November 4, 2011 04:00 pm EDT

Growing up Geek: Sascha Segan

Welcome to Growing Up Geek, an ongoing feature where we take a look back at our youth and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today, we have the lead analyst for mobile at PCMAG, Sascha Segan.

When I turned eight in 1982, we moved house, I starred on a game show and we got an Atari 800. The modem came a year later, free with the 850 serial interface. I needed it so I could print homework on my new Epson FX-80 printer.

The 830 acoustic modem had two rubber cups: you'd dial your number on a rotary-dial phone, listen for the "whee-ooo!" of the modem and slam it down into the cups, hushing everyone around you because too much noise could break the connection. One favorite game was to try to talk to the modem, figuring out which pattern of your own "whee-ooo"s would create something that looked like words. 300 baud was just about as fast as I could read.

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Growing up Geek: Sascha Segan originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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