I was around 12.
Something called mIRC was popular.
It was a program you could use to chat with other people online.
With this program, you could make your own scripts. For example, you could write a script that waited for the word “oyvind” to be written in the chat, then automatically do something, like play a sound.
I was very intrigued by this, and started looking at different examples.
I didn’t read much documentation, I just looked at the code and ran it.
I changed a small part, and ran it again to see what happened.
Little by little, I understood what the different parts in the code where doing.
…and was able to create my own ideas in code.
A few of my biggest coding achievements back then was a “Battle ship” game that you could play with your friend over the internet, a duck hunt type of game, and my most evil invention – the SOY script.
The SOY script was this thing you could install with lots of functions for playing songs and drawing cool stuff in the chat windows.
I showed it to my friend and convinced him to install it.
What he didn’t know was that SOY was an acronym for Spy On You.
So, when he installed it, it gave me full control of his computer. I could write things in the chat window on his behalf, and play a lot of tricks on him.
In the beginning he didn’t understand much.
…but after a while he started seeing the picture.
Probably mostly because of my evil laugh every time he talked about his frustration around what was happening with his computer.
MUHAHAHA!
He got so angry at the end, so I realized that it was probably time to stop my evil pranks.
That’s when I discovered how fun programming is.
Especially combined with electronics.
The development board Arduino is probably the easiest way to get started combining electronics and programming.
It was actually developed to make it easy for non-technical people.
There’s a bonus in both of the two eBook packages – “Curious Beginner” and “Dedicated Learner”:
..a guide on how to get up and running FAST with Arduino.
You can find more info on that here:
https://www.build-electronic-circuits.com/products/ebook-2nd-edition
Keep on Soldering!
Oyvind
PS! I just interviewed a really cool electronics girl. If you saw her on the street, I can guarantee that you wouldn’t guess that she’s into electronics. I’ll tell you about it on Friday.
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