But be careful if you don’t want a real, honest answer to your question!
First appearance Feb 25, Intelligent Machines 859: What’s Behind the Fox?
Second appearance, Off By One with Jeff Atwood, episode 2, yes that is the first epsidode, deal-with-it-dot-jiff
I’ll go first. How did you get into computers? Did someone/something special introduce you? What was your first personal computer?
First exposure in this blog post Growing up with the Microcomputer
Although I had access to Apple II computers in middle school, we couldn’t afford an Apple until 1984, when we brought home the Apple //c. I never quite made the transition to the Macintosh, which was even more expensive. Still, many of my formative programming experiences were in AppleBASIC.
However, I had several computers before the //c, because Apple stuff was expensive. First was here in this blog post Programming Games, Analyzing Games
For many programmers, our introduction to programming was our dad forcing us to write our own games. Instead of the shiny new Atari 2600 game console I wanted, I got a Texas Instruments TI-99/4a computer instead. That’s not exactly what I had in mind at the time, of course, but that fateful decision launched a career that spans thirty years.
Then this one The Cult of Coleco Adam
I remember waiting in line in the snow with my Dad to get our hands on one of the first ADAM computers. Oh, the awful SmartBASIC programs I would write! I spent hours and hours hacking away in that terrible AppleBASIC clone. And loving every minute of it.
So the order is
I loved the Apple // community and participated, er.. heavily.. (see below..)
The Amiga was SO far ahead of its time. Did some fun programming on that as well, but mostly in AmigaBASIC
As far as programming languages goes.. BASIC all the way, baby. JavaScript is the BASIC of today, in my opinion.
Career ramifications were intentional. My dad was driving me towards something he thought would be useful to me later in life, because he
clearly never found what he was looking for in his work life.
I distinctly remember the tribulations my father went through in his career. He worked hard to achieve an MBA from a prestigious business school. The degree opened up many opportunities for him, but I don’t think he ever found exactly what he was looking for. We moved throughout my childhood, travelling from job to job, never staying in one place for more than a year or so. I’m not sure he ever found work that satisfied him, even to this day. Copies of What Color is Your Parachute were staples in our household.
… and well, it was fun. It still is. With me, it’s always gonna be mandatory fun, because otherwise, why bother? Thanks dad. You were not always there for me like you should have been, but I knew you always meant well. I miss you.
I grew up on Commodore gear, starting with the Vic-20, then a C64, C128, Amiga 2000, Amiga 3000T. Somewhere along the way I also acquired a XT Clone (with the blue TURBO button! 
) With my Vic-20 I eventually got a 300bps Vic-Modem and that was my entrée into BBSing. Eventually I was running the largest multi-line BBS in my province as I enter university where I got access to BITNET and subsequently the Internet, and subsequently IRC. It’s all downhill from there