really interesting. im a couple years younger than op ..had an atari 400 - with the basic book:) .most of my friends had c64s. i didnt't even seek a career in sw dev. ..but ended up here anyway. i think much of the reason is those days punching in basic, moving on the BBSs, fidonet ...getting into C, sockets and win32 and yada yada yada holy crap i fly a desk for living! originally wanted to be a pilot ...now i can afford to learn to fly but dont have time ..back to messing with that irc bot web wrangler thing im hacking for the fun of it.