When I was 10-years old, the early 1980s, I saved up my pocket money and taught myself to program a Commodore Vic-20 — simple games, envelope filters, a tiny DB, all in 4k, and then 16k. My grandfather was a Fortran programmer.

Sixteen years later, I was disappointed when my first PC came with no programming language, as that Internet thing looked fun. So I learnt JavaScript, and when the university refused to install Netscape LiveScript, I learnt Perl, which took me through my BA and MSc, and into freelance development until Node.JS fulfilled the Netscape dream.

Although I've tried, and studied with the best, I've yet to find a way to make a computer do what I really want to do — untraditional jazz, flamenco, and metal. When I'm not gardening, or smoking, that's what I find on the back burner.