The beginning
My parents will tell you that my interest in computers and electronics started pretty early on. I find blinkenlights fascinating and always have… When I was 5, or 6, I got an Amstrad PC, and a bunch of cassette tapes, yes cassette tapes, with games. It was with this that I got started programming, in basic.
When I was 9, I started building a cycle trolley with a car battery, lights, and switches. Which I dragged around and improved for years until it eventually became “uncool.”
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The year after, in 1993, the family got an x86 PC, with a color monitor and dot matrix printer. It was awesome; I stopped playing outside after that…
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On my own
I moved into my own apartment and started to build AVR microcontroller modules in my early 20’s, and it quickly became an obsession. I put them all into a control cabinet that controlled the apartment, and monitored itself; every voltage level, fuse, and module had some kind of monitoring and alert system. After a few years, it had gotten pretty big.
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I went to school for two years and improved my electronics skills. After I graduated, I sold the apartment and bought a house.
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Family man
After living on my own in the house for about two years, I met my girlfriend (now wife). We dated for a short while, then we rented an apartment and moved in together in her hometown. Almost a year later the twins were born — hectic times and not a lot of time for projects. In 2014, when the twins were about a year old, we bought our first house.
I called dibs on a room in the basement, and turned it into my combined home office, man-cave, workshop, electronics lab, and server room. 10.5 m2 (113 ft2) of pure awesomeness!
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In 2018 our youngest son was born, and the family was complete. I try ever so gently to push the kids towards the right interests of course; it seems to be working.
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Then — in 2020, we bought our second house. And I once again called dibs on a room in the basement, were I made my home office.
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In May 2022 — I asked Mona to marry me, and she said yes 😃
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And January 2023; we got married! ❤️
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