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Just some random haters! Even if I don't like a video from someone I don't hit the dislike button. If you don't like something click away. Good vid so far, time for me to finish it up. about 20 min in.
+Rya I'm going to put this as politely and as simply as possible (ya know cause basic minds and all that)... FUCK OFF! 😊 I thought maybe using simple terms would please a simple mind.
I also wanted to wish everyone a happy 4th of July (independence day in US). Please stay safe, eat good food, drink good drink and don't blow your fingers off. I'm taking my family over to Xander's god parents house for a nice night of BBQ and watching fireworks. Keep an eye on my Instagram for pics (also linked in video description).
Not sure if you'll see this, Barnacules, but I recently dug out an XP computer for old games, running a Pentium 4 520 and just 1GB of RAM. Nostalgia is beautiful.
This is the first time I've watched a video over 10 minutes. I don't know how you were able to keep me engaged for an hour, but I'm impressed, and you earned my subscription.
Sophia S It's excellent. It's really motivating and he tells you about how he went from a computer geek as a child to a 30+$ per hour Microsoft employee, and what he did to get there.
Liked & Subbed & can honestly say I watched the entire vid. So many things you discussed I can relate to ... BBS's, 286, 386, 486, Scream Tracker, Mods, SB 8bit, SB 16Bit (I got the AWE32 & AWE64). Man I could go on & on ... but the most motivational thing was right at the end ... on how you can now kiss & hug your son every day. That is priceless to me, they grow up so fast & that time you will never regain irrespective of how much you earn. Total respect to you Jerry for a very honest insight into your life ... loved every minute. Keep on keeping on man!
Still though...I grew up without ever personally having one thousand dollars (I'm in my very early 20s now). Even now, having one thousand (disposable) dollars is a thing.
I can't believe I watched this entire video! I am very glad that I did watch it, it has inspired me to stick to my original plan and go back to school and dive into software engineering! I've been putting it on hold and backing down and not wanting to risk it for a long time. I am now just in time for the upcoming semester! Thanks for sharing your story!
I decided to do the same thing. I finally started my first coding classes. It's literally the most fun I've had in a classroom. Good luck to you! Stick with it!
I fully respect how you can sit there and just talk to the camera. I've done ALOT in the 20 years I've lived, but when I have to talk about it I can say three sentences tops.
I'm from poor family too. I'm living in Africa, I started teach myself coding since i was 14, friends dissed me that I can't but now I'm 22. I created my own search engine from scratch, I created video games, social network, AI/chatbot and open source APIs for developers.
Incredibly compelling *biography*. I'd love to speak with you, live. Till then, if ever; let me wish you continued success and a long happy, healthy life.
I love hearing other people's stories about how they got into computers and/or jobs in IT. I grew up with computers in the house and at school, but I never really thought too much about them. I used them, but I never had much desire to learn more until later in life. After high school, I worked a couple of different jobs, but at that time I couldn't afford a computer of my own. I did get one eventually and re-engaged with the online community. That's when I started becoming more interested in computers beyond just using them to get online. I thought a job in IT might be interesting. A friend of mine suggested classes on HTML and CSS. I hated it so much, it was so boring and repetitive. I broke the LCD panel on my laptop not too long after that, so I looked into what it would take to replace it myself vs. having someone else do it for me. It would be much cheaper to do it myself, and I watched some tutorials online showing how to do it and it didn't look too difficult. I ordered a new panel and replaced it with no problems. In doing that I discovered that I really enjoyed the hands-on work. I built a desktop PC for myself, then I did one for my brother. I did upgrades for people or talked them out of unnecessary upgrades. This past spring I decided to go to a technical college and get an associates degree in Network Communications. I'm almost done with the first semester, I just got my A+ certification, and I am really excited to finish and get a job in the field.
Life lesson: Never tell your boss you need to take a day off to go interview for another job, even if it is a huge step-up for you. Just lie and say you need to take your dog to the vet.
I once told my manager I was going to visit my dying grand mother when I was actually going to go interview for another job. My grand mother had long passed away at the time. I still feel guilty for using her.
that is so crazy, I probably bought parts and games from you when I was a little kid... I wouldn't have remembered you since I was so little but I've been in that store a few times probably while you were working at Mothers, that's nuts that I may have actually met you. it's those games and parts that got me into computers and what got me where I am today.
