I still remember the first "programs" I wrote in qbasic. I spend days writing a simple tic-tac-toe game using if-statments only. Or computer art by drawing shapes, lines, dots and what not on the screen using different loops. Then I discovered I could make it bleep funny also, ending in whole light shows with simulated lazer beams under a nice beat of beeping.
Later I got more serious and wrote programs to do my math homework for me. I found that I learned more about the math I was learning by writing these programs than by actually doing the homework myself. That's been one of the reasons to get into education to pursue the idea of using programming as a learning tool (as pioneered by, among others, Seymour Papert [logo] and later Andrea diSessa [boxer]).
When I started studying computer science my programming "career" started in earnest. From doing some shady braininess when the internet was young to writing scientific prototypes.
Ever since I started programming it has been part of my daily life. I often find myself automatic tasks in my personal and professional life and I would like everyone to be able to do the same. Time and time again I have been confronted with people that do not (want to) understand computers or their place in our (future) society and keep on serving the machine instead of having their machine serve them.
All and all, I've been programming machines for over 20 years, ever since my early teens.
Later I got more serious and wrote programs to do my math homework for me. I found that I learned more about the math I was learning by writing these programs than by actually doing the homework myself. That's been one of the reasons to get into education to pursue the idea of using programming as a learning tool (as pioneered by, among others, Seymour Papert [logo] and later Andrea diSessa [boxer]).
When I started studying computer science my programming "career" started in earnest. From doing some shady braininess when the internet was young to writing scientific prototypes.
Ever since I started programming it has been part of my daily life. I often find myself automatic tasks in my personal and professional life and I would like everyone to be able to do the same. Time and time again I have been confronted with people that do not (want to) understand computers or their place in our (future) society and keep on serving the machine instead of having their machine serve them.
All and all, I've been programming machines for over 20 years, ever since my early teens.