Jay, I agree, determination is the key. My first experience was that while I was working on chemical analysis equipment, the boss brought in a BIG box. When asked what it was he told me that it was something called a computer and there was some books with it. Anyhow, I figured out how to connect wires between our box and the PDP-8 and that I had to make something called a program and put it in. I still remember the feeling of acomplishment when I managed to transfer a signal between the two. I soon found out that the basic memory capacity (2k) on the PDP-8 was not enough and had the company pay an awful lot for 2k more. I learned to be frugal with resources, the kids today would not believe how much you actually can do with a teletype and 4k besides shaking the building while reading paper tape.