Hello there this is Mr. D

This honor hits close to home, reminds me of what I did before being Mr. D or Master Guide for the pathfinders. I was a computer person. I would like to be better referred to as a coder. I wrote custom software for banks, investment firms, real estate, restaurant, and pretty much whomever contracted me between 1980 and 2010.

I first became involved with computers during the Viet Nam Crisis and when I got out I went back to college and got my degrees.

I started programming for a company in Los Angeles that open the doors to the Micro Computer technology that was merging in the late 70’s. Companies like IBM, Apple, Radio Shack, Texas Instrument, Digital, and many more trying to get to the market first to provide the ideal computer to the everyday person.  That is where Microsoft got into the game with it’s Computer PC. The name IBM wrote a ticket into the arena but it did not stay number one long.  Computers started to change fast in the 80’s bringing foreign development taking away our control of computers in the USA but open the door to many inexpensive computer that could now be bought for a business or individuals.

The market opened up the doors as stated in the 80’s or closer to the mid 80’s when computers referred as IBM Compatibles or clones emerged into the field of PC’s. The thing to notice was in 81’ computers for a dual floppy base no hard drive was over $5000 and some larger multiuser systems that had hard drives (5 – 10 mb) for around $20,000. The computer market was hot but by the end of the 80’s had averaged down with 486 processors and into the 90’s with Pentium Processor that made the computer even faster. But now computers were under $1000 for a pc with a hard drive and 1 or 2 floppies ( 3 inch and 5 ¼ inch ).

Let me return to what I was doing during this Computer growth of the 80’s and 90’s. I had a computer store for a while but most of my work was contract and with different counties. I was involved with restaurants, clothing, city license renewals, social service applications, and as I said before much more. The 80’s and 90’s brought lots of good contracts but the best was the conversion of 6 digit dates to 8 digit dates stored in databases. This problem was the nightmare of the world at Y2K turn over. The year 2000 which of course passed with no changes in life except computers had a new date to worry about.

Before I became Mr. D and had the honor of teaching children about God and what he has done, I was a Software, Web Designer, and Multimedia instructor at Mt. San Jacinto College for about 5 or 6 years. But the call to be a substitute teacher drew me away from that job to where now I am here bringing Honors for the Pathfinders.

Now there was some great experiences that I had during my career in computers. I met in person a lady called Grace Hooper that I saw at a computer meeting in the 70’s. She held up a wire that was so long ( about arm length ) and said here is how far light travels in a nanosecond and also told her story as a young person flying in a cloth wing airplane and landing in time square in New York. She was a interesting person as well as a life saver. She was one of the few that helped with the Eniac computer to help save the American’s during World War II.

I think the field of computers have changed through the years from giant boxes with test tubes down to hand held cell phones and computers. I see games coming out with wireless head pieces that will replace conventional monitors and possible mouses and keyboards.

Mr. D got out of the Information Technology field or IT because of the speed of the growth in technology. When I was going for my Master in the early 2000 they stated that every two years technology doubles. So where does that leave us. You will find out as you grow with these changes but in this honor I will cover the basic technology of what makes a computer a computer. It should be pretty easy and hope you learn something.

I found this last link that gives a narrative of the computer differences through the 80’s to now. The article is by a site called the ByteScouts.

I will see you at the beginning stage of the honor on what needs to be done and t hen the different stages of the honor.

God Bless