It all started in 1994 when I was 6 years old. My father, a now-retired pathologist, was working long nights on an Intel 486 based PC in his study and, as a curious little boy, watching him work was absolutely fascinating. Noticing my curiosity, he introduced me to the wonderful world of computers.
What started with MS-DOS, VESA graphics, ISA add-on cards and fiddling with various little jumpers on motherboards turned into a life long passion. I still build my PCs myself to this day.
On the software side, I've been programming since I was about 12. Even though I have fond memories of writing horrible code with ASP, what really pushed me towards programming as a career was PHP. It's a messy language everyone loves to hate, yet it not only helped me learn a lot in those early days, it was also a great way to earn some pocket money via freelancing during my college years. Without PHP, none of what came after would have been possible.
Today, most of my work involves Go, Python and Java (and a bit of PHP!). Ah yes, Go. What an amazing breath of fresh air after so many years of Java and PHP. I love Go. Its simplicity, elegance and sheer power is staggering (try it yourself!). I started using it professionally at Peak Games, continue to do so at GetSocial (join us!) and it keeps impressing me with every new project.
I'm also a proud Linux geek. My first foray into Linux was with a Gelecek Linux (a long-dead local Turkish distro) CD my father gave me. After playing with it for a while (what do you mean there is no C drive???) I've switched to Mandrake and spent a week trying to configure ALSA for sound output. Fun times!
Over the years, I've used Zenwalk, Debian and Ubuntu before settling on Arch Linux in 2010. I maintain various packages in the Arch User Repository (sources here). Besides some Windows-only gaming, I've been using Linux exclusively for the past 14 years.
Computing aside, I love hiking and sailing, though I'm quite an amateur at both. I'll probably retire to a nice, small sailing boat someday. I also love discussing politics and could probably talk your ear off if I had enough to drink.
To get in touch send an e-mail to "can" at "dcc" dot "im".