I read the first book about Visual Basic back in 1980 at the age of 11. Didn'd have a computer but learned the language in theory only. Tried to get hands on a BASIC-capabale device since then, fist one was a Sharp EL5500 (http://www.rskey.org/el5500) or similar which I had access to at an exhibition (fair). First owned a Commodore C64. Amiga 500 follows. Some Intel 80286 following. Started in school and as a freelancer with Turbo Pascal. VB6 and C++ in first company. Started with .NET immediately following its invention, suuceeded with a great project based on .net remoting. Couldn't stop doing C# since.