Same as most of people in my age - there was no internet when I was starting my adventure (roughly 20 years ago). In my particular case it was even funnier - co

Same as most of people in my age - there was no internet when I was starting my adventure (roughly 20 years ago). In my particular case it was even funnier - computers were so expensive my family could not afford one until I was 17. But I have fallen in love with them since I have seen them for very first time at the age of 6. I could not play with real computer so I have been reading all available books from the library and in some point at the age of 13 I came across programming books. I loved the concept of how you can create new things out of nothing (that's how I have seen programs at that time) and also I loved the sense of full control when creating them. My friend got pentium 386 running midnight commander on it and he also got across quickbasic - we have spent couple of days writing some programs (I particularly wanted to write a 'password' program that you would not be able to continue until you issue the correct password). Great fun! Soon I have read most books available from the library about programming and even hand-copied one of them (the one about C). I did not understand half of it but found it helpful when got my first hands-on session later in the age of 17. Once I got my computer it was already feeling natural - I was participating in algorithmic competitions (with no major successes) and all the time spent was adding up to my feel of coding. Great time :-) missing it now..