I'm 49. My first computer was a PDP-11/40 running the first distribution of Unix that Bell Labs sent to Universities. I started programming using punch cards. Eeeks.

I'm a community college comp sci instructor, mostly the beginning programming courses in Java. During summer vacation I spend a lot of time teaching Linux kernel internals classes.

Oh yes, exactly! And 'walkie-talkies' that required a line-of-sight connection at no more than ten feet. Still, my brother and I had good fun with these 'high-tech' toys

And to all the old-timers, here, it now seems logical, that we would at least be well represented among the posters in threads like this! I love reading these stories, thanks to all!

Thanks for reviving a memory Greyghost! I bought 2 sets of walkie talkies for my brothers and I one Christmas (4 of us) that were a cool design but had limited range. Still, we had a blast.

My brother an I had black walkie talkies with orange buttons. One was a 'beep' button for sending morse code, the other you held down to talk. Funny thing, one morning we heard weird noises coming out of them and they got louder as we went toward the park. As we got closer and pushed both buttons at the same time, we heard some kid swearing. Turns out they ran on the same frequency as his Turbo Hopper RC car and we'd make it drive forward and turn left at the same time. (Being little sh*t disturbers, we stayed out of sight and when he drove near a tree or the playground *click* *SLAM!*)

Great. At 46, a poll that makes me pick "46 and above". Officially an old fart now.

Walkie Talkies, oh boy, what fun if you get two for Christmas. I'm not sure what my folks were thinking, if anything, when they gave me one walkie talkie for Christmas. I loved it though. I would sit and try to receive whatever I could . Never did hear anything but static. Kind of a sad story. LOL

Neil

just turned 29 here...my first computer was (i believe it counts...lol) an Atari XE with modem and disk drive and everything else you could get for it(still have it and it still works)... then had a tandy computer with like a 40mb hdd ....hell , i was usin a compaq laptop i bought in 97 with onlt a 1.5gig hdd until like 2003-2004 my first experience with linux was the 770 and have had the 800 and now the 810

At least we know at which age the author feels a person is completely irrelevant. lol All I can say is that I'd better get what's coming to me from Social Security...and you kids get off my lawn!!!

lol which age group is that? When I first made the poll, I was thinking to add some more categories, then I got lazy! But I certainly don't think any age group is irrelevant, especially the above 45 crowd.

Another old fart (50) checking in! I don't remember the specifics of my first computer, but I purchased it sometime around 1990 from a techie guy who cobbled it together for me. I remember scoffing at Windows and anything else that wasn't text-based (yep, I had a GEnie account). I didn't need no stinkin' graphics! *waves cane*