User talk:Star651

Formatting

Hi Star,
I did try and read your user page. Could you perhaps add paragraphs and maybe sub-headings to make it easier to read?

Thanks. --Paddy3118 10:51, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

P.S. It seems like you've done (and written) a lot for 14!
P.P.S. Stay safe on the internet (BBC) (Sorry if I seem like a nanny). --Paddy3118 10:55, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

Welcome

Hey there. If you want to get into a good-natured sizing contest, I'm game. Neither of us will win, though. We may be hot stuff where we come from, but around here, we're the little guys learning from the masters. :)

I'm 27. I fell in love for the first time in 1990, when I was seven years old, with an Apple ][e in my classroom. I forgot to place the boot floppy in the drive and was presented with a <lang text>] </lang> prompt. The school library had three programming books, one on BASIC, one on COBOL and one on Pascal. Through trial and error, I discovered that the BASIC book worked with the machine, while the other two didn't. The BASIC book included a listing of commands, but didn't discuss syntax. I had to figure that out on my own. Within a year (I only had about a half hour a day on the machine), I'd written a program that drew multicolored boxes on the screen.

I eventually convinced my mother to spend our savings on a computer at home, which was how we got our first computer, a Tandy RLX 1000--an 80268-powered machine with 1MB of RAM. I played around with BASICA, GW-BASIC and, eventually, QBASIC. My mother saw me coding, and I showed her how to do what I could do. Pretty soon, she passed my skill level. Later, she tutored, worked professionally, and then taught programming and database design at the local community college. Now she's in the management of their IT department.

As a kid, I memorized the powers of 2, and taught myself to count in binary, because I was bored. Being able to count to 1023 with two hands doesn't win one many friends, though. Being able to represent the number 3 with one finger wins fewer.

In 1999 (so, late middle school/early high school), Linux became my primary operating system. It's been my primary operating system since, though my day job has invariably involved working on Windows.

In middle school and high school, I helped teach other kids how to program through the local community college's computer camp program. In college, I tutored other students in programming, picked up a couple more languages.

Also while in college, I started this site. Mostly, I've found that the other people active here individually know a lot more than I do about a wide range of subjects. Collectively, they represent a massive pool of interests. (Incidentally, their presence on the site are why neither you nor I can reasonably win a boasting match on technical-coolness grounds)

A year ago, I became engaged to an awesome Linux geek. --Michael Mol 12:46, 26 July 2011 (UTC)