Your IT background

[computerages]

Hello everyone!

 

I am a self-taught programmer. Two years ago I didn't know anything about computers stuff. But when I got a computer class in my school. I found myslef an IT Profesional (I am not kiddding)... I became more interested to learn more about computers... And I created my very first website on MSN in Jan. 2003. Although it was not a professional, but I didn't give up. In Spetemper 2003 I joind Web Page Club in my high school. Before joining that club I didn't know anything about Web Development.... But after an year, now, I could code my own website in no time... And now I am looking forward to learn C++, to prove myself an IT Profesional!!

 

So it was my story, looking forward to yours!!!

[Jordie]

I myself am also a self taught programmer. Three years ago when I was 13 my family got our first computer. It was a HP Pavillion from Walmart that ran at a fast 500MHz and had 256Mb of ram!

When we first got it I just wanted to learn how to use the software on it.

 

Later I began to want to create my own applications. The first language I learned was Batch and since then I have taught myself a wide variety of languages including

 

 

-Visual Basic

-Batch

-Shell Scripting (Like Batch but for Linux and Bash shell)

-Javascript

-Java (Most of it not all of it though.)

-PHP

-Html

-MySQL

-Pascal (Most of it. Not all of it.)

-C/C++

 

along with some other languages. I have even made my own language before. I am now 16 years old and am still learning. I have moved away from Windows programming and now have gotten more into Web programming and Linux programming. I am also a independent web designer and have started my own company. Some sites I have designed and host are

 

-Jelly-Soft.com (My site. It isn't done yet. I have had so many clients and not much time to finnish my site!)

 

-Gems-4-You.com (I have to have this site done tommorow night. I am working on it now.)

 

and several other sites. I have tons of other misc. clients. I am very intrested in Chemistry and study it in my spare time. I have used all versions of Windows and used the Linux Kernel from 2.2 and up. I have never taken a programming class in my life!

[Jordie]

Hello everyone!

 

I am a self-taught programmer. Two years ago I didn't know anything about computers stuff. But when I got a computer class in my school. I found myslef an IT Profesional (I am not kiddding)... I became more interested to learn more about computers... And I created my very first website on MSN in Jan. 2003. Although it was not a professional' date=' but I didn't give up. In Spetemper 2003 I joind Web Page Club in my high school. Before joining that club I didn't know anything about Web Development.... But after an year, now, I could code my own website in no time... And now I am looking forward to learn C++, to prove myself an IT Profesional!!

 

So it was my story, looking forward to yours!!! [/quote']

 

And let me add in. Once you learn alot about programming and computers in general you begin to get sorta bored with them. I do anyway. Soon when your doing work for people for money you start to think of it as just a job.

[mossoi]

I've been a computer professional for 12 years now.

 

I started off with the usual monkey stuff, building PC's, installing and troubleshooting Windows, building HTML pages, setting up the odd LAN and DOS/batch files.

 

I then progressed to LAN architecture, WAN, network protocols and NT/AD infrastructure. This was all well and good but still not much use without an understanding of why and how companies use network resources.

 

While I was doing this for a living I learnt PHP, ASP, .NET framework and concentrated on building web applications rather than just building odd sites here and there. This lead me onto learning how to configure IIS and Apache for hosting along with Exchange server (incredibly complex on a large network).

 

Then I started to learn the standards for building and supporting networks in a corporate environment including things like app dispensers and correct permission grouping to allow for growth and security.

 

Currently I'm an admin for a network that includes over 40,000 workstations and more than 500 servers used by a VERY large media company (any guesses?) - I'm sure this is obvious but at this it point goes somewhat beyond plugging a few cables into a hub and configuring IP addresses. I also consider myself an authority on Windows and DOS - I started on Windows 3.1 and have resolved pretty much any problem that it can generate.

 

Well that's my background, now a few thoughts:

 

3 years of learning is nothing, you'll find that as you learn more you will look back at what you knew and realise that it was a tiny fraction of what there is to know.

 

Linux. Good old Linux. The cry of the forum masses! Linux has its uses, certainly as a firewall, router or webserver but it is nothing on Windows as a client. Everytime I hear somebody say "Windows is crap get Linux" it makes me shudder. Windows is where it is for a reason and that is because it is good at what it does. Linux is a mess in comparison. Yes, it may do some things well and it's certainly got a lot of Geek Cred but roll it out to even a small userbase in a REAL network environment and watch everything fall apart and get ready to look for a new job.

[indignity]

...

 

I played video games religiously from the time I was 2 til I was 10... which I would consider the start of my IT training...

 

when I was 10 my family got a computer and the internet... and I started chatting in mirc... and by 12 I had written several bots/scripts for mirc as well as created my first website.

 

when I was 13 I stocked up on books... unix, tcp/ip, etc, because I wanted to be a hacker =P... got myself into trouble for email fraud... all the things I did and they busted me for email fraud...

 

when I was 14 I got my first job doing web design and writing perl code

 

at 16 I started writing "macros" (... the macros responded to in game events... I prefer the term bot, but nobody knows what you're talking about if you say that) for Asheron's Call... which led to me getting much deeper into programming logic and whatnot... my first 1000+ lines of code scripts were AC macros...

 

the macros are really the reason I'm in the computer science field... I always "liked" coding... but writing what is essentially game AI totally blew my mind... I'd start working on it, then check the clock and 12+ hours had passed

 

started learning C++ and PHP when I was 17

 

took 8 credits of a computer repair/maintenance class between my junior and senior year, and used the knowledge I gained there to make it to Business Professionals of America national computer network technology tournament

 

took 2 years of pharmacy courses in college before I realized that it was ludicrous for me to not study computers... so here I am studying computer science in college... I show up to my programming class, write whatever program I'm supposed to write, then leave until the teacher assigns a new assignment... and I'm loving my math classes

 

I also just started coding some PHP/MySQL for the same guy I worked for when I was 14, and when he gets any web design jobs I'll be working on them as well... and started helping another guy do network installations and odd-job coding...

 

I'm looking forward to joining some open source projects when I feel more confident with C++/Java, and can't wait to finish my formal education so I can start working (hopefully on games... but by then I might care more about money/free time)