I am turning 55 at the end of the month. Started out no cell phones, computers, etc! I grew up, my dad a naval radar tech. Helped him repair old tube radios! I was in the VERY first computer class in michigan schools. (atari 600’s if i remember correctly). My dad received Heathkit catalogs, he built a coupke things, but i always dreamed of making a robot, etc. Now flash to today where we have a forum of GLOBAL people coming together to help design and R&D a cnc in THEIR HOMES!!! WTH, it is only 30 maybe 40 years and we now have sooooo much! I will say that this place is FUN!!! Thank you everyone for making it fun! @vicious1 I quite often say thank you for keeping the lights on, but I really, really mean that!!
Congratulations on the big 55 @RockinRiley!!! And you said it better than I ever could! This place is truly awesome!
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It is wild to think about right!? I am only a couple years behind you. I always remember the hand tools in the garage far out numbering the corded ones, until all the cords went away again.
Happy Birthday!!!
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Thanks and major congrats!
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Same age as me. Pretty wild to think about the progress.
My grandparents were born into a world of horse and buggy and watched humanity land on the moon. I have more available compute power in my pocket right now than the entire planet had on the day I was born.
Happy birthday!
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55 is the new 35. At least that’s what I’m telling myself. 
I started my computer journey on a Radio Shack TRS-80 then my dad bought an Apple IIe. Fun times.
Hope you have a great one!
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@RockinRiley
Happy birthday! And very amazing facts you are pondering on. When I was young, one of the earliest computers, and one I wanted so badly (but we were poor and I never did get one) was the Commodore 64 — it used a normal TV (the old cathode ray tube kind, with tin foil attached to the antennae) as its monitor!
I am just ahead of you. I’m 56 and will be turning 57 this Christmas Eve.
@vicious1 I could not believe when you said you’re only a couple years behind him! You look so young when I see you in pics and even video!
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LOL, just passed my 66th, and retired on the same day. Young’ens… 
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I am the youngling here it seems, turning 40 this year. I also grew up without mobile phones, my dad had a 16mhz computer with a turbo button for 32 and 20mb ram… His colleagues told him he wouldn’t need that much ram in 20 years…
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Every time I upgrade a bit of computer stuff I am asked the same rhetorical question “I thought you said when you bought that 20 Mb hard drive, that it would last a lifetime?”
Some things they never forget!
@RockinRiley Happy birthday young fella, every year gets better from here on!
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Happy Birthday to you
Although I’m a bit younger and closer to Philipp’s age, I feel quite like an old man too, rambling about how kids have it good nowadays 
My 6yo son always takes for granted we can just “make things” at home 
Like “Why don’t you just buy some wood and cut new railway/tracks for my model train?”
When I was a kid, my dad repaired my broken plastic toys by burning it with a lighter and gluing it back … and it never lasted for more than a week
together, now I’m repairing my child’s toys by just re-printing the whole part … and it gets destroyed again in less than a week
How times have changed… not! ^^
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Kids, especially little ones, can be hard on toys!
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Happy Birthday! 
I hope you enjoy your birthday and have many more to come!
I agree, It truly is astonishing what these machines can do.
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If you’re the youngster in this group, I must be a baby 
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Man, it’s nice not being the oldest! Just turned 50 at the end of last month.
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Shoutout to the Heathkit veterans!!!
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those things just made me want to BUILD everything!
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Forgot to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! 
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I’m 55. Heathkit was more my dad’s thing than mine though he got me a couple small learning kits I put together once upon a time. He built a TV, a Stereo and a phonograph that lived in our living room for a long time. He passes a while ago and I inherited the stereo and phonograph. They have been sitting unused for 20+ years and I probably ought to find them a appreciative home - I probably can’t hold them much longer and they’ll end up in a landfill.
For nostalgic reasons, I really wish I had a picture of the TV. It had an ultrasonic remote that was not so ultra-sonic; it made a very annoying noise that would drive me nuts - at least when I was a kid and had decent hearing. But the really cool part was the automatic roller doors on the cabinet that would open and close when it was switched on and off.
I think the phonograph was the last kit he built. More of a higher level mechanical assembly of electronic boards - I think he lost interest when they moved away from bare component soldering.
It even came with a “deathstar” ultrasonic receiver for the remote:
I don’t have pictures of the actual stereo but I am pretty sure it is this one (AR-1500):
I’ll try to dig out his “digital” multimeter that’s buried somewhere and take a video - this picture I stole from the internet doesn’t do it justice.
Each digit is a separate tube. Inside each tube are 10 numbers stacked front to back that were illuminated individually. It looks so cool when the reading changes and the display updates!
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Nice!!!
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