I got hit by the latest developer oriented meme trekking through the blogosphere.  My friend Michael Eaton started this one, but it has taken a life of its own.  I figured eventually someone would tag me specifically to fill this out.

Here is the trace of how this request eventually got to me:

Michael Eaton (post) -> Sarah Dutkiewicz (post) -> Jeff Blankenburg (post) -> Josh Holmes (post) –>  Larry Clarkin (post) –> me (answers below)

1. How old were you when you started programming?
I was 11.  I remember it distinctly as it was when I got my first computer, a Commodore 64.  The entire OS was BASIC driven. I loved to copy programs out of the back of Basic Magazine and “try” to get them to work.  I eventually got into RPL and some C++ in high school.

For most of my youth and through college, I considered computers and programming as a hobby.  I started college working on Pre-Med degree, but ended up settling for a Psychology degree like Jeff Blankenburg.  After school I tried to use that degree, but could barely make ends meet.  I ended up going back to school a year later to attempt to get a CS degree.  I made it all the way up to senior project, but decided to just take my knowledge and get job.  This was back in 1999 and the Internet bubble was in full swing.

2. How did you get started in programming?
I think the answer to the previous question and this blog post sum things up.

3. What was your first language?
Commodore BASIC

4. What was the first real program you wrote?
In high school I wrote a few programs.  One that I remember was for my HP 48SX calculator (loved that calculator, but it was stolen in college).  I had done most Basic up until then, but when I got this calculator I really got into RPL (Reverse Polish Lisp).  It was a fun language and quite a jump from Basic. It was a simple rock/paper/scissors game.  There were no laptops back then and paying attention in class was boring.  Instead I found it more exciting to write programs on the calculator.  Naturally I ending up writing a lot of applications for that calculator in high school.

5. What languages have you used since you started programming?
Basic, RPL (Reverse Polish Lisp), C++, Cobol, Java, Javascript, Visual Basic, C#

6. What was your first professional programming gig?
I looked for my first job for about 2 months.  With no CS degree or programming experience, it was hard to get my foot in the door.  I eventually found a job at a small aviation repair company.  I think they were looking for the cheapest developer they could find, but I was happy to get a chance to work on something and get some experience (and a paycheck).  This ob was originally just suppose to be a 6 month stint, but they tried to keep me on longer. I might have stuck around, but I was eager to work with other developers.  At this aviation shop I was the sole IT department running CAT 5 cable, building/maintaining PCs, creating a Database, setting up email, developing a client application in VB6 as a front end to the database, building a classic ASP web site, etc.  I went to Interactive Intelligence after this job and have been there ever since (8.5 years and counting).

7. If you knew then what you know now, would you have started programming?
I was born to code, and I try to live life with no regrets.  Everything that I have done in my life and the events that occurred have made me who I am today.  If I changed one event in my past, I may not be where I am today or may not have met my wife.

However, I do love to program.  Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t have stopped developing and would have jumped right into Computer Science in college.

8. If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new developers, what would it be?

1. Get involved in the community.  User groups may be over your head, but that’s good to learn from.  Or user groups may be too basic for you, but that’s good to learn from too.  Community involvement is a great way to network and help others.  It also helps you share ideas and propose issues to your network of peers.
2. Start a blog.  Even if you think you are a bad writer, you will get better.  I am a terrible writer, but it is something I am working on.  Blogs help you share knowledge, store knowledge for yourself, provide samples of your code for future employers, etc.  There are many reasons to start a blog, but every professional developer should really consider getting something out there.
3. Use a tool like Google Reader and subscribe to blogs.  One of my interview questions is: “how do you say up to date with new technologies and industry trends?”  Reading blogs is a great way to stay up to date, but manually checking dozens of web sites everyday is tedious.  RSS makes things much easier because it only pulls updates.  You can check your RSS feed many times a day, but it will check all of your blogs for updates and report it to you in one interface.  Personally I am up to around 150 blogs that I follow.  It does help to have a folder hierarchy to help organize your blog feeds though.  You can start by subscribing to this blog.

