Canis Major

It was when I was in grade 4, and I found these programming books for kids at our grade school library. Of course, they were old, but I was quite curious. There was actually this book called "Big Blue" which was BASIC programming for IBM and compatibles. I wanted to photocopy that because it was what I had at that time (so as you can see it was very long ago.) I did not have many friends then, and I guess learning computer programming didn't do much help when it comes to that. But, I learned to enjoy doing things by myself, so I wasn't so lonely.

wannabe7

Hey, all you guys have great answers and I really enjoyed listening to your stories. I only wished I had someone to guide me when I was young. I feel for you Canis Major. I'm the opposite. I have many friends, but, not a whole lot that I could have a good conversation with (most people my age, these days, care about useless things). The problem for me is finding someone interested in the same things. Having a friend there makes things much easier.
I have to agree with Grich. I really want to create interactive worlds all from my imagination, and since games are the only thing that can do that (currently), I opted for C++ to gain knowledge of how games work. And just the feeling of creating a game makes it all worth while (man I can't wait for the future!).

Grich

Amazing isn't it, look at computers 50 yours ago, now look at them, they fit in our hands. Think what another 50 years will do to computers!
So yes, I am looking forward to the future.

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Canis Major

Hmm... speaking of games. Let me have the privilege of being off-topic for this post only. It might be interesting if some of us get together and make an attempt to make a game with such interaction. I mean, there are others out there, but then I guess human beings are beginning to make universes.

Canis Major

And to add to my story, since I did not have a lot of friends and not one of them could understand what I'm talking about (until some of them got into Computer Science in college, and then some when I was in high school), I began to enjoy participating in forums like these. Yeah, it's not substitute for real interaction, but it helps me get by.

Ancient Dragon

50 years ago In 1963 I had just finished boot camp in the USAF and my first assignment was in Tachoma Wa working in a 5 story concrete building that had no windows and just a few doors on the ground floor. Three full floors of that building housed one computer that had MAYBE 640K of memory. I walked into one of the rooms one day and saw rows and rows of thousands of vacuum tubes (which is why the term debug was coined). That huge computer today fits in the palm of your hand.

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True Terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Grich

Heh heh. I am so glad I'm young and naive about all that. Joking. That I think would have been cool (except for the boot camp bit - I can't handle my self when it comes to orders).

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wannabe7

Yeah, nothing can replace forums: it makes people talk one by one so everyone can be heard, it lets you think through what you're going to say so you don't sound like an idiot, and most importantly, it's the best and fastest way to get help because you actually receive responses from real people (not some poorly programmed machine) that understand specifically what you're asking. What a wonderful thing forums are.

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Aspiring Game Designer

Ancient Dragon

Well you better get used to getting orders right away because you will get them your entire life. If its not a wife, a mother-in-law, it will be an employer. The only way to get around it is to live the life of a hermet and live in a cave or on a lonely island in the middle of an ocean.

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True Terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

wannabe7

QTF. Only one minor disagreement. If you work hard enough, know your goals, and know how to get them, people won't tell you what to do for every long. This is why I try everyday to learn and do as much as I can so I won't have to depend on anyone for anything.

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Aspiring Game Designer