Jim Howell

Biography

    At the age of eight I moved with my family from my birth state, Illinois to a small farm in Fouke, Arkansas. Home of The Fouke Monster! (aka. Boggy Creek Monster & Bigfoot of the South). At 13 years old, I started managing the Allstar Batting Range in Texarkana, Arkansas.  By the time I turned 15, if I wasn’t working or in the swimming pool, I was spending most of my free time in the video arcades during the video craze of the 80’s.  Thankfully, in 1981 my Mom saw my passion for computers and bought me a Timex Sinclair ZX81 “home computer”. It was the first computer sold for under $100 and remarkably, I still have this computer today! It has an 8bit, NEC Z-80A “Z80” 3.25MHz Processor, 1K RAM with a 16K RAM expansion pack and ran BASIC programming language via external tape cassette and a black and white television for the display. Unfortunately, the ZX81 was slow and difficult to use and many people found it worked better as a door-stop than as a computer.  

Research Interest

    Journal of Nuclear Energy Science & Power Generation Technology [jnpgt]