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Growing Up Geek: Richard Lawler
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, an ongoing feature where we take a look back at our youth and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today, we have our very own Senior HD Editor, Richard Lawler. This picture was taken in 1985 and despite the time that's passed, the excitement I felt holding that Atari joystick returns each and every time I plug in, boot up, or log on to find something new. Like so many other geeks of the era, the world of bootlegged videogames found on Verbatim 5.25-inch floppies were early training in the value of knowing my way around computers. At first, I just wanted to play The Last Starfighter or Stealth without needing one of my sisters to set it up for me. Later that lead to long sessions of editing .bat and .ini files to hear sound effects in Wolfenstein 3D, and eventually easier work setting up and fixing computers. Still, as great as using technology is, it's nothing without spirited discussions among like-minded individuals and after the schoolyard debates over 8-, 16- and 32-bit console wars ended (fortunately, Sega is out of the hardware game now or I would have to recuse myself from any news or reviews) I headed online to make myself heard.
Growing Up Geek: Philip Palermo
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, a feature where we take a look back at our youth, and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. This week, we have our very own Philip Palermo! In case you couldn't tell from that pirate / bandit / pimp / vampire pictured above, I sometimes have trouble making up my mind. It took me forever to decide what I wanted to be that Halloween -- figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up has taken even longer. It's strange to think that a few landmark tech purchases during my life helped make who I am today. Our family's first computer, the NES, a used DSLR -- just the simple act of bringing tech home and experimenting with it seemed to shape, reshape and re-reshape my projected career path.
Growing up geek: Not so much actually
These days, I am almost always within reach of a computer. I've largely forgotten what the days were like when I wasn't switching among the screens of various smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. My apartment is cluttered with numerous gadgets and devices, from a barrage of home automation and mobile accessories to a beast of a desktop in the middle of a rebuild. I am the family member who gets all those fun text messages requesting tech support with printers and social media settings. (Here, let me Google that for you...) After 10 years of being a writer and editor at over half a dozen tech magazines and online tech publications (most recently here at Engadget, huzzah!), I can safely say that I am often the geek in the group. I built my gaming desktop with my own damn two hands; I have a Steam account; I am constantly testing and deleting new mobile apps; I have multiple backups in place; I am perfectly comfortable working in HTML; and I can tell you in detail what GPU, CPU and PEBCAK stand for. However, I did not grow up geek. There is a 97 percent chance that someone was yelling, "Heels DOWN!" when this photo was taken. I just wasn't a tech geek as a kid. I spent a good portion of my childhood on horseback, and aside from Lego, my toys were a fairly typical array of non-tech items like Barbies, My Little Ponies and Cabbage Patch Kids. I didn't take apart the VHS player and try to put it back together. I didn't have a yearning to understand how mechanical things worked, nor any deep desire to make software comply with my commands. My household had no gaming system until 1993, when we got an aging NES console that required a book to be wedged into the slot to keep the cartridge in the machine. We had no CD player until roughly 1995. When I first moved to San Francisco to attend college, I had a hand-me-down beige desktop PC running Windows 98 and no cellphone to speak of. So how did I get to be a geek? Bears a striking resemblance to the PC I went to college with. Via the mailroom. Oh, it's true. My geekhood began in a decidedly analog environment. After a short and disastrous stint in hospitality, I snagged a job delivering mail and packages to editors at PC World. Within eight months, I'd been booted up to editorial assistant, writing a consumer advocacy column and getting a crash course in laptops, desktops, printers, smartphones and more. While I wasn't born a tech enthusiast, being surrounded by a testing lab, gadgets aplenty and knowledgeable folks piqued my interest. Without really intending to, I picked up a variety of information and skills: from knowing how to get better Google search results, to understanding how to troubleshoot problems with laptops, and knowing the shortcuts and "secret" commands in mobile OSes. My friends started asking for my advice on which tech items to buy, and my family started calling me with support questions. In the decade-plus since I first stumbled into tech writing, my interest in and affection for technology has only grown -- I built my first desktop (and am currently working on upgrading and overhauling it), reviewed high-profile products like the first Windows Phone, attended trade shows in places both near and far, interviewed creators and CEOs, installed home-automation hardware, tested fitness and wearable devices, successfully troubleshot a variety of software and hardware issues and continued to pick up as much knowledge as possible. At the time, my mailroom job seemed like something I had just stumbled into before becoming a big-time fiction writer (which is, hilariously, what I thought I'd be when I majored in creative writing in college). However now I see it as a stroke of pure luck -- I still get to write, about a constantly changing and evolving topic that affects all areas of modern life, and I get an unparalleled education in technology. It's a privilege to get to do something I love while learning new things every day, and I am now firmly a geek at heart. Long live the geeks!
