First all of...I have you all beat...I was born in "Zie Woomb" holding a mouse and keyboard...I actually programmed myself at birth to be a software developer...Vic-20....before computers were...well...computers...I used a TV screen for monitor....so HA!!!
I (like Ninja) hated computers...I remember telling my dad I would fly DC-9's and 727's for ever because newer aircraft were to computerized...I was gonna be pilot
Around the time Flight Simulator 4 came out I started playing that game like crazy...skipping school to fly to San Fransisco...By FS5 I was an accomplished BASIC developer writing little utils using formulas I borrowed from Pilot training manuals, etc...fuel calculators, optimal descent/glideslope, etc...
Then I was introduced to Windows development on 3.1 using VB and I started making flight planners, scenery builders, etc...I still remember the structure of FS5 BGL (Bao Graphical Language) files...I remember the first application I tried to hack was a program called final approach cause I wanted to print an IAP for my home city...that introduced me to hacking and assembly language....then I found a german program call DoDi's VB discompiler...That introduced me to reverse engineering at a source code level, but I could never get it to rebuild, so I gave up and started again on changing bytes until something worked....never did get that working either
One day I decided i would write my own flight planner with an advanced map which read variables real time from FS engine and updated the screen to show me where I was relative to the game. Finding VB to sluggish for fast display (being a relative newbie I wasn't clipping and was using actual Windows controls for navigation aids - which there are 1000's) I asked around and was told C++ was a real tool for anything serious...so naievly I "borrowed & never returned" a copy of Borland turbo C from a friend's dad
I struggled with that for years as compiling, building, editing C source is light years more complicated than most languages...finally one day I got something and reverted back to a simple hello world and built up instead of tear apart. By that time I think Windows 95 was released and I had the fortune of coming across Borland OWL and my journey began with OOP and continued into MFC about 7 years ago.
27 years of age and the adventure has only just begun...I can't ever see myself stopping...even at great wealth like Gates...I'd still be actively (re)designing software architectures at the very least and coding for the sake of POC...
p.s-I think the median age is about 25...just a gues not actually calculated - if I'm right I swear I'm autistic

like rain main....maaaaahhhhhh *goes crazy*
Cheers
