[rmason]

Those ads really take me back. I had a college friend tell me in 1974 that everyone would have a computer on their desk by 1984. We ruthlessly mocked him for it. But in 1983 I got a computer on my desk at the fertilizer plant. There was zero software for the fertilizer industry at the time. So I started with Lotus 123 and taught myself the macro language and set out to create it.

Then I convinced my boss to buy me a copy of dBase II and set out to learn that as well. I was spending every work night until 11 pm. Got tired of that so I withdrew $3500 out of my meager savings and bought an IBM XT clone from a new company in Flint. I remember adding a modem so that I could explore CompuServe, a large mainframe based online service by H & R Block.