Lost my Mind

Dowty was a tech incubator, that was for sure and during the first year or so after my return, I found time to learn Patran, Fortran and by chance, develop my knowledge of the personal computer. This was augmented by my relationship with Jim Collins and the association with the ham radio community, branching out directly with the computer "fest" community.

It was an exciting time for sure, I bought my first personal computer, spent an absolute fortune on it, along with some dot matrx printer. In a very short time I was on the upgrade path, replacing stuff, motherboards and hard drives, all because the latest version of Doom would require something faster.

I was turning into a gamer.

I was also turning into a Homebrewer.

Not just a homebrewer of very horrible beer, but a term used for someone who builds computers from scratch, I recall that Rob Chappell gave me a box of stuff from his dad, a box of Dell computer parts that at one time had been a "286" and they sat around for a while until there was a need, and if I recall correctly, the need was Graeme Wright, who wanted a personal computer and all we had to do was assemble, as cheaply as possible, a unit to do the essentials.

The essentials being Lotus 123 or it's equivalent free version, "Aseasy (as) 123" again, if my memory serves me well. This Aseasy program was a public domain, freeware program, that was equivalent to the famous 123 program, and me and the Scottish guy developed ways to track our finances and more importantly, our mortgages on a home computer (besides our handheld computers).

In was the beginning of financial freedom.

So, really, It wasn't like I was really losing my mind, it was more like I was finding it.