Computer
I’ve been using a computer ever since I discovered the Philips P2000 at the age of six or seven. In the beginning it didn’t accumulate to a lot and I learned a basic bit of BASIC at the age 10. Later on I got my an MSX1 (MicroSoft eXtended1) and MSX2 and programmed quite a bit in assembly and BASIC. I’ve played loads of games in the meantime.
People still seem to use the MSX, me too as my current server has been built in an MSX case…
I realized assembly was quite an unfit and unproductive language for most applications when I turned my hobby into a study. This advancement in abstraction has continued, and that’s how I ended up Software Engineering research. These days however, my preferred languages are bash, perl, php and Java. Ruby, Scala, Groovy and Erlang are only use for playing around these days…
At least one distraction has remained. During college years I discovered programming contests, which are a great way to practice your puzzling skills. I’ve played in, and organized several of these activities in the meantime (see international, national or local contest).
I’ll put some of my computer/programming experiences on the blog.