9. What’s the most fun you’ve ever had … programming?
I have a lot “most fun” days.  For the most part every day is a new “most fun” day.  In particular I like days when I can code with others.  Sitting in the back room or Ivory Tower solo programming is great, but it’s a lot of fun to program with others.

10. Who are you calling out?
I am going to hit up a few of my Indianapolis tweeps who blog:

• Aaron Lerch
• Jeff Moser
• Mike Hall
• Chad Campbell (not in Indy now, but he use to be)
• Paul Hacker
• Eric Willeke

For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated with technology.  I was born in 1975 in rural Indiana and as such, my first encounter with a computer was in second grade at school.  It was an old Apple 2 computer and I remember that we could only use it under constant supervision from the teacher. In 1982 there weren’t many computers in school and home computers were still few and far between. Those that the school did have were expensive, heavily guarded, and always in use.  I probably only got to work on it a couple of times a week.  I do remember begging the teacher to let me stay in over recess to work on the computer while the other students played outside.  This first brush with a computer quickly turned into a love, but I knew we would never have one at home.  It was such an impossibility that at the time, I doubt I even dreamt about owning one.  

It wasn’t until I saw the 1983 movie, WarGames, that my love turned into more of an obsession.  After my parents took me to see the movie in the theatre, I distinctly remember coming home, pulling out a box and an old blue toy typewriter, placing the typewriter at the base of the box, and pretending that the box was a monitor and the typewriter was a computer.  I spent hours playing with that setup as if it were real.  Many kids my age were playing outside or watching TV, but here I was pretending I was programming. At this point, I didn’t even really know what programming was, but I was entranced by the idea that you could key in some commands and the computer would process those commands into something visibly displayed on the screen.

For the next few months, all I could think about or talk about was computers.  I’m sure sure my parents would have called me “obessed”.  I got an early subscription to Byte Magazine and tried to read all I could.  Of course most of it I didn’t understand, nor could I put it in practice.  However that all changed in the Christmas of 1985.  My parents, to my utter shock, bought a Commodore 64 for myself and my brothers to share. 

Here is a picture of the blessed event.  I am in the back holding the computer and looking quite excited and proud.  How many 10 year olds could say they have a computer at home?  My brothers on the other hand, were too interested in a slinky that Santa had left them.  This trend continued, as I don’t ever recall either of them wanting anything to do with the computer. I do have to give my youngest brother, Phillip, props for wearing a Transformers shirt in this picture though.

For the next year, my time spent with the Commodore 64 involved me keying in Basic programs from the back of Byte magazine (which rarely seemed to work).  However, around the age of 11, my Mom’s boyfriend at the time had a friend he brought over who knew a few things about computers.  I spent a lot of time with him, and he showed my things on the computer that I didn’t know were possible such as programs to play music (very mono-instrument midi-like music) and software to create banners and cards.  As a young child in a small town, I was sheltered and was really oblivious to all you could do with this little computer.  The man invited me to attend a local user’s group with him called “Hoosier Hills Commodore Club”.  I went one week and couldn’t wait to come back again.  I wanted to be around others that were into computers and who could teach me more.  The membership fees were only $25 a year, and my parents were more than happy to pay this if it meant that I was actually getting out of the house and start building “social” skills.

Imagine, if you will, a club of about 12 people, most of who were men over 30 with the exception of a single woman and an 11 year old kid. I remember that a couple of the members included some people who worked at local electronic stores and at least one guy from the phone company. I’m sure it would have been quite a sight to see that group together.   One of our “field trips” as a club included a evening tour of the phone company, focusing on how it worked and what types of computers they used.  I had never seen so many computers in one place, and for the next several weeks wondered how I could get a job there when I got older.  Most of the time, the club pertained to software for the commodore, but the highlight was a multi-month training course on how to program in Basic.  We got a thick binder that went over every Basic command and included a number of sample programs.  This is when my eyes were really opened to what programming was and what I could do with it.  That week (with the Basic book in hand and my Commodore 64 in my bedroom) is where I can really say, “That is when I started programming”.

The story of my life with computers  continues on today, and there are a lot of other “geeky” stories to share been my time with Commodore 64 and today.  Perhaps I will write more about these times later, or if you know me and what to hear more, just let me know.