Your programming background...

[BillGeek]

I started when I was 7, self taught. And it's a lucky situation like you said, I'm being paid for enjoying a hobby.

Agreed. I'm also self taught from around 9. It kinda sucks having a day job as a hobby and vice versa, but at least it pays good.

[AsmIscool]

I lways kew there had to be some impressive backgrounds here. I actually started before there was a TRS80. But my father taught all about the ones he worked which were massive banks of racks filled with hundres of mechanical relays each. Always liked programming so I started a degree in programming until I realised that I was probably going to spend my life working on some banks old Cobol code. Went and did an Associate Diploma in Electronic Engineering and then a BE in it.

Started with assembler.
Got into CP\M when it arrived.
Dot language in Wordstar 1.0
DBase 1.0
Every flavour of Basic imaginable from Dartmouth up to VB6
PHP
HTML
C
C++
SQL

Mostly worked as a design Engineer but got moved into management. Still occasionly got to do some design or coding but mostly politics

Delivered Pizza's
Worked in several kitchens
Founded a charity
Shop assistant
Computer repair Technician
Software design freelancer
Security consultant
System Administrator
Help desk for an ISP
Now I am teaching Electronic Engineering

[Shaggy Hiker]

These days I rarely do any programming at home, mainly because I'm more interested in Photography now.

I really got into some specialized photography for a while. In particular, I was concentrating on taking long distance pictures of smoke at night. After devoting years to this practice, I realized that my pictures were all flash and no substance.

Then I got into investigating and designing systems of pulleys to keep broken bones lined up right, but I don't do that anymore. I guess you could say that I'm an ex-traction fan.

(my hobby is both programming and obscure puns, and they intersect in weird ways that can be highly entertaining for the end users (who tend to be easily amused)).