DEV Community: Ricardo Funk

How I became a software developer, years before I actually was one

Ricardo Funk — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 14:54:36 +0000

Tracing my technology roots

Welcome to my journey. In the next few paragraphs I will try to pinpoint the precise moments that made me a technology lover, a computer repair technician, a network engineer and a software developer. Basically, the moments in my life that made me who I am today.

Chapter 1 — Atari 2600

My first memory goes back to Atari, specifically a game by Activision called “Boxing”. It was around the late ’80s, I was around 7 years old, and like any other day, my mother decided to visit her cousin, my mind was about to be blown out of the universe. All of the sudden, her husband decided to show us this new “toy”. I was able, with a controller, to move this amazing character on the screen, and not just that, I could punch my friend!

Not long after that, my father decided to get an Atari Game Console. There were 2 games that I remember playing non-stop: a jungle guy that had to jump on top of alligators and could go underground and try to avoid scorpions. The name of the game? Pitfall!

The second game was a soccer game. Understand that I love soccer, and now I was able to control soccer players on my screen. I was a kid exploring a new type of technology in my living room. I wonder the impact this had on how I started to see things differently, how the impossible could be possible, after all, this was magical.

Chapter 2 — PC

It seems that gaming had a major impact on the rest of my life, since my second memory of technology (Let’s not include calculators, VCR, etc) is also about a game. Let’s fast forward to about 1993. By this time, my cousin had decided to get a Personal Computer. We used to go to their house a lot, Christmas, New Years, and now I had a reason to go even more. “Mom, let’s go to their house!” I would say. All I can remember is playing this game called “Street Rod”. Don’t get me started on this game, it literally changed my life! It wasn't just a racing game: you could actually become a mechanic and fix your car, sell it, buy new parts, and race it to the top! I loved the details, how you actually had to go and get GAS, how you could paint your car, choose between Automatic or Manual Transmission, and so on. This is definitely a game that was ahead of its time. Not only you could passively enjoy it, but it would let you create while playing it. I still remember my “Silver Bullet”, a 1955 Chevrolet Bel-Air with 2 doors.

I was lucky that my mother realized I loved something about these new machines and… she didn’t buy me one, instead she signed me up to a computer course at the Italian society (This was back in Argentina, I know I forgot to mention it, I’m from South America, Argentina, Buenos Aires, San Martin). Now, I have no idea how she was able to do this since I didn’t have any “connections” to the Italian embassy, most of my ancestors are from Germany and Spain. Also, this wasn’t the “fancy” place everyone else went to, “Argentina Computer” (I can’t remember the name!), this was the fancy place I wanted to go, but in retrospect it was so much better. This Italian place had more freedom, it wasn’t so “commercial”, there was more care although it also helped that I was an 11 year old taking a course with people from 20 to 50 years old. Also, as with everything else in my life that I actually care about, I was so excited and so happy to learn about these new machines.

Let me tell you a secret: people will go out of their way to help you if you are enthusiastic about your new adventure; if you are truly excited about it, it shows, and people can tell. Give it your best and you will be rewarded.

Now, this is when it gets exciting, and is also something that keeps happening to me (even today). Almost every time I start a new career, a new certification, a new course, I never start at the beginning, I start either at the end or the middle, but never at the beginning, and guess what? It works for me. Honestly, I don’t do it intentionally, but it just happens, let me explain. Back in 1993 when I started my first computer certification, I was one semester too late, and everyone else had already completed the DOS 3.1 course. I started with Microsoft Word, and I found out about this because there were a couple of DOS commands you could run from word (This is before Windows), like “Del”, to delete a file.

If you look under “File”, you can see the “Dos commands” right before “Exit”:

At the time it didn’t matter to me. It was so much fun, learning about text formatting, footnotes, brakes, it was all good! I have to say, on the verge of being arrogant, I did great on every single test I took and the older guys and gals couldn’t believe how well I was doing. I would go an hour early, when the place was empty, and just practice, or honestly, just have fun, especially when I found out I could play Carmen Sandiego, SAY WHAT!

At the end, I took the following certifications: DOS 3.1, Dbase, Lotus 1–2–3, Word, and Windows 3.1

I did also have computer class at school, taking my first steps learning programming by telling a turtle where to go.

Chapter 3— Internet

“You mean I can read the newspaper for free?”

Let’s fast-forward to 1998, my country (Argentina) had gone downhill. My father decided to emigrate to the United States. At the time, I was only 15, and I had no idea what was going on, I was just happy we were moving to the United States. That meant that I didn’t have a computer for a few months.

About 3 months after we arrived in the States, my parents made a friend, Ricardo Pereira. Ricardo owned a computer and he told us that he could read the newspaper, for free. Initially, I was in shock.

— “What do you mean you can read the newspaper for free?”

— ”Yes! There is t his thing, called the internet”

Oh my God! It was a life changer, now I was able to read news for free, look up conspiracy theories …and chat with people!

AOL, mIRC, ICQ, MSN Messenger and the list goes on. So much fun!

It all started with AOL, especially in the chat-rooms. I became friends with a guy who knew his way around a computer, he started to teach me some tricks, like how to gain access to someone else’s account.

Did you know you could log in to two different AOL accounts by simply using an older version and a new version of the software simultaneously?

It was time of learning, and I learnt a lot! I started using a piece of software called Sub-7 to gain access to someone else’s computer, files, printer or camera. At the time, it was all fun, I wasn’t thinking about “invasion of privacy”, I was thinking “Wow, I can really do this? I wonder what else I can do”. This was all around 1999–2000. I guess I reached my goal when I was able to steal credit card information and it was then that I realized that something wasn’t right, I was not having fun doing this. I was lucky to never actually have used any of the information I illegally gained access to and now that I think about it, the decision to stop right there was by far one of my best moments.

