Who Am I?
My name is Zach Dennison and I am a Computer Technology student at SMCC. I have been interested in computers since I was 9 years old, and I knew then that I wanted a career in the computer field. I graduated from Bonny Eagle in 2008, attended the University of Maine for a year, then enrolled at SMCC. I enjoy repairing computers, my friends and family always hand me their computers to fix when they have problems (and I'm so nice I fix them for free). I still don't know exactly what type of job I will get, but I will be happy as long as it is in the computer field.
My Interest in Computers: The Beginning
My interest in computers started in third grade when I used the school's Apple Macs to type my papers. I became very interested in the software, and wanted to know everything that it could do. I did all the work I could on those computers. I learned how to type papers and create slide shows, and I used the computer to conduct research for projects. Back then, a lot of my research was done using the Grolier's Encyclopedia CD-ROM, the internet wasn't used as much as it is today.
Besides school work, I would play around with the computer. I checked out control panels, looked at the other applications installed on the computer, and looked at the contents of the system folder. That curiosity hasn't left me, I'm always looking at control panels and system folders of new operating systems.
First Computer
When I was in fourth grade (2000) a family member gave me their old computer. The computer was an IBM PS/1 with a 25Mhz 386 processor and 4MB RAM. Even at the time, that hardware was outdated. With that computer I became very knowledgable with Windows 3.1 and DOS. I wrote batch programs that displayed a list of commands, and let the user choose an option. Using an old computer is a good way to learn the fundamentals of IT. Because older computers would often have random errors that needed to be fixed, you often needed to learn fundamentals like using DOS commands and changing the config.sys file. I even had a sound card that would randomly stop working, and I would have to change IRQs. At the time I just wished I had a modern computer, however in retrospect, I'm glad I had an old computer to play around with and learn the fundamentals that I use today.
First Virus
A virus named Junkie infected some of the recovery disks of the PS/1. The weird thing is that the disks worked when I received them, and they weren't put in another computer before getting infected. The other odd thing is that the computer wasn't connected to the internet. Anyway, the virus would infect .COM files, and once loaded into memory would halt the system. It would target command.com, and the boot sector, so when you rebooted the computer, it would immediately halt.
High School Classes
My high school offered 3 computer repair classes, Software, Hardware, and Technical Support. I took the software and hardware courses once, and the tech support course 5 times. The technical support class was a hands on course where you would repair computers and other devices brought in my teachers and students. Each week you would have to submit a log describing what you did each day. Because the projects in the course were always changing, there was no limit to the number of times you could take the course. That is why I took it over and over again. The class gave an idea of what it's like to have an IT job, and gave me more experience repairing different type of devices.
