I’m into a lot of things. It’s probably not healthy but there ya go- You could say I stole from the Jeffersonian playbook, minus the amazing inventions. Read on if you want to indulge me.
I’m an old hack with computers- I started with c64, a Kaypro IV (CP/M), ATT 3b1 (ATT Unix), and a Microvax (VMS) that I pieced together from a friend that worked at Princeton University. He brought parts home when they upgraded and I eventually “Frankensteined” something together. It sat in my very rough, cobwebbed basement and was still the warmest room in the house during the Winter. Fun fact: I believe the 3B1 was the first “consumer” machine that ran a UI and had a mouse.
The rest is probably pretty typical for computer people/hackers from my generation. Lots of late nights with modems and pieces of retired phone switches under the bathroom sink (or not typical). Lots of Mountain Dew, war dialing, bridges, loops, and diverters, for me at least. A few visits from people in suits and a few near misses with some bigger curiosities but managed to stay out of legal trouble through that era and have remained law abiding since.
These days I spend a lot of time in advisory roles and love hacking around with AI. The new generation of folks doing amazing shit with this stuff are way more open and things are far less corporate than they were even 10 years ago. The barrier to entry is so low to do so many cool things that you basically only need a modest laptop to build the most amazing things. I am envious of those just starting their careers in this advancing of AI and for certain here to stay and a great career path to take.