We lived in either Keyport or Tracyton at the time so we went to that shop over by Sizzler in East Bremerton too but I know I've been over into Mothers a few times at least. I'm sure we got parts and cables and games there and that's the time frame where I discovered my love for computers. we had just got our hands on windows 95 and 98 as well as (mandrake linux? not too sure on that one) but I remember my dad sitting me down when I was about 8 years old and saying "were going to install win 98 today and you're going to do most of it." I had learned most of my core computer knowledge in the years that followed.
What a great Story . You brought back lots of memories from my early computing at the start of the 80's and put a silly grin on my face by the end . I have got to subscribe now .
Watched the entire video. Loved it. I'm a 14 year old boy from Norway who loves programming. The last three days i have written about 300-400 lines of code(not much for a programmer, much for me). I am planning to become a programmer one day. Enough about me, your story is really inspiring. I've always loved your channel and this video says that even though things will be tough and you have to take big risks, life can turn out good. Thank you for making this video and all your other videos!
Hey, I'm a guy from Portugal that's taking the course of computer science already for 3 years, I've never been very good at what I do and even failed some subjects, but seeing your video and realizing how much I you had to work to get where you are today I realized that I need to work harder and invest more time to investigate for myself and not using only that the University offers. My most sincere thanks and see in one day with my name on a good progam.
Barnacules dont be so hard on you, i saw your other videos about failing with losing weight. Belive me i was there too, i dont have kids and house like you. But from experience i can say, small steps is the way too go. You have an amazing story and inspiring. I watched your vids, and other in tech/computers/gaming and havent yet found a desent job but where i have started is much better than where i was before. I learned so much and still learning just by doing the things i love. I work as a consult what ever you want call it but i work in IT and it is much better paid than working in production/industry. I love everything about it and found great coworkers and cool boss. Since 6 years ago i didnt know nothing about it and now i repair and sell computers. Most of the time i dont even know what i am working with but googling and researching i learn how to fix. My next step is learning to code and advance in programing. I feel so passionate about helping others with their tech and i know how important it is today in a age of technology. I couldnt buy any stuff to learn and started to pick up parts and fix from scrapyard and dumpsters. I took out parts and build a medium gaming pc. I got my self other jobs like photograf and started to work on birthdays and events. I feel so blessed even if the way was long and hard, not knowing how to get money for food and for rent i managed always some how with help of friends and family who supported me. Not many people knew my hardship with money and how much i failed, but it was worth it and standing now and remembering how i started, with watching your videos and other tech channels i feel so lucky to find people with similar struggles. Now i get by even better and i have so much expecience so i can apply other jobs. I will start a channel my self and build parts from what ever i could find. I wish you the best for you and your family. Blessings// Wilson
Omg we grew up similar. When you mentioned trackers at 16:31 I flipped haha. I used to use trackers on the Amiga with protracker and octamed. I'm going to keep watching now hah.
Interesting video. I'm about a dozen years older than you but the arc of my life is very similar to yours. Rough poor childhood saved by a chance encounter with a computer, parlayed that into working at a small mom and pop and eventually to a major software house. Like you, after just shy of 20 years was laid off. Again, like you, it was the entire department due to the company doing a major shift in where their focus was. That was earlier this year and that's when I stumbled your video about being laid off. I could totally commiserate. Anyway, I'm back working and doing what I love, but it was fun listening to your story here.
This was probably my favorite more serious video of yours so far, I didn't even realise it was an hour long until it was over and suddenly it was 3:20AM. I didn't initially know what to expect from your channel, but having watched a bunch of videos now I can honestly say you are amazing. Don't let haters get you down, for what little it is worth this video is the most inspiring thing I've watched on RU-vid in a long time. Thank you for giving me hope Barnacules.
Thanks to Jerry and Jay I found out that classic AdBlock has functionality to white list YT channels, so I disabled my AdBlock Plus for YT and installed AdBlock and white listed some of my favorite RU-vidrs. I would white list them all, but I usually bench watch a lot of videos from many of them, and the pre-roll video ads are just not acceptable for me :( Ps.: I do not use AdBlock to deny anybody money, as web dev I do have ads on my sites too. I usually white list every site that has acceptable ads, but as soon as you put more than 2 banners on your site, or you have popup or any other intrusive ads, I will just use adblock on such site, because such ads are annoying.
Survivor 916 Good luck and get on codeschool, khanacademy, lynda, treehouse, pluralsight, codecademy, sololearn, futurelearn, and w3schools! You can do anything. Finish a language or two on duolingo too. Good luck.
