A New Hobby Late In Life.

I had an old Commodore back in the 80s and then started working on PCs at a job. In those days, information was downloaded to local servers which were then uploaded once a day to the mainframe in another state. I ended up being the one who did those initializations and data transfers. At home, there were bulletin boards that people communicated on, but not in real time. The data went by dial up modem from one computer in a network to another once a day. Then when we finally got DSL in our town, we got hooked up to the internet in the mid-90s. In 1999, I started going online and chatting in internet chat rooms because I was home on maternity leave. I haven't turned the dang thing off since.

I have been using the computer for years many ,many years now.. but I never learned to type. I still use two fingers. Everyday learn new things and evolve online.

I have been using computers for over twenty years. I had to start to try to keep up with my kids who learned them in school. I do love the world wide aspect of the computer.

It's a long time that I use a computer. Our first personal computer was an Apple II, this was in the year 1979 in France. I have learned to type in school, I am a fast typist, this helps when I have to comment.

i got putered in the mid-late 80's myself. took me some courses 'n got a degree in fact. useless piece 'f paper now, but did get a .05 raise 't work, lol. when i quit that job, i quit puters, too. boy howdy did i miss bunches 'f vast improvements! i'm so glad yer daughter set'cha up 'n got'cha started. my daughter finally installed skype when she came in july. i dunno why, coz i aint got nobody to talk to on the darned thingy - she's always too busy... 's fer the typin', i recall my dad 'd a secretary the fire dept hired...who couldn't type a lick, lol. he learned with 2 fingers 'n i'll be darned if'n he couldn't smack out 'bout 40wpm within a few months. i joked with 'em that he'd missed his callin'.

I think its wonderful that any age person can do just about anything with a computer. I have an ipad and the home PC and somewhere there is a laptop on a shelf that is always charged for the power outages.

I too am no spring chicken either. After I gave up my job I picked up a few courses and at that time 'Windows' was not heard of. Windows actually makes life easy for us and today I can say I am quite competent doing things that I did not dream I would venture into.

I think that I am also grateful to your daughter for showing you this! I have enjoyed so many of your posts over the months and hope to continue to do so. I learned to type in the 70's when I was in high school, of course that was on an old fashioned typewriter. I can key much much faster. We've had a computer in our home for over 20 years.

@valmnz Wonderful that your daughter thought about the #computer for you. I found out about the Internet almost 20 years ago, it was with the phone line then, and slow. But I fell in love with this new stuff and now can't live without my computer.

Kudos to you, sir! Sometimes it just takes a bit of a push and then you find that whatever it is is not as fearsome as you thought. :) I'm 61. In the mid 1970s, when I was an biomedical sciences undergraduate, I was sent to a Fortran course. Two lessons and a practical scared me off computers for a quite a long time. Then in 1986, I needed to refresh my degree and PhD, so did a PG course in library and information studies. That is when I finally started to use a computer for word processing. Three years later I had a job managing a database and scientific information system in a charity. I only got the job because the people who interviewed me knew even less about computers than I did. LOL! After that, things got better and better. I remember getting dial-up Internet at home in 1992. It was very exciting! Today, I work from home as a medical translator. I receive and return all my work by email, have to use MS Office and also dedicated translation memory software. I pay for software/hardware support of all sorts, because my livelihood depends on having a working system. However, I've learned to sort out minor problems by myself. I've set up several web sites over the years. Overall, I feel fairly comfortable with computers most of the time now.

Good after noon.Like Martin says you are beating every one here.you have the magic touch.Good for you. Maybe some of this will rub on me from you.Good luck and why not like I alway say. You have it.

It's great we can all be as connected as we want. I started writing on a Mac in the 80's and an Amiga in the 90's. Neither of those was mine. I finally bought a Mac in '99 because my child had to have one for school. He then built himself one, built me a new one...I've never looked back! Now I have a Windows laptop/tablet convertible and a Linux laptop.

I used computer when I was about 9 years old. At that time, I can just use my two fingers to type, just like you. O(n_n)O~ And when I went to the college, I have my own laptop. And now I am using it to type.

@JaboUK I started on computers as a part of my studies .But never really got into the social media.Having lived all my life in small towns , there was a lot of face to face interaction and there still is. But now with the changes in my life , I too see how nice it is to be in touch like this!! I am liking making friends in different parts of the world too. Thing is when my elder son left home, he refused to Skype me or be friends with FB!!! But now he is responsible and is more communicative. I missed out not having a daughter. Your's sounds so caring :)

You are doing amazingly @jaboUK ! I learned to type when I was about 13/14, and it was about that time my math included computer programming (which I hated and didn't understand). When I was about to graduate college, that's when the whole design on computers boomed - but I stuck with old school style in doing design by hand. In my 20s, the internet world was already out, but the company I worked for was a latecomer to that - so much that I could stick to old school style ways for much longer. It was about my late mid-20s that I finally jumped on the internet bandwagon but didn't get on these fun sites until my mid-30s when I left work to be a stay at home mom. Wow, I just had a flashback in life - ha ha!

Hi Jabo. I love reading your discussion. It's not late to learn whatever we desire. You know, my father who is just older than you for a few years has no interest in computers. He only has his mobile phone. Anyway that is still part of the technology that was not yet existing in his time. Do you mind if I follow you here in mylot? Oops I forgot, I'm using the computer because of my work. I have been using for 15 years at the office. Before we were supplied with computers, we were using typewriters then. You know, using the computer made our work easier in many ways as compared to typewriters.

I was forced to start using it while teaching about 15 years ago and was lucky to learn quite a few skills over the years. I'm still learning new things all the time though

One is always too young to learn about computers! Now that they are part and parcel of our lives. And if they can lead us to pay dirt, as they seem to be doing here, what more can one ask for?!

Can't recall exactly when I got my first computer. A relative gave me a computer. It was before windows so I had to learn a little dos. I don't remember anything but making a lot of lists and it was very boring. After the initial novelty wore off, the computer just sat there and I didn't touch it. In 1998, I got my first Windows computer. Again, it was a gift from a relative and I have been on line almost every day since then. As for the computer literacy, I'm lacking the foundation. I can do some fairly complicated things which I had an incentive to learn for one thing or another but I just don't know the basics and it always catches up with me. I keep saying I'm going to take a couple glasses at a micro center but I never seem to get around to it.

My son showed me how to type and there was a program on the computer (the first one) so I could learn how to type. My kids bought me a Mac and I still have trouble at times with it, especially with my business files that moved from Microsoft to here but I'm getting better. I have loved my time spent on the computer too.