what age did you start becoming a big computer dork?

[zerocomm]

in 5th grade i started finished qbasic in 21 days to help me manipulate computer games and write batch files, 6th grade i worked through VB for dummies, started in on html. decided dork was me so i got a big star wars schematic's and my friends and i would try to argue which ships would win if star trek faced off star wars.

6 years later people still reconize me as a geek sometimes, but not a awkward and goofy but a computer geek... the kind that is empowered with knowledge instead.

 

[spanky]

19

 

[Eli]

I started when I was about 14.

 

[Yzzim]

Around 15. Never had a friend since.

 

[Jugernot]

10, authored my first website when I was 13.

I'm 21 now btw.

 

[tcsenter]

First at around 12 (1983), learned BASIC on my Commodore 64, wrote several simple programs. Then realized that none of my friends were into computers, I talked about computers and they were like...that's nice. So I pretty much did what they did and the computer collected dust.

Wouldn't really become interested in computers again for another 13 years around the age of 25. Couldn't remember a lick of BASIC but I started tinkering and taking them apart to see what was inside, began reading books, upgrading, building, configuring, etc.

 

[PsychoAndy]

8.

-PAB

 

[bolido2000]

15

 

[Chaotic42]

I first got a computer in 1986, when I was 4. AFAIK, we were one of the first 5 or so families with a computer in the county.

I wrote my first program at 5. It was a game where you flew an ASCII-string plane and had to drop "0"'s on little tanks.

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

 

[ROTC1983]

When I was 10 years old I got my first computer for my birthday. I then continued to purchase Command and conquer, which I liked a lot. Then I continued to like computers a lot...

 

32
Jeez that was a long time ago.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

With all my antics and breaking them, I'm still not good enough to be a big computer dork.

nik

 

[kherman]

Was going to say 20, when I got my Cyrix PR166 as a senior in college.

But them some post reminded me, that in college, I was writing software on occasion because I was an EE major. Now I do software for a living.

Then I thought more. I had an Apple IIc back in the day. I started writing programs for it maybe when I was 12. At 13, I used my collective knowledge to write some programs. One was a cheesy drawing program for a golf game I wrote earlier. The golf game was SWEET! had sand traps and everything. In the end, I hadd 18 images for the course and 18 images for the greens. The greens had hills too!!! Used different colors to represent different breaks in hte green. It worked AWESOME! Till this day, that program is my crowning acheivment. I had to read joystick information and monitor keyboard strokes simultaneously along with having to learn how to read from the graphics buffer to get pixel color info.

I miss those days.

Now I think back prior to the apple IIc and my atari 5200. i could whip peoples buts in those games, not from practice, but because I could "see" how the programs were written. not much more than position, velocity and acceleration. I recognized those things back in the day at probably 8 years old. Even then I realized how games worked, even though i didn't know it at the time.

I don't go by the term geek though,. I'm more of a dork

So to answer your question, I might have to go way back to the age of 8. Matters how you look at it though. I was deifnietely a dork at 13 though. THat's gaurenteed!

 

[nord1899]

Started around 14, took a programming in Basic (not VB) class in high school.
Now 24, getting paid to program in 10 different freaking languages. I really wish they would settle down a bit on this product, sheesh.

 

[ndee]

when I was about 6 years old, when my dad used to tell me: "NEVER EVER touch the autoexec.bat, if you change it, the computer will be broken!" Ah the good old days. I'm known as someone who knows stuff about computers, but not as geek and I'm quite happy with that

 

[Buz2b]

Ok, I'll check in as the official "old fart" for now. I was 38. But hey, I did write an essay back in 7th Grade stating that I wanted to be a computer programmer. That was back when a computer took up damned near a whole room. Well, actually at that time they were about the size of a refrigerator I think.

 

[murphy55d]

Probably right around when I joined this forum.

(dec 2000)

 

[Kev]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42
I first got a computer in 1986, when I was 4. AFAIK, we were one of the first 5 or so families with a computer in the county.

I wrote my first program at 5. It was a game where you flew an ASCII-string plane and had to drop "0"'s on little tanks.

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

5? I was lucky if I could wipe my own ass when I was 5. Something tells me you're being less than honest.

 

[FoBoT]

ninth grade, that was 1980 , so i guess i was 14

except i am not a dork

i am a geek
Nerds vs. Geeks
ALT.GEEK FAQ

 

[Geekbabe]

I've liked computers for about 12 years, I've never been a "dork" though

 

[Kaervak]

Started messing around with my uncle's Amiga systems when I was four. 17 years later, and I'm still using them.

 

[MomAndSkoorbaby]

No dorks in this household!

 

[SaltBoy]

When I was four or five, I could program my parent's Apple II+. They thought I was so precocious back then...

 

[wyvrn]

About 22, that's when I purchased my first computer and started playing with it. It helped that I roomed with two EE majors, they were always talking computer stuff. I have since cooled off on computer kung-fu because the habit's too costly.

 

[BigJohnKC]

In the womb.

No, seriously, the first computer I remember programming at was an old Apple II in the sixth grade. We learned basic on that, then went on to play Oregon Trail.

And it's GEEK, not DORK