Literally the best 58 minutes and 1 second of watching a RU-vid video. Really enjoyed your story, Jerry! You’re a genuine top bloke and wish you the best in all future endeavours. I enjoy watching your videos. Watching them honestly keeps my interest and passion in computing and technology aflame. Thank you for your optimism and overall atmosphere of effort being put into these videos. ~Kyle
My passion started when I learned Java. From there I learned C++, then assembly, and a couple months after I had a grip on assembly, I designed my own 16 bit cpu that I built and programmed from scratch. I love how learning about technology just blossoms.
Wish you could have talked more about Microsoft from the inside. Also did it hurt not having a CS degree? Would you have been promoted further having a degree and possibly not laid off?
+Michael Crawford being laid off had nothing to do with education. It had everything to do with me being in a division they cut and costing more than outsourcing.
this trend is happening with a lot where the short term bottom line is valued over future growth and stability , QC and support are being phased out or drastically reduced which is a anti consumer move for sure
I just recently found your channel and in the last few days i've seen some amazing videos here. This in particular, and i really recognized myself in one video you released about a year ago where you said you were going to turn things around. Your 3d printing tutorials are amazing and entertaining, and as i can tell you still do programming. It would be amazing if you would be interested to someting about just that, programming perhaps like your 3d printing videos. I dont know, just a thougt. anyway you are completley awesome and thanks!
Great story man! I actually am thankful for Microsoft doing sloppy work as I have been living of fixing their mess for many years (in form of tools which fix or complement their incomplete tools or poor management decisions :). Thanks for the honest and inspiring story and I wish you tons of success with RU-vid and everything else!
Me too. I didn't realize it was so long until I looked down at the time when he mentioned it was long, and I started thinking about it. By that time It was 50m in, so I just watched the rest.
great vid. I used to run a WWIV BBS from 92-94. I started out as a computer science major but changed to mathematics because CS was so boring and I never wanted to work in an office with other people. Should have kept with CS (every grade i ever had in cs was an A) and just done my own thing and never worked for anyone else.
What an absolute delight! Listening to you was like listening to my story! I was in Atlanta, Georgia struggling as an electrician and computer wannabe. Started with a Commodore 64 and wrote my first program the first month that helped run my electrical business. Finally got into consulting and making a sort-of living on an IBM clone. My best friend and I were running a Telegard BBS called Terminus. I wrote the FIRST ability to attach a file to a message. I think they call that an email attachment today. (If I had a penny for every one sent...) Drove to Marysville (north of Everett) to meet a girl I met on IRC and ended up working at Microsoft in '96 as a tester on the first Visual Studio as a contractor. Everything was Visual Basic and automated. A year later, I got on Netmeeting and stayed there until MS stocks tanked. I was able to go blue badge in 2000 and worked for 2 years until I decided to come back to Atlanta to take care of my parents. On the Netmeeting team, I was the only person allowed to write apps for testing because I was so fast at writing them. At one point, I wrote M.C.I.C. which allowed the lab guy to install test environments on multiple computers from a single console. I got the idea after helping him an entire afternoon manually doing this. With my program, he could do it in 30 minutes. It has been a wonderful 58:01 minutes listening to you! My very best for you! I must say, if you got in MS in 2000, you missed the good days. Working for Bill Gates was a pure dream job. Steve Balmer was ok, but MS was turning into another corporation. Now, I wouldn't even want to work there. All the basketball courts, showers and arcade walk-overs were built during Bill's control. Looks like I bailed before the big cut. I actually think I met you or at least remember seeing you at MS at one of the meetings or get-togethers. You do look familiar.
Hey, this video popped up on my feed after I started binge watching some of your old videos. Just want to say that you are an amazing person, I love you, and there needs to be more people like you in the world.
Dude, mad respect, you're story is very similar to mine, cept my dad has passed and im still working towards becoming a software developer. Keep up these videos!
Up until you went to work for the computer store, you (for the most part) mirrored my life! My first contact with a computer was a Wang 700 series, then a TRS80 (the only one our school had) and then a IBM Turbo XT (10mhz) 10meg mfm HD, yada-yada-yada. Built my first 283-12 and progressed much as you did, with the BBS's, etc. I recall buying my first IDE hard drive, a Conner 170mb, and the guy at the computer store said I'd "never fill it up in my lifetime" (3 weeks later, I bought a second one, LOL!) Your story is amazing, and I can relate in many ways (even the ford courier and 486dx2/66!) Anyways, wanted to let you know, not only can I appreciate your hard work and struggles, but I have the utmost respect for your accomplishments. (besides, you're a pretty funny guy)- Got hooked by the AC install video, and can honestly say I'm so glad I subscribed. Keep doing what you're doing, the content is awesome, and if people ain't careful, they might learn a thing or two. God Bless- DB
Anybody else think Jake was the guy who trashed his house? I mean you did fire him. He would be angry enough. Why specifically after he left? He probs felt guilty for never revealing that so he offered a job from microsoft.
