I'm 41 next month, I bought my first computer when I was 14 (TRS-80 - 16K Level II basic. I learned basic programming and some assembler on that, enough that a local bank president wanted to hire me, but because of my age he couldn't. I took all the computer and math classes our high school offered. I've done factory work, back-hoe operator, tree planter, motorcycle mechanic and a precision machinist. I went to DeVry Institute of Technology for EET, but due to circumstances only attended 2 of the 3 years of the program. I had a 3.6 GPA and on the Deans List when I left. That was almost 20 years ago. Everything I knew then and hadn't forgot was pretty much outdated. I started this job about 10 years ago as a machinist, but ended up being the technical guy for everything. I have a very high "pride in my work" and am willing to do the work required. The control and electronics we used was designed by an outside company, and since they didn't have time to supply us with finished circuit boards, I decided to reverse-engineer the existing board, drew a schematic, and started learning 8051 assembler. I was lucky enough to obtain one of the first poorly documented versions of the firmware code and it was enough for me to figure out how to make things work. Most everything I've done since then has been learned on my own, websites, networks, visual basic, CAD. I'm definetly more a programmer than a hardware guy, but I muttle through anyway. I've certainly learned alot since being a member here.

Jon