Growing up Geek: Timothy J. Seppala
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, an ongoing feature where we take a look back at our youth and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today, we have our very own Timothy J. Seppala. I was 7 years old the first time I read Jaws. I was in second grade, and like most boys that age, I was absurdly fascinated by sharks and dinosaurs. I still am. What made me want to read it was spending an afternoon watching the flick on LaserDisc with my dad. By the time the end credits rolled, I was filled with a sense of wonder that I still get when I watch it on Blu-ray. It left me wanting more, though, so I checked the novel out from the library. I don't remember how long it took me to read, but I recall not being able to put it down; it was unlike anything I'd ever encountered before. Mostly because it was an adult novel and I was still a kid. There was blood! There was swearing! There were entire chapters written from a shark's perspective! After finishing it, there was no way I could go back to the steady diet of whatever it was my classmates were reading, so I skipped youth fiction almost entirely. My next read was Jurassic Park. After that, the rest of Crichton's and Benchley's works kept me busy until high school where I discovered Tolkien and King.
Growing Up Geek: Julie Uhrman
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, a feature where we take a look back at our youth, and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today, we have the founder of OUYA, Julie Uhrman! Growing up, I was your typical tomboy. My twin sister and I were incredibly competitive and wanted to do everything the boys did. That meant joining the city's YMCA and playing basketball with 60 boys from kindergarten through the third grade. When we got older, our mother would drop us off in Westwood Village at the Westwood Arcade (now, sadly, closed) to play Galaga, Centipede and Dragon's Lair. Going to the arcade, I now realize, was a big part of my life. I can remember three times I took dates there, well into my 20s, as something fun we could do together. Guess who always won?
Growing Up Geek: The Women of Engadget
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, a feature where we take a look back at our youth, and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. This week, in honor of International Day of the Girl, we have all the women of Engadget! Since Engadget launched Growing Up Geek three years ago, we've published nearly 50 essays by Engadget editors (and friends of Engadget) about what it was like being a nerdy, geeky -- dare we say -- dorky child. This week, in honor of International Day of the Girl, we're taking you back through the archives to put the spotlight on the women of Engadget: everyone from Dana Wollman (your friendly neighborhood Ultrabook reviewer) to our recent addition Mariella Moon, who catches breaking news while our American readers are sleeping. Read on to find all of their columns -- plus a few extra, too.
Growing Up Geek: Mat Smith
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, a feature where we take a look back at our youth, and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today, we have our very own Japan Editor, Mat Smith! I didn't want to be an Engadget editor. I wanted to be an astronaut. Yes, there are (admittedly few) British astronauts, thank you. Unfortunately, I was completely put off from learning the deeper secrets of science and maths during those lessons at my local leafy comprehensive school. Do I regret not following through on the science stuff? Possibly, but working here has plenty of different perks -- and when Virgin Galactic starts offering space for willing journalists, I'll be one of the first in line. While I dreamed of space, the school grind (tests, homework) came pretty easily to me, although I was never going to make the local soccer football team. I was a hyperactive, scrawny kid and wearing astonishingly thick glasses since childhood had formed a nervous disposition to never head the ball -- plus a general lack of talent for the sport. So in school, it was back to the books or the sluggish crawl of Yahoo on the library's shaky internet connection. Fortunately, I was already pretty familiar with computers before I even touched one in school. My parents were forward-thinking enough to buy an Atari ST, our family's first computer and one that barreled into a series of Commodores and yet more Atari systems.
Growing Up Geek: Mariella Moon
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, an ongoing feature where we take a look back at our youth and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today, we have our very own Mariella Moon. I used to call my first mobile device a solephone. Humongous, heavy, and encased in black rubber, it was more akin to the sole of a work boot than the sleek, thin phones of today. My mom got it for me out of the blue when I was 12, and I could barely stop myself from strutting down the school's hallways with a pair of aviators on, brandishing my new baby in everyone's faces. As far as I know, I was the first kid in school to have a mobile phone, and being first is reason enough for a pre-teen to feel cool.
Growing Up Geek: Melissa Grey
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, a feature where we take a look back at our youth, and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. This week, we have our new associate editor, Melissa Grey! Sometimes, the formative moments in your life happen when you least expect them. One such moment occurred for me in 1997, as I watched my brother pilot Cloud Strife through the ruins of the Forgotten City while Aerith Gainsborough clasped her hands in prayer. We'd taken turns playing Final Fantasy VII on and off for days. He bemoaned my stubborn inclusion of Red XIII in every party and we both developed gambling habits at the Gold Saucer on the outskirts of North Corel. We argued about the validity of Yuffie Kisaragi's existence and watched in awe as Sapphire Weapon emerged from the sea to attack Junon. We laughed. We cried. We experienced a game unlike anything we'd ever played before, but nothing could have prepared us for what happened next. As a sword-wielding Sephiroth fell on Aerith like an avenging angel, I felt the Earth tilt on its axis. It wasn't simply the unexpected plot twist that left me reeling. No, it was deeper than that. I realized in that moment that the figures on my screen had transcended the jagged stacks of polygons that made them. They had become real to me. The loss of one of them, fictional as it was, cut me to the quick. It was then that I realized what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to devastate people the way I had been devastated. I wanted to build worlds as fantastical as Midgar and populate them with characters as richly layered as Vincent Valentine. I wanted to tell stories. I wanted to be a writer.
Growing Up Geek: Steve Dent
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, a feature where we take a look back at our youth, and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. This week, we have our very own Steve Dent! If you make a bad career choice when you're young, don't worry -- I'm living proof that everything can still work out. Maybe I should've known I wouldn't be a great civil engineer when I pursued it after high school. My predilection for daydreaming wasn't suited to such a rigorous field, and resulted in early childhood trauma like the infamous "spacing out in class during a fire drill" episode -- which was not great considering that the school I went to at the time actually did burn down a year or two later (luckily while empty). In fact, as a child living in Vanderhoof, BC, Canada, I was happiest with a book, or Spider-Man comic, and being plopped in front of the TV, and it was a good thing that video games still hadn't arrived. When Pong ushered in that era, I became dangerously obsessed, even though we had a bum Atari machine that only worked for a few minutes before the ball would weirdly pass through the paddle.
Growing Up Geek: Amol Koldhekar
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, a feature where we take a look back at our youth, and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. This week, we have our very own Amol Koldhekar! My childhood may have kicked off the 1990s, but I grew up surrounded by remnants of the 80s, like the Apple II that temporarily lived in my dad's home office or the Nintendo Entertainment System that was originally my older sister's console. I think all younger siblings of that era can identify with having to play as Luigi on Super Mario Bros. My sister eventually lost interest in her NES, so I took claim to it. While I had loads of fun playing Excitebike and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, I always spent an inordinate amount of time escaped in Duck Hunt while I was busy peering through the glass end of the NES gun, trying to see how it worked. Ironically, this curiosity may have impeded obtaining better devices early on -- when my NES stopped working, I tinkered with its innards and somehow got it to work, negating the need for my parents to get me a Super Nintendo. As I grew older, I grew wiser, deeming the NES a lost cause in order to convince my parents to let me get a Nintendo 64 with birthday money. How amazing that the NES was soon repaired and still works!
Growing Up Geek: Nicole Lee
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, a feature where we take a look back at our youth, and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. This week, we have our very own Nicole Lee! My fondest memories of growing up in Malaysia don't consist of balmy weekends by the beach or the bounty of fresh mangosteens in my grandmother's kitchen. Instead, my childhood is a blur of video games, Saturday morning cartoons, Apple Macintosh Classics, IBM PC clones, and frequent trips to the local library where my parents would leave me alone for hours. Out of sheer boredom, I read every book I could get my hands on, and a lifelong love of reading was born. Parental neglect or ingenious education tactic? You decide.
Growing Up Geek: Ben Gilbert
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, a feature where we take a look back at our youth, and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. This week, we have our very own Ben Gilbert! He likes ninja turtles, obviously. To me, being a "geek" about something -- anything, really -- is being super, super passionate about that subject. It's that passion that drew me to documentaries like Helvetica, or King of Kong. It's that passion, witnessed in speeches and conversations with colleagues, that renews my love of video games every year I attend GDC. It's that passion that endears me to people like Stephen King and Trent Reznor. And it's that passion -- that nerdery -- that I've brought to music, journalism, and the medium of video games. But that's always something I took for granted. My father's passion for art meant growing up in a house filled with his incredible paintings. Didn't everyone? My mother's passion for learning meant she had three degrees, including a Ph.D., despite having little financial assistance and coming from another country. Totally normal! My point isn't to brag (though, come on, my parents are basically superheroes), but to say that the concept of being a "geek" was never a foreign one to me. Being an obsessive weirdo was always pretty normal in my family. I mean that in a good way.
Growing Up Geek: Mark Hearn
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, a feature where we take a look back at our youth, and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. This week, we have our very own Mark Hearn! I can vividly recall the first gadget that I ever owned. It was 1986 and I was re-gifted my brother's old Atari 2600. While the cool kids were making Mario run, jump and shoot, I was mastering future classics, such as Mouse Trap and Megamania. A year later my parents bought me a NES for my birthday and it was on like Donkey Kong! I didn't know it then, but the practice of plucking away at 8-bit classics would be the foundation for my love of gizmos and gadgets.
