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Personal
History
Eventually I will put more detail here. But I needed to
get my redesigned web site up and going.
Born in 1955, the first child of dairy farmer parents, in
a small place called Tamahere, about 10 miles from the city
of Hamilton, in the North Island of New
Zealand.
As a pre-teen I grew up in Tamahere, with two brothers
and three sisters, attending the local Tamahere Model
Country School, which includes both primary and intermediate
education in one school.
As a teenager (1969-1973) I attended high school at Mt.
Albert Grammar School, an all boys boarding school, in
Auckland (75 miles to the north of Hamilton, and the largest
city in New Zealand).
After receiving an educational scholarship (B bursary) to
attend university, I returned home to Hamilton for one year
(1974) to attend the local Waikato University, for an
Engineering Intermediate year (core to all engineering
degrees). I worked part-time at various jobs to put myself
through university, but lived with my parents, who had moved
from Tamahere to another small place, Eureka, about 5 miles
away.
In 1975 I moved to Auckland to attend the University of
Auckland, to persue a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering
degree. I flatted with various friends in several places
around Auckland.
Although I had an interest in electronics, did very well
at high school in related subjects, and wanted to persue a
career of being a computer technician (remember this was
before the time of personal computers), it was while I was
at Waikato University that I got hooked on the software side
of computers. I was lucky to be able to get friendly with
the university computer staff, and get good access often
directly to the local IBM 1130 and remote Burroughs B5600
(at Auckland University - remember RJE <grin>?)
mainframe systems. However what I did most of the time was
produce "pinup" calendars on the line printer, from punched
cards.
More of the same occurred when I attended Auckland
University. Being a four year course (1 year Immediate), I
got plenty of opportunities to use the computer centre.
Lots more to come...
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