Chapter 4— Turning Pro-fessional

Up to this point it was all fun, I made a little money here and there by developing a website for someone, but not much. I then started fixing my own computer and replacing my own hardware. That’s when I got the opportunity to interview for a computer company. I honestly got the job by merely repeating keywords that a friend of mine had told me about.

Just say: IP, TCP/IP, ping, IP printing, etc

Once I got the job, I was in learning mode again. I can probably say that by the end of that year I was able to fix any computer issue: hardware, software, network, anything. You name it, I could fix it.

I've always enjoyed creating things, but now I realize the career I had for about 8 years was about fixing things, not creating.

and that’s when I became a software developer

This article is actually a follow-up to my original article How a single line of code changed my life

Now it is time to drink some mateand think about my next article, see you soon!

As we should think

Ricardo Funk — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 14:25:03 +0000

Douglas Engelbart was an early computer pioneer. He was inspired by an article wrote in 1948 by Vannevar Bush “As We May Think“. Their idea to use computers wasn’t to make life easier, it was to enhance our intellect, to make us better, to improve the tools that we have to make us better as human beings. Regrettably computers had a different effect on the human race, we love sharing our pets photos, we love watching funny videos on the web and that’s about it. I wonder if could ever change the way we use the great tools that were built for us.

We have no more excuses! The world's knowledge is available to you. Some people might blame social networks, games, etc but the issue is not the car, the problem here is the driver! The content is there for anyone go get it, specially now, you can find information on anything for free..at home..on your own time. Basically, if technology it’s making us stupid it’s not technology’s fault, it’s ours.

How a single line of code changed my life

Ricardo Funk — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 05:04:08 +0000

It was 2012 and my career was going nowhere. That day a co-worker, Otto Lombardo, showed me a single line of code that changed my life for ever, this is the story of how I became a software developer.
I was introduced to computers by my cousin, playing the game “Street Rod” back in 1992 circa. It was love at first sight, I remember asking my mother to take me to his house so I could play again and again. No later than that my mother signed me up to take a computer course, DOS, Windows 3.1, Lotus 1–2–3, DBase! I was an exited 10 year old! I started getting early to my computer class so I could get more time with the computer. That was until my parents were able to buy me one, I remember endless days playing Carmen San Diego.
Now let’s fast forward a couple of years. I moved from Argentina to the United States when I was 15 years old, I had to wait about a year until my parents got me my first computer, a black Sony PC, amazing! And now there was this thing called the Internet, it was 1999 and I would spend all night writing my websites in Notepad to then upload it to AngelFire hosting service. I even received a gold (24 kt.) CD signed by Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer as a gift for testing MSN. Those were the days, having fun, hacking from time to time and feeling great.

A couple of years later I decided to fix my computer, I learned a few tricks and all of the sudden I had an interview with a computer company in New York. Wow! I walked in there and saw all these bins full of computer parts, I reached the promise land. I became a network engineer and I have to say that I could fix any computer/network problem, I was good at it… but I wasn’t completely happy. I always enjoyed creating things and now I realized the career I had for about 8 years was about fixing things, not creating. And that’s when it happened. A co-worker showed me a line of code in Delphi that could print a message “Hello Ricardo!” THAT WAS MAGICAL! That was it for me, I instantly knew I wanted to become a software developer. I went home, downloaded delphi and within a week I had the same interface of the software we had at work up and running. I even tricked the co-founder and developer of the software thinking I hacked the software and changed the menu. That was so much fun!
But now what? Should I keep learning “Delphi”? and then if I want to sell something I developed I had to burn it in CD’s? I was lucky that a friend of mine suggested to learn iOS “You can just build it and put it up in the App Store!”. It took me about a year to learn the basics, remember, I had no background in development. I spent hours and hours, reading, watching videos, writing stuff. My friend and I would start Saturday at 9 am non-stop until Sunday 2–3 am (or until my wife said enough!). I was able to build a prototype of an application that helped me land my first job…almost 3 hours away from home! For about 6 months I would spend 5 to 6 hours in commute. I lived in Queens, NY and my first job as an iOS Developer was in Summit, NJ. It was worth it! I would spend half of the time reading about development and the other half trying to get some sleep. I have to admit it was brutal but that job helped me get a job much closer to my house, about 40 mins away in Manhattan, NY. Around that time I was able to win a development competition that included a grand prize of $20,000 (Link) I couldn’t ask for more.

I was able to get a certification from New York University and later I was invited as a guest speaker and also hired to do some development work. I started to go to conferences and even speak at some of them. This is the life I dreamed of, I was living my american dream!

I’m currently working at MediPortal, we are trying to disrupt the Healthcare industry. I’m in charge of all mobile solutions. Now the hours don’t matter, I work at night, during the day, the weekends. When you enjoy what you do, you don’t look at the clock and think “I want to go home”. It wasn’t easy to get here but it was worth it. See, there is a secret, are you ready? Anyone can do it! I always think of the phrase Steve Jobs said:
“Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.
Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”
If there is something I would want to achieve is motivate someone just like Otto motivated me. Go out there and start living your dream. There is nothing you can’t do and you are the only one preventing it from happening. Be crazy, be bold. Make it happen!

Thanks for reading. I’m Ricardo Funk (@rfunk82). If you like this piece, there’s a lot more where it came from. I enjoy Developing code and applications that bring innovation. Passionate about writing, development and life.