Re: bedtime with Daddy

Steven Gabriel (sgabriel@willamette.edu)
Sun, 21 Nov 1999 19:52:30 -0800 (PST)

> Why, Oh Why, couldn't Daddy have sat me in his lap as a child and read to me 
> stock market reports or lines of computer programming?  I'd have soooo much 
> more money now... :)

Along with a healthy dose of bedtimes stories, computer programming was
part of my ubringing.  At about age 7 or 8 I wrote my first program with
my mother alongside watching me hunt and peck on a dusty, already "old"
Atari 800.  We made a lovely little game wherein you had to guess a number
between 1 and 100 with help after each guess (i.e. guess higher or guess
lower).  I was entranced.

But .... years later I shunned the Silicon Valley and professional
computing.  I'm still fascinated though that with only a few minutes of
typing I can make an old Radio Shack TRS-80 spit out random colours and
beeps. =)

In other words, be careful what you wish for. =)

Maybe in a couple of years when I'm teaching my first intro computing
course I'll drag out my old Atari.  

-S.


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:   Steven Gabriel -- sgabriel@willamette.edu     :
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:  "Sitting quietly doing nothing,                :
:   Spring comes and the grass grows by itself."  :
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