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It was a kind of an amazing thing."
想起來真讓人難以置信。”
It was an "amazing thing," of course, because this was 1968.
這是一件令人“難以置信”的事，確實如此，因為這是在1968年。
Most colleges didn't have computer clubs in the 1960s.
在20世紀60年代，大部分高校都還沒有什么電腦俱樂部，
Even more remarkable was the kind of computer Lakeside bought.
湖邊學校購買的計算機更是顯得彌足珍貴。
The school didn't have its students learn programming by the laborious computer-card system,
湖邊學校的學生不需要像20世紀60年代其他學校的學生一樣，
like everyone else was doing in the 1960s.
必須依靠人工計算機卡片系統學習編程，
Instead, Lakeside installed what was called an ASR-31 Teletype,
相反，湖邊學校安裝的是一款ASR-33電傳打字機，
which was a time-sharing terminal with a direct link to a mainframe computer in downtown Seattle.
這是和西雅圖市區其中一臺主機的分時系統終端相連接的設備。
"The whole idea of time-sharing only got started in 1965," Gates continued, "someone was pretty forward looking."
“1965年剛剛提出分時理論，”蓋茨繼續說道， “有些人就敏銳地看到了其前景。”
Bill Joy got an extraordinary early opportunity to learn programming on a time-sharing system as a freshman in college in 1971.
1971年，還是大學新生的比爾.喬伊就非常幸運地利用分時系統學習編程。
Bill Gates got to do real-time programming as an eighth grader in 1968.
而比爾.蓋茨在1968年讀七年級的時候，就開始實時編程了。
From that moment forward, Gates lived in the computer room.
此后，蓋茨便住在了計算機房，
He and a number of others began to teach themselves how to use this new strange device.
他和其他幾個同伴開始自己摸索怎樣操作這陌生的機器。
Buying time on the mainframe computer the ASR was hooked up to, of course, was expensive,
當然，購買ASR連接計算機主機的上機時間是非常昂貴的，
even for a wealthy institution like Lakeside,
即便像湖邊這樣資金充裕的學校也覺得太貴，
and it wasn't long before the three thousand dollars put up by the Mothers' Club ran out.
在利用母親俱樂部的3000美元購置終端設備之前，上機的時間都很短。
Parents raised more money. Students spent it.
雖然父母們資助的錢在增加，但學生們的開銷也在增加。
Then the group of programmers at the University of Washington formed an outfit called Computer Center Corperation or C-Cube,
后來，華盛頓大學的程序工程師組建了一個名為電腦中心公司（C-Cubed)的機構，
which leased computer time to local companies.
他們向當地的公司出租計算機上機時間。
As luck would have it, one of the founders of the firm, Monique Rona, had a son at Lakeside, a class ahead of Gates.
幸運的是，電腦屮心公司其中一個創始人莫尼克.羅的兒子在湖邊學校讀書，比蓋茨高一個年級。
Would the Lakeside Computer Club, Rona wondered, like to test out the company's software programs on the weekends in exchange for free programming time?
羅那覺得，是否可以讓湖邊電腦俱樂部的學生利用周末時間，為公司測試軟件程序，以此換取使用電腦的時間？
Absolutely! After school, Gates took the bus to the C-Cube offices and programmed long into the evening.
這當然沒問題！放學之后，蓋茨便乘公共汽車來到電腦中心公司的辦公室，在這里一直編程到入夜。
