 How did you get started in hacking/programming?
ashley: Thanks to everyone for sharing their stories!  This is really great to read, and it's even better that there's no cookie-cutter way into programming.  I guess I had too much of an attitude that this is like grad school in a basic science or a career as a classical violinist, where you pretty much have to have followed a certain track to get in and where it's better to have started as a young prodigy.  The media reports heavily on the crackshot kids who develop their start-up at age 16, and I guess it skewed my perception.  And even if you are one of those lucky kids who stumbled on something so fun at such a young age, it was really interesting to read all the different uses and sectors to which programming skills can be applied.