Yep, as soon as he mentioned that, that was my first thought. I am sure not provable. Jake, if you are reading this, and you had done the break- in - confess!!!
Currently I'm on program engineering college. I thought I started loosing interest,l but man this video motivated me to get my shit together. I promise I will start trying even harder around my college than before. thanks :)
atdt, ats11=34...and the line noise that brought us 'NO CARRIER' when you were half way through a message!! lol Yeah, in many ways I miss that too! My 1st computer was also a TI99/4A but I ended up playing with it (took it apart) but my Atari 800 was what really got me going in playing around with stuff..great times.
+Scott x Yeah my first was the Atari computer, than I finally got a 486 sx/33 with 4 mb ram, 2400 baud modem, no sound, no cd-rom... it last about a year before I tore it apart and upgraded. Those were definitely the days, not like today just about anyone can do it.
Thank you very much for this video.... Subscribed!! I watched an entire video. I rendomly founds this. My story is somewhat similor to you... I'm a Highschool dropout and working with Amazon (Linux Engineer ) now.. I interacted with compuers in year 2006. and just like you, I haven't told them yet that I can code (Python, Ruby) Let's see wt happens... I'm ready..
Smiley Cool I told them.. Got some automation scripting projects... one of them is completed .... And guess what.. I wasn't aware that... my coding skills are 'that good'.. I think my time has started ... ;)
Thanks for the powerful message! What a wonderful reminder of taking risks, perusing your passion, and never giving up. I've watched a huge number of your videos over the past 9 months and love your style. After watching this video tonight, I finally smashed the SUBSCRIBE button. You seem to have the character that so many people lack in anything they do. Most of all, you've inspired me to think differently about where I am, where I want to be, and what I must do to get there. Keep up the awesome work, I look forward to receiving your notifications of new content... and yes, there is a huge backlog I will catch up on. (Oh and love the Racing Chair vids! I'm a big dude too and wanted a nice one so I watched all yours!)
lol. I think the 486 dx2/66 was the first computer I ever owned. I think this was back in '94 or '95. I built it from scratch buying a component at a time when I had the money (or available credit on the plastique card). I even had a "pilfered" Number9 video card in it. Shortly after that broadband became available locally. . . That was the end of my life with a modem and my slavery to Comcast ever since.
You started at level 56? THE NUMBER OF BARIUM IS 56? Coincidence? Apart from that, you probably won't read this but, this video was very inspirational and I just want to thank you for taking the time to make this awesome video :)
So, I just fully watched this video, then followed that up with your Microsoft Laid Off video. I must say you've just become a huge inspiration for me and role model. I've been dabbling in software development for years but never properly threw myself into it. With what I've heard in this video, I feel the motivation and desire to do the next steps that I need to take, and the risks i need to take. I feel like we had similar childhoods, but I made some wrong decisions and "tried to fit in" rather than going my own way. Thank you for your words, your content, and your honesty. I'll be subscribing and going through and watching all your videos on software development over the coming weeks as well as one of the recommended videos on the sidebar was about a code camp, so ill be doing that as well. Again, thank you. Here is to hoping this is a turning point for me, instead of a "could have been". Thank you.
