Welcome to my blog!

Hello, and welcome to my blog! I am here to share my years of computing experience with you. I hope you will find the information helpful.

A little about me... My first computer was a TRS80 CoCo (aka Color Computer). This computer was mainly a keyboard with a place to insert game cartridges on the side. But it also allowed the user to write his own programs in a version of BASIC. My method of saving at the time was on a tape drive. Sequential access and slow as heck!

My first "real" computer after that was an Apple II. This bulky computer started on a floppy drive (5 1/4 in) and was a monitor built in (if i remember right). I had access to only a few programs on it, but I also could write my own in Applesoft BASIC. I also had some experience with the IIe. I don't know off hand what the difference was between the two. The one thing I do remember, though, was that the computer didn't have a hard drive, but the floppy drive was random access. If you've ever experienced sequential access, you know what a difference this can make. The other thing I remember about this one was the monochromatic green on black.

After that, my next computer was, what we called at the time, an IBM clone -- so named because, although the computer was not an IBM model, it did use similar architecture. This was my first computer with a hard drive and also my first with a color screen (other than the TRS80 CoCo that connected to the TV). This was way back before Windows, when you had MS-DOS prompts.

Since that time, I've used just about every "home user" version of MS operating systems, going through several versions of DOS, and using Windows since Windows 3.x. Although I never actually used Windows for Workgroups, and the successors, NT and 2000, I have had training on how to maneuver through them.

I have never really used a Mac on a consistent basis, but, as with the "professional" variations of Windows, I have had at least a cursory training on how to use and find my way around them.

More recently, I have begun to study Linux, particularly the Debian based variations. For certain tasks, I find this operating system to be very compatible with the other OS, but it is not necessarily an easy one to use.

In addition to learning several forms of BASIC (including MS-BASIC and Visual Basic), I have studied other programming languages, such as Pascal, C++, and COBOL. Although I never got a degree, this is what I spent most of my college days studying.

I have been using the web since before it was "public", having gained access to it through school. As such, I have kept an eye on the web standards of HTML, CSS, and am working on learning some XML.

I may not have a degree, but I have been using computers for a very long time, so I know a lot about them, and hope that my experiences can help you be a better user.

Grady Pruitt.