Wednesday, April 26, 2017

My Dad & Bill Gates

Today in class we learned about Bill Gates and his company Microsoft as part of the technology boom in the 80's. I know my dad has always been really interested in computers, so I asked him about how he felt about all of the new innovations of the time. Unexpectedly, he had a lot of really interesting stories to tell.

My dad actually knew Bill Gates in the 80's. He dated my dad's sister, Patty, for several months. He met him a few times when he would come to his parents' house. My dad asked Bill if he could get him an interview at Microsoft, which he did, but my dad didn't take the job because he took a job at Apple instead (ouch).

He also described some experiences in college. He was one of the very few people at his school, UCSB, who had a personal computer. He says that he would always have people begging to use it, as this was before there was a computer lab at the school. He got a macintosh in 1984, and he said it was $2500. The school got a computer lab just a couple years later.

In the late 80's, him and his friends created their own computer lab, which they invited the UC Extension program to use for their classes. They accepted, so him and his friends taught computer classes there. It was called the Microcomputer Education and Training Center.


No comments:

Post a Comment