I work in data processing, or is it called systems automation now?
Whatever its name, it means machines should work, people should think.
Although I didn't know it at the time, the first program I ever wrote was in 5th grade on an Apple IIe in a language called LOGO. Later, a little game called Doom came out and convinced me, for a brief period of time, that I wanted to be a game programmer. Since my high school wasn't offering programming courses (to people like me), I fought it out on my own by grabbing a book on C.
I did not end up in game programming since by the time I got good enough to do some damage with C and assembler, the computer game industry took a very unusual turn from garage band indie game development towards massive Hollywood-style productions and I lost interest.
Instead of pursuing games, I installed Linux and discovered the world of data processing, networks, open source, and the internet.
I've published a few articles on system administration.
I got my start in the world of open source by learning to program in C on a 486dx2/66 running MS-DOS. Programming in C was made possible by DJGPP, a protected-mode MS-DOS port of GCC.
DJGPP quickly lead to a full-blown install of Slackware Linux. Today I'm using one of Windows, CentOS, or Debian.
I am an occasional contributor to open source.
Learn about why I don't use emacs on my vim page, and then why I changed my mind and went back to emacs.
For most of my career I've been using white on black terminals. White vs. Black Backgrounds: Health Effects convinced me to give black on white terminals a shot. EDIT: back to white on black. It may make me strain my eyes more (can't really tell), but there's something more soothing about it. I guess it reminds me of my childhood.
The progession of languages I learned went something like this: C in 1996, x86 assembler and C++ in 1997, Perl in 1998, Python in 2001, Java in 2005 (specifically, J2ME).
Today I find myself writing mainly Objective Caml.