My first memory of computers was an article read somewhere about a computer that took up the area of a room. There was a picture of it in the article and it was the weirdest thing I had ever seen. Metal boxes were everywhere, tubes as far as the eye allowed in the picture. My thoughts were whoa, cool.
My first computer was a TRS 80. My brother had bought one, and talked me into buying one also. It was bought at the local radio shack. The exact amount it cost is no longer in my memory, I know it cost less than a week’s earnings at the time. There was no monitor, it had to be connected to a television set. The printer wrote to rolls of paper not much bigger than cash register paper today.
My brother taught me how to write simple programs and that computer was used mostly as a calculator, however we wrote a few simple programs which were used in my business. There was no way to get in contact with another computer with it, it was a tool which made business life easier.
Friends in the trade could do their calculations faster than was possible on the computer at first. It didn’t take long to make things faster. My brother was always pushing me to greater and greater things. He liked playing games and his programs were mostly games that he had made up. We showed each other what we learned and both managed to use things to help with what we were doing.
My first “modern” computer cost about a month and a half’s earnings. It was bought by my wife in 1993. . She used one at work daily and it was the first thing which had peaked my interest an accident which had caused the loss of use of both legs and a total memory loss. Her decision since computers were
the only thing an interest was shown in, it might help be helpful for regaining my memory.
The decision to buy was hers, both my parents thought it would be a good idea also. When it became part of my life it only took a few months to learn to read, write and type again. Within three months, it was decided college might help me learn even more. The best thing remembered about Junior college was being able to contact another computer. Someone in my typing class sent me a message from their computer to mine. At home my wife our online after that. Not much was available, but talking to other people was possible and was done while my wife was working. My mother or brother or mother were always in the background watching.
Computers didn’t come back into my life until late 1999. Physical therapy, and constant teaching by people all over the country. Medical this, and medical that took up way too much of my time. There were fun things too, horseback riding increased my mobility as did using a riding lawn mower to mow three acres. Many old skills had been taught again so building things also took up my time. In 1999, my wife died.
My brother once again came to the rescue. He let me use his computer to talk to other people who had lost husbands and wives. He had kept modernizing or buying newer computers, and was actually making a living working with them. He worked on a computer about 100 hours each week, which left me very little time so he talked me into buying one for myself.
It made sense to wait until the new year because everyone was worried about what would happen when the year 2000 (Y2K) hit. Once Y2K had passed, the new computer was bought in Feb 2000. It cost a full two months income. It wasn’t the best available at the time but really close. Again my brother was instrumental in teaching me, bringing me up to date with what was going on with computers, and pushing me to learn more.
He moved in with me, and again we spent about two years pushing our limits with our computers. He worked for a local company building computer games. My computer was used to keep in contact with the many people met while getting through my grief. My computer came with a trellix website builder, we both built websites with that program. He kept up with his, mine went by he wayside. After being introduced over the internet to a woman who had lost her husband I became involved and got remarried. Within a few weeks of marriage my friends were all ignored. There were not enough hours in the day to be happily married and spend time with friends.
After the honeymoon was over the computer became a way to spend time while my wife was at work. When it crashed it was never fixed. The marriage ended after four years and a move back to “my home town” allowed me to be on the computer again. Months were spent trying to reach old friends, they had all moved on with their lives and never replied. From then on the only things that computer was used for was whatever the owner asked me to do. Having or using a computer meant nothing to me for years after that. During this time most of my memory returned.
A computer became part of my life again when asked to mentor an online college student. Years behind now it should have been hard but wasn’t. As time had passed using a computer and finding things online had become easier. Months spent finding articles acceptable by the college and bringing myself up to date, did not really bring me up to date. It was a different world, The time spend doing research and from then on not one hundredth of what is available on the internet has been seen.
While doing research to bring myself up to date with the subjects being mentored , sales websites kept popping up in my searches. The student being mentored bought a website and asked me to help her “make it work”. This and the fact she had used my credit card to buy it “put me into internet business”. She mistakenly thought, you could buy a website and you will make a living. It doesn’t work that way. She has bought into a program since then and expected the same thing. She did learn to actually advertise this time, and did earn from the program until she stopped advertising it.
There are what seems like millions of Electronic books, websites, and print books which teach people how to earn money online. Most are out dated and do not work on the internet today. There are “Guru’s” who say they are making millions online. With 3 percent of the people having and making the big money online, it didn’t take long to figure out the “Guru’s” are doing everything they can to make money from programs that they have never used to earn big money with. It is possible to earn a comfortable living online, becoming a millionaire doing it is reserved for very few.
Since the day she bought the first website, my time has been spent learning everything which could learned about how people make a living online. This is what be shared in future articles.
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