Staring at a blank DOS prompt in wonder on my dad's 286 in 2nd grade.
Programming randomly-shaped stars in logo in 4th grade.
Accidentally activating the BIOS password on my first computer and not being able to boot it again for six months until my uncle suggested "amibios" which worked!
Learning HTML so that my internet chats would look more awesome. Learning how to make it look like I was logged in as any other user in the chatroom.
Hacking my high school's login screen with COM files to say mean things about my school.
Setting IRQs for my sound card so I could play King's Quest with sound.
My first real program was a SkiFree clone written in Pascal. I invented the concept of sprites about 6 years before I learned that they had been a thing all along.
Been using UNIX since the late 80s; Linux since the mid-90s; virtualization since the early 2000s and spent the past few years working in the cloud space.
Location
Alexandria, VA, USA
Education
B.S. Psychology from Pennsylvania State University
Accidentally activating the BIOS password on my first computer and not being able to boot it again for six months until my uncle suggested "amibios" which worked!
And back before there was anything like Google to tell you "pop the battery to reset it".
I didn't know about the battery trick! I really wish I had. And I didn't even have a modem at the time to connect to Usenet. Later I got access to the internet through the local college's T1 line, and basically felt like the coolest person ever.
Been using UNIX since the late 80s; Linux since the mid-90s; virtualization since the early 2000s and spent the past few years working in the cloud space.
Location
Alexandria, VA, USA
Education
B.S. Psychology from Pennsylvania State University
Yeah. It was an annoying way to do things. You'd pop the CMOS battery, and then you'd have to wait for the CMOS to discharge (usually took a half hour or so).
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Staring at a blank DOS prompt in wonder on my dad's 286 in 2nd grade.
Programming randomly-shaped stars in logo in 4th grade.
Accidentally activating the BIOS password on my first computer and not being able to boot it again for six months until my uncle suggested "amibios" which worked!
Learning HTML so that my internet chats would look more awesome. Learning how to make it look like I was logged in as any other user in the chatroom.
Hacking my high school's login screen with COM files to say mean things about my school.
Setting IRQs for my sound card so I could play King's Quest with sound.
My first real program was a SkiFree clone written in Pascal. I invented the concept of sprites about 6 years before I learned that they had been a thing all along.
And back before there was anything like Google to tell you "pop the battery to reset it".
Of course, back before Google, we had Usenet.
I didn't know about the battery trick! I really wish I had. And I didn't even have a modem at the time to connect to Usenet. Later I got access to the internet through the local college's T1 line, and basically felt like the coolest person ever.
Yeah. It was an annoying way to do things. You'd pop the CMOS battery, and then you'd have to wait for the CMOS to discharge (usually took a half hour or so).