Hello everyone!
I am excited to finally introduce myself to this amazing community after being a lurker for over two years. Better late than never, right? I want to apologize for taking so long to do this, but I am here now and ready for my third and last attempt. I wrote it two times before and failed to post it because I either lost my text, or it didn't meet my expectations.
A bit over two years ago, I landed here while searching for a book on Google. I was immediately attracted by the topics discussed and quickly after my mind got blown when I saw the quality of content and member's dedication. I was also impressed by the amount time and hard work moderators put in for maintaining everything. I soon discovered that I share values, mindset and interests with many of you, and that made babiato grow won me even harder.
But who am I? I am a guy from Europe who has been passionate about computers since '95 when I played my first games while visiting some friends. I got my first PC in '98 during the era when "real" pirates sold games CDs on street corners. Most kids could only play demo CDs from magazines at that time, and even when we bought CDs from these "pirates," they were either empty or had the wrong label. And on the rare occasions when they worked, illusions of Voodoo or Riva cards were haunting us.
Drooling over game magazines, screenshots and dreaming of high-end systems, I soon made contact with the local software & hardware underground market, so things got better. However, because the volume was big, the games were too expensive to have all of them, so I quickly became an expert in finding free stuff online. By the mid-2000s, I had over 1300 CDs in my collection and was building systems or giving tech tips to most people around me. In time, I developed excellent skills in finding almost anything I needed online, but that was just the beginning for the time being.
Fast forward to 2015, after I took an education detour down the path of biology, business, and economics, I found my true calling when I took a local class on web development. Since then, I've worked as a freelance front-end developer, collaborating with great companies and clients along the way. In my free time, I love exploring new things and staying up to date with the latest news in the computer world. As an art lover, I am always on the lookout for cool graphic designs, particularly web designs, and I constantly bookmark interesting resources related to graphics, web development and software. My library is already pretty massive, with over 12k savings.
Until I discovered this community, I was never an active or involved member in an online community for too long. However, this community has given me a lot, and I hope to give back in any way I can. I am happy to help people troubleshoot their tech issues, recommend system configurations, or offer any other advice I can. So, here I am, slowly trying to engage and connect with you all. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I hope this intro gives you a good glimpse into who I am and what I can bring to babiato.