This post is part of my 30 days of geek challenge.

My earliest geek experience would have to be as a kid – my dad worked as a mainframe operator for a couple decades, so I vaguely remember being taken to visit him at work through rooms full of computers, racks and other amazingly awesome equipment, thinking how cool it was.

This was back in the early days of Windows 3.1, I seem to remember flying toaster screensavers and donut tape drives. Cool stuff! :-)

This possibly influenced my subconscious (I want to be cool like dad!) but it certainly wasn’t a decision to try being like dad which pushed me into IT or anything – I took a very different path, going down the PC/*NIX way whilst dad has always remained a mainframe operator.

Other than that, my first hands on geek experience was when a family friend gave me an old i386, dad got me DOS onto it and showed me the three commands he knew. I spent ages playing around on it, reading old manuals and figuring bits out for myself. :-)

(As a side note, Dad recently got made redundant from mainframe operations due to a company shift from Wellington to Auckland, if anyone knows a mainframe position that needs someone, please let me know – my mum *really* doesn’t want him retiring although he seems keen on the idea ;-) )