Telecoms
played a big part in my life. When I arrived in Luxembourg, I joined the Club de TeleMatique. A 1200 modem was a luxury back then :-) I followed the usual path, I guess: connecting to BBSes, then getting more and more involved with the Club, and finally opening a BBS on its behalf. From then on the way was clear: the BBS went into FidoNet, and so did I, then Internet. Joining the club had important consequences, because I met plenty of interesting people who keep popping up again and again in my life in various capacities. I also started to write loads of programs linked to telecoms. Many were ancillary to the BBS I ran for the club, but I also wrote an email and newsgroup client for my Psion, worked on TCP/IP stacks, joined the Fidonet Technical board, opened and maintained the Club's website and many others, etc.Phones
Today, I have left a bit the network side, and shifted to a more pragmatic part of telecommunications: telephones! :-)I started playing with telephones when they started becoming "smart", ie as soon as java was on it. I have since shifted to Android, but the principle is the same. I also play with tablets, but their use is different. I think 60% of what we do today with computers will be done with our phones tomorrow, if not more. I'm programming for android for fun.