hope you enjoyed my story.

[JigPu]

Wow Sir-Epix.... You collect computers as bad as me!

Well, I was born back in Feb. '85, and probably started messing on the C-64 somewhere around the second grade. I loved playing games on that thing! We got an Atari some time later, and I played that too. It was on my C-64 that I was introduced to programming. All I could really do was simple programs that would print my name endlessly, but it was still a program.

Later, in the 5th or 6th grade we got a Packard Bell 486 DX2 @66Mhz. Started playing around with Windows, and begame quite proficent at it. I could do all sorts of stuff with. Constantly messed around in the controll pannel, and could make Windows do almost anything I wanted to do.

Then, a few years later, my parents got so sick of the computer taking so long to do the taxes, they bought a new computer. Our current computer. A HP Pavillion with a Celeron 466. Played around with it, and still do.

Then they bought me my own personal computer for christmas. A P-90!! Well, I customized it as much as I could, optimized the BIOS thanks to all the sites out there, and even did my first OC! However, I had yet to find this great site, and found other pages on the net about OCing. Made it run at 100Mhz!! But it was completely unstable, and so I brought it back down. Never could get it stable... Untill I replaced the CPU with a 100Mhz Pentium. Now it runs at 133!!

JigPu

[dugans]

the quick version:
I disliked computers throughout my childhood, and early adulthood. My sister offered to help me do a resume at one point- ended up sitting me at her Mac and I had to do it. I was ****ED.

Few years later the job I was at used pc logs and plc machinery; I didn't like it, but it paid ok. The way we got raises there was by demonstrating skills- after a year I had gotten about all the money I could get from the production areas, so I had no choice but to learn more about comps. This was around '92 or '93.

I bought a used 386, 256k video (yes, that is right!) and 2 mb ram, woohoo!

After learning exactly what fdisk did a number of times I was hooked!

Only touched pcs under protest until I was 27, and now..............:beer: