In high school I took the only introductory computer courses that were offered, because my older brother had taken them years earlier. He would bring home pictures that he had generated with the computer and allowed me to color them. So I decided that when I got to high school, I would take computer courses so I could create pictures on the computer, too. Although I wasn't very interested in coloring pictures by the time I got to high school, I did take computer courses, and discovered that my brain seemed to work well in the logical world required by computers.

In college, I made computer science my major, and received a BS/CS from SUNY/Buffalo in 1986, and a MS/CS from SUNY/Buffalo in 1987. But at first, I discovered that I didn't know the first thing about computer science, and there were so many subfields that I didn't know what I wanted to do. After taking courses in graphics, compilers, vision, operating systems, and artificial intelligence, I found two areas interesting. The first was artificial intelligence, a hot field at that time. It seemed really futuristic to program computers that could mimic humans, and I did my master's work in that area.

At the same time, I discovered the world of operating systems, and UNIX in particular. I had to use a new UNIX machine for some of my coursework, and I quickly discovered the wonderful social aspects of the system, particularly the “talk” and “write” programs.