So, how did you get involved, uh, with personal computers?

你是怎么与个人计算机结缘的?

Well, I ran into my first computer when I was about 10 or 11.

我第一次见到计算机是10或11岁

And it’s hard to remember back then but I’m, I’m no fossile now, I’m no fossile

很难回忆当年的情景，我可不是故作老成

So when I was 10 or 11, that was about 30 years ago and no one had ever seen a computer.

大约30多年前，见过电脑的人不多

To the extent they’d seen them, they’d seen them in the movies.

即使见到，也是在电影里

And they were really big boxes with...For some reason they fixated it on the tape drives, as being the icon of what the computer was, or flashing light somehow.

那时电影里的计算机都是装有开盘机的大柜子，闪闪发光

And, so nobody had ever seen mysterious, very powerful things that did something in the background.

真正了解计算机功能和原理的人不多

And so to see one and actually get to use one was a real privilege back.

有机会接触计算机的人更是寥寥无几

And I got into NASA Ames Research Center and I got to use a time sharing terminal.

我有幸在NASA Ames研究中心见到一台

And so I didn’t actually see a computer but I saw a time sharing terminal.

那还不是一台完整的计算机，只是一台分时共享的终端机

And in those days it’s hard to remember how primitive it was. There were no such things as a computer with a graphics video display.

设备非常简陋，连显示器都没有

It was literally a printer. It was a teletype printer with keyboard on it.

只是一台带键盘的电传打印机

So you would keyboard this commands in and you would wait for a while,

你在键盘上输入指令耐心等待

and then things would go "tatatatatata", and it would tell you something else.

然后它会哒哒哒地输出结果

But even with that, it was still remarkable, especially for a 10-year-old,

即便如此这玩意也太奇妙了，尤其是对十岁的男孩而言

that you could write a program in BASIC, let's say, or FORTRAN.

你可以用Basic语言或Fortran语言编写程序

And actually this machine would sort of take your idea,

机器接受并执行你的设想

and it would sort of execute your idea and give you back some results.

然后把结果告诉你

And if they were the results you predicted,

如果结果和设想的一样

your program really work,

说明程序见效了

and it was incredibly thrilling experience.

这太让人激动了

So I became very err.... captivated by computer.

我完全给计算机迷住了