How Bill Gates, the Altair 8800 and BASIC propelled me into the PC revolution

The Altair 8800, the first commercially successful personal computing device. Boston Globe/Getty Images Have I told you the story about Bill Gates and me in those early days of personal computing? To be clear: Bill Gates is older than I am. In 1975, as Bill was leaving Harvard to start Microsoft, I had just skipped my last year of high school and started college. I was the youngest student in engineering school that first year -- the same year Bill and I were using the same computer technology: the Altair 8800 and the Digital Equipment PDP-10. My high school computing experience -- like Bill's -- was formative. However, I never wanted to be a computer scientist. I wanted to build nuclear reactors. Also: Microsoft at 50: Its incredible rise, 15 lost years, and stunning comeback - in 4 charts In high school, I was still grappling with being a teenager, convincing the adults that I needed to be in engineering school instead of coasting through senior year, trying to persuade Amy Katz ... Read full article.