Computers and me

As a child I had come into contact with a computer while visiting a friend from school. We spent hours and hours playing around with it, mostly playing games. One day while the two of us hunched over the keyboard he offered to write a program to demonstrate his newly found skills. I was glued to the screen. He proceeded;

c:\>edit test.bat
@echo off
print hello n
c:\>
c:\>test
hello n
c:\>

I was astounded. I asked "What else can you do with computers?", after very carefull consideration he replied "anything!".

At this point, even as a child, I knew that my life would never be the same. Riding a bicycle, while fun, was overshadowed by computers. Watching TV, while fun, was also overshadowed by computers. I had to get one and eventually I did.

This was the beginning of something BIG.

How did you get started with computers? did computers have such a profound effect on you as they did on me?