TonyPhalen.com - A Personal Experience

my computer history
My techno-nerd-dom started back in 1983 when my parents purchase my first home computer, the Apple IIe. This stellar super-computer came with 64KB of RAM, an 80-column card installed in one of the slots (to give a maxmium resolution of 80x48px), a pair of Disk II floppy drives and a Monitor II. Oh, and did I mention an internal modem that was capable of 600baud (look it up...I think, at that time, grass grew faster!).

I worked with the IIe for some time, playing games, learning assembly language (the language the DOS was coded in), and began making personal backups of protected software (yes, personal backups...anything else would be pirating). When I started High School, I took a computer class there but was WAY ahead of the class. I ended up being the 'teachers aid' and, since I knew more than she did, was the go-to person for any questions in the class. That teacher lucked out...she didn't do anything. Needless to say I got an A in that class

By the 11th grade, I was getting itchy to really do some naughty stuff. Also at this time, software manufacturers were getting really good with their disk encryption, something I was having a hard time getting around. On the IIe, when you hit a certain keystroke, it would 'break' the program. At this point you could snoop around in the RAM and see how the protection worked. The manufacturers were getting smart and installed a little program on disk bootup to 'reprogram' that keystroke. Now, when you tried to stop the program, the system would clear the memory and reboot. No good for making backups. This was an easy fix, however! All I did was find the 'reboot' code hard-coded on the chipset, rewrite that to physically stop the computer from running (and drop me into the code-editor), and burn it back to the chipset. Wahlah...

By the time I started college I had already backed up quite a few games, met some VERY hardcore, ummm, personal-software backer-uppers, and was well on my way to a career with computers. The one problem I encounted in college, however, was that you couldn't take the advanced courses until you took the basic computer ones first. There was no way around it...and I soon got bored in these classes and decided a job, money and advancing my computer knowledge outside of college seems much more attractive.

In 1993 I got a job at GTE Directories working in the Graphics Department building ads and doing layout. This job would extend for 13 years moving from PCs to Macs and back to PCs. Verizon (GTE changed ownership and became Verizon) was seriously looking at starting a web design department and a small crew from the Graphics Department was chosen (I was the last one chosen...and I had YEARS more experience with computers and the web than everyone else...but I'm not bitter). Knowing I would obviously have to justify my worth, I volunteered to be the lead of the E-Commerce section of our group. I thrived in this world (as it ended up being alot of coding) and learned quite a bit about online commerce.

In 2001 I left Verizon and went to work for Team Associated. My job title there was the Promotions Director, but I was also in charge of building the manuals and catalogs using Solidworks, Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. The feeling of accomplishment after completeing a manual was great, and it brought back memories cracking a heavy-duty copy protection to unlock a game (again, for personal use!). I started working on my RC Racing site, CompetitionX.com, as a way to get back into design, coding and the internet.

Here we are at the present. This love for the web has created a monster in me. I now own a small web site business (www.CompWeb.com, have several other businesses around the web and continuing to create more each day. I don't play many PC games anymore, but have switched over to the simplicty of my XBox 360. Plus, games look better on a 55inch HD TV.

It's a love; a passion; and in some ways an insanity. Wouldn't want it any other way.