Come learn with us:

https://youtu.be/mM6Vp2aFmek

Thank you for your contribution ，bro ，zapped⚡️

I was hooked to handheld game device when I was kid. Technology was new and my uncle got me windows 98 desktop. I knew I am going to work in computer science field. I was kinda burning out and getting bored of coding. Bitcoin brought all the passion in the coding back:)

I would be nothing without my elder brothers:

- they first showed my 5yo ass how to load games on ZX-81, which sped up my reading skills (massive development improvement)

- then the eldest showed me Z80 assembler and left stacks of magazines: that was my second computer language

- in the mid 90s internet boom, the middle showed me IRC and MUDs and then helped understand local networking in theory and practice

- and then he helped me get an IT job at the uni, where I had my first open source contributions, including Linux kernel (mostly in Netfilter)

- bitcoin was left for me to discover alone

I just wanted to do everything my cool brothers did.

In highschool I started playing and recording music which led me to an art school where I studied audio engineering. After a short stint editing audio for commercials, I ended up at an AV/IT company that built custom hardware and software systems for mega yachts. I started as a technician and did a bit of everything: wiring server racks, installing and configuring VSAT satellites, configuring VLANs on switches, and debugging control system code with remote SWEs. The latter was my introduction to software. We were effectively building home automation software with touchpanels, on mega yachts, back before iPads existed. Automation to control lights, music, HVAC, cameras, etc on custom touchscreens. I spent nights and weekends learning python to supplement the limited C++ I’d picked up on the job. I eventually transitioned to the software team fulltime.

A few years later around 2014, I joined an ecommerce startup and have been working on cloud software since then.

Learned about Bitcoin in 2017. Got hooked in 2020. Interested in building tools and products that bring Bitcoin and Lightning to more people.

Ty for sharing. So cool that your interest came from your dad!

My path is more towards design but I was always fascinated with hacking stuff.

I guess it all started when I was about six or seven. There was a local robotics club and I dropped in. Noticed a bunch of kids around some box, bashing at something. They were loading a game in DOS. Took a few minutes for some janky graphics game to show up on the screen. I was fascinated but didn’t interact with computers again until the age of 12 - Windows 3. 98 had just come out and we upgraded the family PC. It was Age of Empires that got me hooked on graphics and design in general. I was amazed with all the little game tile designs.

Some years and many many games later I designed my first website for a game. It was comical and I still remember what it looked like. That led to more website designs all throughout school. When those started making money I thought hmm maybe there’s something to it.

Cool to hear and inspiring thread.

I was about 7 when I first felt an obsession to program and design games. We saved up to buy a Commodore 64 and a few years later I was merrily making my first games, just for my own amusement. Then I went on with the Atari 520st and wrote games in GFA basic. Often I would get lost pursuing interesting ideas that my computer didn't have RAM to handle so many games ended up half-finished when memory dropped low. Then I continued with Lua, C and later C#.

My primary passion was always creating art so I have had long periods going back and forth between art and programming. In 2005 I became interested in deepening myself in 3D modeling after StarWars Battlefront II (Pandemic) was released with some cool mod-tools. So I started with XSI Softimage and learned how to model functional game assets. I probably modeled 20+ buildings in Tatooine style for my own maps. Every asset needed a high poly mesh, low poly mesh, collision mesh and an optional shadow-casting mesh. At that time the collision mesh was made from primitives like boxes and cones that you set up to approximate the game model shape with. Faults in the mesh would cause collision problems and then you had to munge all the assets over again.

I'm quite happy with this Scifi helmet I modeled in Blender + Zbrush, about 2 months of work:

https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-models/space/other/scifi-helmet-a89a6dcd-8ccb-4c69-b076-35149fc2b50d