My History with Programming

I've decided to share with you about how I started programming in the first place.

I actually started programming back when I was in Form 4 (though I wish I had started earlier). The first language I programmed in was Java. Why Java? I mean, yeah, you can ask why didn't I start programming in C or C++ like everyone else? Well it was mostly due to a game, called Runescape. It's an MMORPG that was programmed using Java.



I first played the game in 2007 and I sometimes still play it. When I first started to play, there was a loading screen with the Java logo on it, and that was when I first became aware of the language. Frankly, it didn't matter much to me in the beginning but as I played the game I started to wonder how it was all created. Which is when I started to do research on it.



I had found a tutorial on Howstuffworks.com but even then my heart still wasn't moved to actually learning it. The moment came later on when I was in Form 4.

This is when starts getting interesting. You see, back in Form 4 there was this girl... and I kinda told her 'I love her'. And she said that she only saw me as a friend. I'm not gonna say who the girl is, you're gonna have to ask me personally, and if I happen to be in a chatty mood, I'll tell you. But not now, her memory is sacred to me.

Anyway, moving on. During the end-of-year holidays I needed something to get my mind off of her, and by a spur of the moment decision I downloaded the Java compiler, the JDK. It was version 1.6.10 then I think.

So, after downloading it I started to learn how to program. It wasn't so hard, there are plenty of videos and tutorials on the Internet that's related to it. It was quite easy actually, coming from a kid who had no real mentor to help him. I really enjoyed the way I could tell the computer to do anything I want. Sure my programs back then were really primitive with no way to input data and stuff but I learned. I looked at the codes other people made and little by little I started to get the hang of it. I managed to learn how to draw a heart shape for the girl :-P. Here's a picture of it:



If you haven't guessed, the part spray painted over is her name. Yeah, I was a bit crazy then. Then for the first time ever I designed and created my own code. It was an encrypter using the Caesar's Cipher method (Now I've actually improved upon the original design so that it has a better implementation. If you want to see it, come and ask me, and I will show you. I'm not that secretive about my code.)

Looking back now, at that point, I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the idea that I can now control computers, that I had an ability few other people had (or at least no one in my class then had). And yeah, it didn't occur to me as career choice then but I guess it was what started everything.

But later on, in Form 5 I sort of quit. I don't know why, I guess it was because I kept failing in building a certain program (it was a decimal to binary number converter, I've finally succeeded in trying to build it though). But I think it was mostly because back then there other things I had to be worried about. I mean it was my SPM year and the stress and the pressure of it just kept away from it. I tried to go back to it after SPM but sadly I never actually tried to pick up where I left off.

I wonder how far I would've gone if I had continued then but there's no point in crying over spilled milk, right?

So that's my story. I don't know why I wanted to write this little story, but I guess I just had to let it out somehow. So that I can get over it and just move on. Do you understand? If you don't, well I don't blame you. Everyone has his story and maybe it only makes sense them. Now that I've finished writing it, it all finally makes sense to me. Why I did what I did and where I'm going now.

Sorry, was just ranting. Thanks for reading. And see you later.

Nitrome

Ok, so this is the first of many posts.

So, for my first post, I want to introduce everyone to a really cool flash games site. Yes, you read it right, FLASH games. Yes, there's a lot of crappy flash games website but I swear this one is way different. For one, all the games they put up are their own and they are of the highest imaginable quality. What you can see in the picture up there is basically the name of the company Nitrome (which appears in dozens of creative ways before each of their games), along with some of the characters that have appeared in their games. Here's a link to the site:

http://www.nitrome.com/

A short history of the company:

"It started out in 2007 by creating games for mobile phones, but unfortunately it wasn't that profitable. So they migrated to flash games playable on browsers, and along with support from other flash games websites, such as Miniclip, they have created one of the best flash games websites around with games such as Frostbite, Final Ninja, Rubble Trouble and countless other flash games that can occupy large chunks of your time if you're not careful."

They have exactly 100 games right now and to commemorate that they have created a game called Nitrome Must Die which can be found at this link:

http://www.nitrome.com/games/nitromemustdie/index.html

It's full of references to their past games . So, in support of the work they do at nitrome and for continuously giving me hours of addictive games to play, here's to you Nitrome. My tribute.

Introduction

Hi everyone, ok, so this is the blog I've made up for the IT class. Anyway, this is Amir, you'll know it's me because I'll be writing mostly in English. Tamila will come along later and do her own introduction of what she's going to do. Anyway, I guess I'll start off by explaining a little something about this blog.

This blog was actually created while I was 16, about 2 or 3 years ago. I mostly did it out of a certain incident that I will not explain here... or anywhere to be honest. But after a while I got bored and just gave up.

Then our IT lecturer came up and said that we need to come up with our own blogs... well, what better way to actually use that old blog than to actually use it to complete an assignment, right?

Well, anyway, I'm planning on updating this blog often... hopefully. Well, it actually depends on how un-lazy I feel like at any particular moment, but when I do write, I think it'll be mostly about tech stuff like games, software, programming and such or maybe about some of my activities around campus like English debate and such. So, wish me luck with actually filling this thing up and see you soon...