I remember having to write some custom scripts on my Amiga 500+ so I could connect to the internet through a dial-up account and it surprised the hell out of me when I connected on the first try with using those homemade scripts. Jeez, I think the pseudo browser was called LYNX. It was before NetScape existed. lol
I started using computers when I was just under 2 years old (our computer at the computer at the time was a Emachines). I loved using XP, about 2 years after we moved to Brent from Centreville, we got Vista on our new computer (the one we had bricked). Then lightning killed our Compaq maybe 2 years after that (it constantly crashed). We got an Emachines again but this time it had Windows 7 Home Premium, and we also got a Compaq Presario (it turned 6 years old in March). I had made my RU-vid account (Phillip Gleaton [now CollinG Tech]) at this point and time. My dad got pissed off at the Emachines around 2012 and just smashed it and set it ablaze. So we used the Compaq until 2014 when we got our current computer the Acer AXC-603G-UW13 (that model). This is when I got really interested in computers and programming. So my older sister got the old Presario and we had at it on the Aspire X. In mid-2015, the Presario conked out and my sister started using the Aspire X instead. Fur Christmas my sister got an HP laptop (idk what model), so we had the Aspire X all to ourselves. Around March, when it was around the Presario's birthday, I gave it a second life when I fixed it. I got tired of it running slow so I attempted to restore back to factory (with the help of Ken Doe from the CC). That ultimately failed so I decided to make the laptop into a Linux machine. I used GParted to format the 250 GB HDD in the thing. I put Linux Mint on it. I got tired of Linux Mint, so I reformatted the drive and put Ubuntu 15.10 on it. When the prompt came up to upgrade to 16.04, I immediately clicked Upgrade. HUGE MISTAKE the furst time I tried that because it did not install the Unity interface properly so I could not close programs, I could not even sign in properly. So I formatted the drive again, and reinstalled 15.10. This was around mid-May so I was preparing fur my 8th grade graduation ceremony. I got mad at the Presario and pounded on the keyboard. BIG MISTAKE on my part. I kept having problems with the video, even after plugging it in to an external monitor. I tried to reseat the cables, I took out the processor and put it back in. Whup! Vacation time! I had to go to Tennessee because of a thing my sister (who is about to go into college). I came back to the Presario not even wanting to boot. I took it apart and put it back together multiple times. No progress. So I gave up and accepted the fact the Presario was truly dead. Rest in peace Presario 2010-2016 you will be missed. So here we are today where I only have access to one computer with a mouse and keyboard. Thank you fur reading this far, it means so much that you have the time to read about my life with computers.
Amazing video man! Sorry to hear about the hardships, but you're almost to 1mil keep pushing and allow yourself to benefit from your skills instead of selling them to employers!
Hey Jerry, your story is utterly amazing! I'm not a computer geek and I still want to be the best programmer ever xd. Guys, do you have any advice for subscribitions for this kind of job? Like journals, YT chanells etc.? Or is there any other way to get knowledge I need, like specific books? Because after that video, I feel that it won't be enough to just learn a couple of programming languages... PLS
This was really interesting, I'm 15 years old and this was great to hear, I come from a not so poor family and my parents back home had nothing, they lived in the countryside, my father was literally amazed when he was 20 years old and came to "the big city" and saw these crazy shiny things, yes, those were lamps, he didn't have the experience you had with computers, and when you were telling the story I imagined all of these things that I wish I was born with, I'm still pretty happy because I was born in a place where technology usually comes late, not now with internet and everything but back in 2004 I was playing with my NES while people in the USA had PS2s, so I'm not that sad about being born when I was born... IDK, it was really good hearing your story, hopefully I can tell my kids or my viewers a similar story "yeah I was 12 and had just discovered this cool gaming site called Pornhub so I spent all day on it" lol
Meh,the only console i had until seven was a chinese copy of nes (purchased in 2006) Serbia is probably the worst place a kid can be born in,with the average wage being 360$ (a month) you can imagine how hard it would be (and is) to survive there. It's 2:48 Am,too tired to write,i will respond if i see that people are interested.
One of the COOLEST stories that hearkens back to my days of AOL message boards, newsgroups, IRC and shared FTP servers. This was honestly when the internet was the purest and truly was a wild west in a world that had already been revolutionized. Being on the cusp of this enormous breakthrough and the human interaction with people where JUST LIKE ME is what made me fall in love. I knew I liked you Barnacules, love your channel and I would love to meet you in real life. So happy your channel is taking off. Take it easy my friend 👍🏼
$9/hr in the late '90s? Jesus. My state, WV, doesn't even have a minimum wage that high. It's like $8.75/hr as of the beginning of 2016. At the beginning of 2015, it was $8.00/hr. You were rolling in the dough back then.
I can relate alot to Barnacules. A Commodore 64/128D was my first computer. Thats what got me wanting to learn everything I could about computers. GO64
given that it is my first computer language, it is difficult for me. but I am so glad to hear that you find it so easy, mr. sesshounamaru. I have spoken to mr. kerblankamankadankaramian and he also agrees with you. do you think it's because the syntax is a little more straightforward than other languages? he knows c++ which he said also makes it easier for him.
***** I am so happy to hear that you find Java to be so easy. Do you feel pretty proud that it comes about so easily for your? With so much finesse? Like the shampoo?
I will watch each and every last one of your vids. This is a very inspiring story. And your introduction to computers is quite similar to my beginning. Good luck with all you do in the future.
