1. What one (or small numbers) factor led you into programming to begin with?

My father being a programmer was probably the largest factor, in several ways. There's the obvious way; as I put it in my Oxford essay:

When I was very young--six or seven years old--I would watch my father program. (He is a programmer too, educated at UCI in the mid-seventies.) While I could certainly read English, the meaning of the commands was completely lost on me; I simply liked watching him work, seeing him make the computer do things with his magic runes.

But there were more subtle ways in which he determined my eventual interest in computers.

It was his influence that brought computers into Mom's jewelry business, then into our house. It was his Windows for Workgroups-based Packard Bell that I first used on my own, and that I first experienced the Internet with. It was his copy of "Creating Cool Web Pages With HTML" (HTML 1.0, believe it or not) that I picked up in fifth or sixth grade and read. It was his decision that got me the first computer of my own--a Windows 98-based K6-2 300MHz machine I ran for a few years. (That core is now Devonie's; it'll soon be mine again as a Linux box.) It was his office's copies of Visual Studio that I learned programming in. (I now have my own copy of VS.Net 2002.)

I can think of a few other factors--recesses spent reading instead of playing, doing Mom's website, my first timid steps into Open Source with Mr. Farley--but I think Dad's influence eclipses all of these.

2. Hacker or geek? ^.-

Well, one seems to imply the other, y'know. So the real question is, "hacker"?

("'64? Where did 64 come into it?' I hear you cry. Well, 64 is 8 squared, don't you see? Ask a silly question...")

3. Who do you look up to?

Dad. Larry, Damian, and Dan. Lessig and Schneier. Newton, Einstein, and Hawking. Any competent computer teacher (there are a precious few). Wayne Gretzky, although that's faded over the years. In fiction, Alan Grant, Jadzia Dax, and Jack Ryan.

1. Will Filespace be eternal?

I don't know. I hope so, though, and I certainly don't have any plans to close it. (Which reminds me, I need to get back to work on that e-mail...)

2. Will we ever see Makoto-rin again? ;-;

"Hmm...I know she's around here somewhere..."
*starts going through some old folders*
"No, wait, I moved her into Programming, didn't I? Yeah, there..."
*tries to start her*
"D'oh, I need Net::AIM..."
*runs a couple commands, then goes back to her and tries again*
"Oisu, minna-san!"

(Unfortunately, the last few times I used her she disconnected somewhat randomly and didn't want to reconnect, so...yeah.)

3. Do you have any more awesome icons? :)

...not yet?