I'm one of the lucky ones who can date the inspiration for his career to a single date: 1-14-1975. I was 15 years old, and watched this episode. I remember a line from it very clearly. The computer consultant Charles Arrons was talking about the "miracle" of the computer to the owner of the computer company. He said "Well, I'm your miracle. I make guys like you." This was the first time I even thought there was somebody writing the software that made computers work. In fact, it was the first time I heard the word "software." This was 1975 after all.
It also didn't hurt that the episode was one of the more suspenseful and exciting ones. After seeing his gadgets and hearing about that "miracle," I wanted nothing more than to write software. I was fortunate the next year to start at a high-school which had a computer, an old card-based machine. After writing my first program, I was hooked. Since then I've had a great career in software development that I wouldn't trade for any other career. I thank the writers of that episode, and the convincing actor who played Charles Arrons for my initial enthusiasm for software development. Hawaii Five-O was such a quality program, and this episode epitomizes it.