Not sure what compelled me to take computer classes in college, but I took BASIC, COBAL, and FORTAN. I only did adequate in my programming classes, but that is where my interest in computers started. I was hooked! I didn’t have access to a computer until years later when I got my Coleco Adam. It didn’t do much, but it was fun to play around with. A few years later, I got what I consider a real PC: a Radioshack Tandy 1000TX. It was an IBM PC clone. I used it to play games, and used the word processor to make spreadsheets, calendars, cards, and such. It wasn’t until the internet that computing took off for me.
What really got me excited about computers was when I discovered personal web pages. John wanted to get a new faster modem, so he was showing me all the things you could find on the internet. In the process, he showed me GeoCities; a free platform for people to build their own websites. I wanted my own website, so I surfed all around GeoCities and learned about HTML; a basic programming language used for making websites. I also learned how to make and manipulate computer graphics. I built a website in the neighborhood Heartland; it had lots of graphics, but little content. I spent a lot of time in GeoCities.
As my knowledge and confidence in computers grew, I helped upgrade computers, fix computer problems for friends and family, played around with photo editing, learned LINUX operating system, and learned some programming. I still help family and friends with computer and cellphone problems, but nowadays it is usually software problems. I always seem to be on the cutting edge of technology. I was an early adopter of free web based email. My first web based email was HoTMaiL(a play on HTML). I got a Gmail account when it was by invitation only. I bought a netbook when they were all the rage. It wasn’t long before Windows bloat made it useless.
When Ubuntu released it’s first version Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog) on October 20, 2004, I installed it on my dying netbook. There was a learning curve, but I fell in love with Linux. Over the years I’ve used some version of Linux. I’ve used Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Ubuntu MATE, Lubuntu. My current version of Linux is Linux Mint Cinnamon. I have it on my laptop as a dual boot, so that I can use Windows if I need too. But I prefer using Linux.
I play games on my laptop, and I’ve always wanted to program games. For many years I’ve surfed the web and YouTube to try and learn programming. I tried learning Java, but failed. I then tried JavaScript, but soon learned that it wasn’t designed for what I wanted to do. Using the website EdX I learned the programming language Python. I made a few simple games, but realized that Python wasn’t what I needed. After much searching, I finally learned a way to program computer games. The easiest and maybe the best way is to use a game engine. A game engine is a program that helps you design and program a computer game. There are several game engines out there, but the one I’ve chosen to use is called Godot. I am currently learning Godot with the hopes of putting games on my website.