Programming - early days

`0:09:11`

And I was enamored with that whole scene. I was enamored with what they were able to create and I just wanted to be a part of it even though I kind of didn't have any skills to contribute. And that's how I got into running BBSs. I didn't learn programming then and I wouldn't learn programming until much later, until I was almost 20 years old. The bulletin board systems existed in this funny space where they were partly a service to the demo scenes allowing all these demo groups to distribute their amazing demos. And then it was also a place to trade piracy software, pirated software. And I ended up starting one of those when I was 14 years old in my tiny little bedroom in Copenhagen. I had my, at that point, Amiga 4000. I had three telephone lines coming in into my tiny room. — [Lex] Nice. — Which is funny because again, I'm 14 years old. By the time I was in Sterling, my third line, you had to get someone from the telephone company to come do it. I get this guy and he's just looking around like, "What is this?

`0:10:11`

Why the hell is a 14-year-old having three phone lines into their tiny little bedroom? What's going on here? Why are all these modems blinking red and black and making funny sounds?" — Did your parents know? — They did and they didn't. They knew I had the phone lines. They knew I had the computer. I don't think they really understood that I was trading pirated software that was both illegal, and whatever else was going on. — Oh, we should probably say that in Europe, maybe you can comment on this in, especially in Eastern Europe, but Europe in general, piracy I think was more acceptable than it was in the United States. I don't know there maybe it's just my upbringing. — Even that conversation wasn't present. I never spoke to anyone growing up in Denmark. — The piracy is wrong. — Had any moral qualms whatsoever about piracy. It was just completely accepted that you're a kid, you won a lot of games. You don't have a lot of money, what do you do? You trade. — Yeah. — Some people would occasionally buy a game. I mean, I once bought a second Master System,

`0:11:14`

and I bought one game. Because that was what I could afford. I got "After Burner II." I dunno if you've ever played that game. It's pretty bad implementation on the second Master System, but it was like 600 crowners. And I was making money at that time doing newspaper delivery. I had to do that for a month to afford one game. I like video games way too much to wait a month just to get one game. So piracy was just the way you did it. And that was how I got into running this bulletin board system, being part of the demo scene, being part of the piracy scene to some extent. And then also at some point realizing, oh, you can actually also make money on this and this can fund buying more phone lines and buying more modems and buying more Amigas. Oh yeah, that was one of the demo parties. These were amazing things. — What am I looking at? — Isn't that amazing? — Look at all those CRT monitors. — All these CRT monitors. Again, when I was 14, I don't understand fully why my parents allowed this.

`0:12:15`

But I traveled from Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark to Aarhus this tiny little town in Jutland on the train with a bunch of dudes who were like late teens and their 20s. I'm 14 years old. I'm lugging my 14-inch CRT monitor with my computer in the back to go to the party. That was what it was called. That was the biggest demo scene party at that time. And it was exactly as you see in that picture, thousands of people just lining up with their computers, programming demos all day long, and trading these things back and forth. — That's kind of awesome. Not gonna lie. It's a little ridiculous. — It's totally awesome. And I miss it in ways where the internet has connected people in some ways, but the connection you get from sitting right next to someone else who has their own CRT monitor who's lugged at halfway around the country to get there is truly special. Because it was also just this burst of creativity. You're constantly running around. You're constantly surrounded by people who are really good at what they could do. They're really good at programming computers.

`0:13:15`

It's infectious. It was part of that pang I felt then going like, oh man, why can't I figure this out? I mean, why can't I even figure out EasyAMOS? It's kind of frustrating. — But on your third attempt, you a little more successful? — So third attempt is when I start getting it, this is when I start helping out, let's say build things for the internet. So around '95, I think it is, or '96, I discovered the internet. Actually, in ninth grade. That was my first experience. I went to some university in Denmark. And in ninth grade, we had this excursion and they sat us down in front of a computer and the computer had Netscape Navigator, the first version, or maybe it was even the precursor to that. And they had a text editor. And us kids just got like, "Hey, built something on the internet." And it was just HTML and the first thing you do is like, oh, I can make the text blink by just putting in this tag and saving it. That moment, that was actually when I reawaken the urge