Karl’s Interview, Part III: H2B a Hacker
Warning: Undefined property: linknotes::$are_links in /var/www/vhosts/basil/kbsite/blog/wp-content/plugins/linknotes.php on line 73
3) How did you get involved with computers and web design?
My father purchased our first computer when I was 10. It was a Kaypro 4, and it ran CP/M. It came bundled with Microsoft Basic, and it included a Star Trek Basic game. I was doing fairly poorly at it: I always ran out of points. Then, I was looking at the Basic source code, and I recognized the initial number of points. It was 150 or something. I changed it to 999 everywhere I found it. After that, I was no longer Capt. Kirk — I was Q. No Klingon stood a chance against me.
This was my first experience hacking.
Eventually, the Kaypro was replaced with a Mac SE. This was the computer that I took to college. Although the Mac was cool — there is, of course, no cooler machine than a Mac — Macs of the time were notoriously difficult to hack. I missed out on a lot of BBS action because I could never find the Mac BBSes.
In high school, I took courses in Basic and Pascal, which have given me a better understanding, but I’m no programmer. I’m still mostly a hacker.
Towards the end of college, I ditched the Mac and inherited my dad’s MS/DOS-Windows 3.1 machine. Shortly thereafter, I upgraded to a 586-Windows 95 machine, and I got an internet dial-up account. At about the same time, I was taking a graphic design course and started playing around with designing web pages. Luckily, Tim saved me from creating a great many stupid web designs.
Since then, I’ve focused on web technologies, as most hackers have. That is what got me started using Linux — which is, ironically what brought me back around to the Mac. Apple rocks. I’ve also gotten thoroughly familiar with HTML and XHTML, CSS, and fairly proficient in reading and hacking — though not much with actually creating — JavaScript code.
Sorry, James. You can start reading again now. 😀
Future questions to be answered:
4) Do you think that God is calling you to the priesthood? Tonsured monastic life?
5) You attend a small Orthodox parish. What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of your parish?
Official Rules
- If you want to participate, leave a comment below saying “interview me.â€
- I will respond by asking you five questions–each person’s will be different.
- You will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions.
- You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
- When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
- I will answer reasonable follow up questions if you leave a comment.