[matth]

I was six years old and sitting in my father's lap reading while my mother video-taped. At some point I playfully smacked my dad, he playfully smacked back and I began to cry. Afterwards, my mom said something about editing the video. In my mind, I understood her to mean she could somehow alter the video... you know, change my crying into smiles, laughs and lollipops. I still can't get over how much influence that single misconception has had on my life.

Cut to three years later.

A good family friend gave me an old Apple IIe in 1994 (I was 9). I would break it, and then watch him fix it. It was fascinating, and I finally had my chance to figure out how to make machines do what I wanted.