I think I was 8 years old, when my older brother and me where sitting in front of a 2.5MHz computer, the Robotron A 5120.
We spent the past hours typing characters and strange symbols from a paper magazine into this weird machine and had absolutly no clue what all that should mean. After some time and fixing a lot of typos, we somehow managed to transfer all those pieces of information from written paper into this miraclous machine. And then, I can’t remember how, we started the executation of this code. In a magically way a computer game (somekind of a space invaders clone) appeared on the black screen with green characters.
That was a magical moment for me, that changed my entire life. From this day on I felt in love with computers and so I spent a lot of time figuring out how they work, how to create things (mainly with Basic and C++), how to make them faster. More computers followed after this first expierence such like Atari, Amiga, my first Intel 80386.
What a crazy time we had back in the 90’s…
One day I’ve read ‘How to become a Hacker’ by Eric Steven Raymond and get interested in the Hacker Culture.
I sticked with computers and programming, worked in IT in different roles and always wanted to learn more. Wanted to know how things work, wanted to find new creative ways to use computer systems, I always tried to improve things.
That’s why I call myself a hacker.
It’s not because I’m an expert level software developer (no I’m not) nor because I know all details about Unix operating systems or anything like that. - Nope, it’s the inner attitude to stay humble and curious. The willingness to share my knowledge with others. All of that not only in the digital world, but also in other areas of life.
Hacking is not a crime. It’s a creative way to explore the world we live in and to make it better.
