Personal - Software Development Meme

My buddy Dan Rigsby called me out in his Software Development Meme. I guess it's my turn...

1. How old were you when you first started programming?
   When I was about 12 years old, my parents were building a house. By building a house, I mean they were physically building it. During that process, there were some stages that I couldn't help with. To keep me busy, my dad showed me a book that had some old BASIC code in it. He told me if I entered all of that code into the old Commodore 64 line-for-line, I would be able to play a video game. I never got the game to work because a page was missing :)
   
   In reality though, it wasn't until I was 16 that I really started.
   
   
2. How did you get started in programming?
   My high school offered a C++ class. I had an open slot on my schedule and I had to fill it. The class was awesome because it had LITTLE structure. It was the first class that I was really just allowed to run as hard and as fast as I wanted. It kept me engaged, interested, and my curiousity grew.
   
   
3. What was your first language?
   Technically it was Commodore BASIC. In reality though, I would say C++.
   
   
4. What was the first real program you wrote?
   I wrote a C++ application that acted like a restaurant menu. As a user made their selections, they were saved back to a .txt file. That was probably the first app that I felt like I really did something.
   
   
5. What languages have you used since you started programming?
   Oy vey! In no particular order: C#, C++, C, Java, MIPS Assembly Language, JavaScript, Python, Visual Basic, and Farfle (It was a very primitive language that I created so no one has probably heard of it)
   
   
6. What was your first professional programming gig?
   During jr. high and high school, I worked at the local grocery store. A lady, who owned a bed breakfast asked if I could build a website for her while I was carrying out her groceries. Though the development was very primitive, I still consider that site my first paid gig in relation to software. This site is still on the web today! From there, I moved onto doing actual application development a little later.
   
   
7. If you knew then what you know now, would you have started programming
   Undoubtedly. Personally, I would like to see programming as a required part of a high school education. I think if nothing else, learning to program forces you to think more logically than you may have a tendency to do.
   
   
8. If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new developers, what would it be?
   Create a vision and run towards it full steam. This is probably more important in relation to technology than any other field due to the rate of change. I have really learned about this in regards to my endeavors around Silverlight. I have spent a lot of time, energy, and resources trying to convince certain individuals of the value it brings. In reality, I should have just focused on taking the power that Silverlight brings and building my own innovative solutions. Which is what I will be doing when Silverlight 2 in Action is finished.
   
   
9. What's the most fun you have ever had programming?
   I had the most fun working on a very innovative intranet search portal solution back at the turn of the century. It some incredibly cool stuff.
   
   
10. What’s the most fun you’ve ever had … programming?
    I really enjoyed the technical challenges associated with creating a compiler. I also enjoyed building an intranet search engine that handled engineering documents. They were both very challenging and I learned a lot in both scenarios.
    
    
11. Who are you calling out?
    
    Corne Van Dyk
    Dave Campbell
    Scott Bauer (just because I like the topic of his blog)
    John Stockton
    Pete Brown