Started college in 1982, and had already learned BASIC and Pascal via a mainframe terminal at my high school. So of course I swaggered over to the college compu

Started college in 1982, and had already learned BASIC and Pascal via a mainframe terminal at my high school. So of course I swaggered over to the college computer center to see if they had any student jobs. I thought I was hot shit. Well, jobs involving the campus mainframe were reserved for CS students, which I was not. But they said I could have the job of maintaining the "micro lab," a room with a half dozen TRS-80 Model III's that was pretty much ignored by everybody except the kids of a couple professors came in after school to play games. Among other things, I discovered word processing. I decided to try word processing a term paper. Turning it in was a bit dramatic, first I went to the professor and showed him a sample of the printout (dot matrix) and asked for permission to use a word processor. He tentatively said yes, but... This triggered a lengthy discussion at the all-faculty meeting, to decide if they would allow word processing. It was the physics professors who talked them off the ledge, explained that the computer isn't actually doing the writing, etc. The faculty issued a ruling: Word processing was OK, but you're on your honor not to use a spell checker! That was fine, I didn't have a spell checker anyway. I started "doing the research" on getting my own computer. I set myself a budget of 1000 bucks for computer, monitor, software, and printer. This was a time when a lot of computers were "bundled" with basic software. I came in close to my budget with a Sanyo MS-DOS computer, Zenith monochrome display, and a super cheap daisywheel printer. Software was Wordstar and Sanyo BASIC. My dad read this article in the Wall Street Journal about a guy who was selling a software app for just $39, so he got me Turbo Pascal for my birthday! I don't think my professors guessed the real advantages of word processing, but I have a hunch it bought me at least 1/2 a point on my overall GPA. I also developed a love for microcomputers that influenced my career. At my college, the CS program used the "real" computer, but the people doing cool things with microcomputers were in the math and physics department, so I majored in those subjects. The profs were pretty heavily into the TRS-80, and had even networked them in some primitive way, so they could transmit their manuscripts to the department secretary. Plus, of course I got to learn about hardware hacking!