Growing up Geek: Philip Berne
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, an ongoing feature where we take a look back at our youth and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today we have Philip Berne, who is currently Samsung's Marketing Manager for Technical Media and a regular contributor for Slashgear. When I was in high school, I wanted to be a writer. My fallback plan was to get a degree in Psychology and become a therapist. If you were to time travel back to my high school days (which were not even 20 years ago) and tell me what I'd be doing today, I'd probably say something like: "Are you crazy? That's not even a real job. And what the heck is a smartphone, anyway?" I was a phone and gadget reviewer until I recently took a job with Samsung. Now I'm still reviewing phones -- I just review them a few months before anyone else. If you love phones and mobile tech as I do, it is certainly a dream job. I know how lucky I am. I wouldn't be here unless I had grown up geek. But in fact it wasn't luck that got me here (unless I mean luck of birth). Growing up geek, in my case, meant growing up spoiled. I'm afraid to admit it, but I certainly had a spoiled childhood, especially when it came to toys and electronics. Let's go through my bona fides.
Growing up Geek: Natali Morris
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, an ongoing feature where we take a look back at our youth and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today, we have CNBC technology contributor, Natali Morris. These days I spend more of my time raising geeks than growing up as one. I gave birth to my daughter just seven weeks ago, so there is little time to geek out, but the force is still there. Temporarily dormant. I am a TV journalist who specializes in geek, as a technology contributor to CNBC. I got an early start in television. I was Miss Fremont 1984. Maybe you recognize me from the parade float with Sylvester and Tweety Bird? No? Odd. That's me on the left with my younger sister on the children's show Romper Room in 1984. Question: When we talk about my geeky childhood, do we mean that I had special geeky talents? Because I'm not sure I was a geek as much as I was a nerd. I was a rule follower. An overachiever. I always got the best grades in my science classes, had my term papers written weeks in advance, and always kept my textbooks covered with brown bag paper the way school policy required. I also had braces and headgear. And bangs. So what do you think? Geek or nerd? Or idiot? Actually no, I didn't always follow the rules. I used to cheat on the Nintendo Power Pad by pounding on the pressure sensors with my hands instead of my feet when I was feeling lazy. I used the code to get 30 extra lives on Contra. Although is it really cheating if it is built into the game? But I digress.
Growing Up Geek: Alexis Santos
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, an ongoing feature where we take a look back at our youth and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today, we have our new editor, Alexis Santos. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted something emblazoned with an all too familiar logo while driving along a county road seven months ago. Though my mind could have been playing tricks on me, I doubled back and pulled over to confirm what I had seen. There, in the brush, was what I had suspected: a slightly faded Nintendo Entertainment System box. Upon further inspection, the packaging was unscathed and complete with its original foam inserts, plastic bags, twisty ties and K-Mart price sticker. Having rescued the nigh mint condition box, I rushed home to place it atop my entertainment center. There was no doubt I was a geek before that moment, but it became clear that following my geeky impulses could have interesting results.
Growing Up Geek: Jon Fingas
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, an ongoing feature where we take a look back at our youth and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today, we have our new editor, Jon Fingas. You might say I started early. Some of my first memories of technology -- or of anything, really -- were of mashing the keyboards on Compaq PC clones at my dad's workplace when I was three. Little did I know that I'd started on a path towards technology that would lead me towards mashing the keyboards for a career that would land me here at Engadget.
Growing Up Geek: Sarah Silbert
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, an ongoing feature where we take a look back at our youth and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today, we have our new reviews editor, Sarah Silbert. I'm not your textbook-case geek. On that authoritative dork-geek-nerd venn diagram, I sit undeniably closer to the nerd quadrant. I mean, a childhood defined by penning mini-zines, banging on the piano and filming countless movies in my garage hardly earned me a reputation as a precocious little techie. Sure, I liked computers and math -- and I, er, may have graphed the distribution of my Halloween candy once or twice, just for fun -- but my entryway into gadgets and geekdom was an overactive imagination.
Growing Up Geek: Nicole Scott
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, an ongoing feature where we take a look back at our youth and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today, we have a special guest: tech journalist and co-founder of Netbooknews, Nicole Scott. Snow Day set it all off. Seventh grade, and already I knew. In Canada everything shuts down when the snow is deep, especially school. But I was determined to go. They had a better computer than we had at home. I was going to get my allotted half hour, no matter what. I made my poor parents drive me to school anyway, and after all that, we were promptly sent away. And so my disastrous love affair with technology began.
