Paul Jr Texan

I got into computers early. I dabbled with the Commodore 64 and 128, then went to the Apple II - taught myself Basic and C+, hacked my middle school, created adventure games, joined computer clubs and then it just got too expensive for my dad to keep up, so I was out of the computer scene for a while ( I was a kid, so skateboards and BMX was the thing). Fast forward many years, post undergraduate degree and receiving a chunk of money (Sign-up bonus) from the Army. I bought my first ever PC with my bonus, all $2,400 worth of a custom HP that was rocking an AMD K6 running 550 Mhz, 40GB HDD (which was huge at the time), 512MB SDRAM, ZIP 100 drive and what no one else had at the time, a DVD ROM drive and a separate CD-RW drive. I was the only person around ripping DVD movies and burning them on CD-R's playable in set-top DVD players (VCD). I learned how to do a lot of things on this computer, including how to fix it when one day it wouldn't boot. Part of the $2,400 price tag included an in-home service warranty, which they failed to inform me did not include Hawaii where I was stationed at the time (Schofield Barracks - the armpit of paradise). Shipping costs was estimated at $300 both ways and they wanted me to pick up the tab. As a broke soldier, I figured it was time to get back into computers again. The rest is history.

Getting back into computers after the Apple II days was pretty fun. I taught myself how to fix my computer which led to me to fixing other broke soldier's computers. I was also the worst nightmare for the music and movie industry as I was pirate central; all the soldiers would give me their audio CD's and movie DVD's and I would burn baby burn. Even then, I never profited off of it, my asking price was always covering for the cost of the parts (if any) and food. For ripping jobs, I always asked for blank CD-Rs since they were expensive. Then I started transferring VHS to disc, people's camcorder videos to disc, etc etc. I was doing so much side-work at the time, that I decided to form a business. I've been operating an LLC for the past 8 years on the side (I have a day job) with the goal of bridging the gap between those who can't afford the latest technology and bringing them on-par to those who can as inexpensive as possible. I generally do not advertise my services because it can get really busy, especially for a single dad. I grew up poor and my dad couldn't keep up with the computer technology at the time and it makes me wonder that if we had been able to keep up with the technology, my career path may have been much different. Hence why my daughter does not have those barriers and is fully technologically proficient usually rocking the latest tech.

I bought out old stock from businesses that were upgrading or went out of business. I would refurbish, upgrade and resale at a discount to those who needed a cheap computer for work at home, school, HTPC, etc. I also offer my services to those who got ripped off from and to prevent people from getting ripped off from major box retailer PC fix-it locations (my neighbor got several quotes to replace her laptop battery, the cheapest being $240...that's a rip-off). Local PC fix-it locations are much better, but still might be out of budget for many, so I fill that gap.

I tend to stay away from gaming computers because they are a niche market where even cheap rigs are expensive to those who are not knowledgeable about what makes gaming computers different from their every day desktop. That does not stop me from building gaming rigs for myself and my daughter, and when I upgrade and have an extra gaming rig sitting around, I'll usually sell it to someone who would normally not be able to afford to buy one and avoid resellers or part pirates.

Self taught. I started with Commodore 64/128 and Apple II, Basic and C+, hardware swaps, taking apart hardware to fix, re-solder and was a member of local computer clubs where I was always the youngest person in the place. Growing up with limited funds, I learned how to pirate, burn, crack, etc etc, now I just utilize the tools others have worked hard developing. Life got in the way for a long time until my very first PC purchase where I began my journey into PC's which has never ended. I taught myself how to fix my PC because it was too expensive to get it fixed, so I started fixing everyone else's computers, then people asked if I had any for sale, so I started buying old PC's and refurbishing/upgrading them for resale, then people would ask if I could build PC's with certain specs or for specified purposes, so I started building systems worth a lot more than what I was able to source parts and sell them for saving customers tons of money.