Where were you born Webmaster?

How did you begin?

[clayscottbrown]

I began with cobol. then i read a comic book or two.

[BillyS]

Basic, then Fortran - cuz I was going to be a scientist!

I also took Cobol on an IBM using a punch machine because it had a card reader. We punched our code into cards. We then waited on line to hand in our stack of cards. Afterwards, they called our names and handed us some greenbar paper that showed us that our program didn't run correctly. Back to the punch machine, insert the correct card and repeat.

I saw someone drop like a hundred cards on the floor once. I imagine it took him about an hour just to put them back in the right order.

[httpwebwitch]

First web-related job was doing photo touchups for a pioneer online auto trading website. The website never achieved the international glory its founders imagined, but the print magazine version is still published. That was 2 years before Yahoo! existed. Learned HTML, started designing pages, and the rest is history.

[Lipik]

Basic - Tandy TRS80, Basic - C-64, Amiga, pc....

[larryhatch]

I started with BASIC on a Commodore Pet. Then more basic on a home brew s100 rig, Vic-20, C-64 etc.
Next came Pascal on the S100, and Borland C/C++ on a 386 clone.
I learned html last. I was born in Palo Alto, CA. -Larry

[Essex_boy]

Sinclair Basic, Z80A (when I wanted to know how things really worked). Learnt to hack software on early home computers and remove things people didnt like.

Didnt touch a computer for a few years, learnt C+ and Pascal. Learnt AMOS (bet you never heard of that! P code thing) rewrote part of it adding animation commands.

Havnt really programmed for 10 years or so.

Learnt HTML in 2000 - wondering how web pages worked.

[Matt Probert]

Another Sinclair BASIC and Z80 enterant here. From there Pascal to C and then developing AI applications and models of human memory resulted in a large database of general knowledge which it seemed a shame to bin, so I published it as a web site. Wish I hadn't started. It's now a 24/7 obsession that can never be completed <g>

Matt

[JerryOdom]

I started as an English major wanting to be a Lawyer at the university in 1998. Learned how to make money using the web and switched to computer science.

[ytswy]

Learnt AMOS (bet you never heard of that! P code thing)

My second language :) after Spectrum Basic on a rubber-keyed 48k machine.

AMOS was great, they don't make 'em like that anymore..

[JerryOdom]

Pascal and Fortran. I remember those nightmare languages from college. I used to make pretty good money writing the programs for Engineering students with no interest in programming who'd thrown in the towel and just wanted to get it done.

[Moosetick]

Basic on a Vic-20 around 1980. 1000s of hours were spent programming and then having my mom stop making dinner to look at what I had done.

I then got an XT compatable (Corona) in 83 and learned a little Pascal.

[basenotes]

BASIC on a Vic20 in the early eighties. My dad and I learnt together when I was six.
Then moved on to BASIC on a Commodore Plus/4
Then on to AMOS on the Amiga (that's 3 for AMOS now!)
Then I did a little Pascal in my computing a-level.

Then nothing for aaages until I played around with HTML, which led me to having to learn PERL to make things a bit easier.

[Sarah Atkinson]

I started out on an early apple IIc machine. It was cute compacts and I loved it. I also used the apple IIs at school but I didn't like them as much as the one I had at home. I've grown attached to a lot of my old machines and that I think is the one that I was attached to the most.

[percentages]

Before I could program, you had to build a computer first, or wait in-line at college with those punch cards for the DEC PDP 10 :(

I've never been big on waiting, so I figured building a Nascom PC was a better solution, (about 1980'ish).

With that puppy I could type my own Z80 machine code, develop an assembler, and later even buy a BASIC interpreter!

Next I purchased Sinclair's, handy-dandy, ready built ZX80 PC with 1K of RAM storage, upgraded it to 16K of RAM, and never looked back! 16K was enough to write a good "Space Invaders" game in Z80 machine code......could computers get any better?

[Iguana]

1st attempt: ICL mainframe. I discovered that punch cards were amazing as aerated roaches.

Second Attempt: I didn't have the money for a Nascom. So, I started with some copper board, etched a circuit, inserted a cheap microprocessor, borrowed a computer and blew a crude operating system into an EPROM.

Third Attempt: bought an Amstrad 512 PC

[gopi]

Wow, lot of veterans here...The first time i touched a computer was in 1994 when i entered college in india!.

When hotmail came, i was scammed by a local cybercafe guy to pay him for creating a free email account for me :) - but by 2001, i was creating affiliate sites in the most competitive areas.

[minnapple]

"Punch tape" - 1975.
CAD - 1986
Computerized retouching - 1988 [ playboy centerfolds ]
Built my first digital page in 1988
[ no place online to publish it, that I new of ]
Html - 1998
Seo - 1998

[PhraSEOlogy]

Started with Z80 Assembler on a Sinclair ZX80 - sounds familiar... - then went on to IBM 370 Asssmbler, then COBOL (yuk) and then seen the light when I worked in Boston on a UNIX project in the 80's. What an eye opener unix was for a COBOLER like me.

Got old and unwanted by the Coroporate world so decided to learn about Apache, Perl, HTML, CSS and build websites.

Found webmasterworld and the rest is history.

[jchampliaud]

I started with Hypercard in the early 90's. Then over time got into the web.

[grandpa]

Hmmm, the very beginning? I learned Lotus 1-2-3 on an IBM Dual Floppy machine. Once I figured out what the Macro Key was I was off to the races. Of course, there was no key on the keyboard labeled Macro, and the manual made references to that key without elaboration. Next came assembly language and BASIC. After that I was into programming logic and COBOL, and finally ended up on an AS/400. Life was good. Near the end of that period I turned down what I now realize was a ground floor opportunity into web programming. People were talking about PHP like it was going to replace sliced bread, and I just ignored them. It wasn't until that blissful career ended and I began to dabble with web sites that I realized the scope of my ignorance.