When Computers Became My Interest, Hobby, and Rabbit Hole

It all started when I was 9 years old. The very first computer I used was a desktop instead of a laptop. It came with an Intel Pentium 4, an Nvidia GT210 GPU, and 2GB of RAM; the rest of the specs I don't remember. Initially, I used to play games. The very first game I played was 3D Pinball, and then GTA San Andreas, followed by games like Project IGI, Mafia, Max Payne, etc. That was the starting point, but using a computer made me curious, and I started tinkering around browsers at first. I discovered Inspect Element, modified some random text on a webpage, and thought I had become a hacker (that was funny, xD). It made me curious about what those codes inside Inspect Element were, so I searched for them, learned HTML and CSS, and boom—I made my first webpage (though it was basic). Remember, it was still the era of dial-up internet and 3G, where YouTube videos were in 480p and the buffering would make you sh*t your pants. But yeah, that is how my childhood was spent. I believe that the habit of tinkering around computers still remains inside me today, which has seen many days, to be honest.

It was also the era where I learned how to use torrents and crack games, at the age of 10. Initially, I used torrents to download anime (Naruto and Dragon Ball Z—and yes, I was into anime since then as well.), and later games as well. Because of that, I don't know how many times my PC got infected by malware, but lol, that is how I learned how to avoid viruses in PCs. Today, I don't even use any antivirus (I completely removed Windows Defender as well). But yeah, this era marked the beginning of my journey of learning about computers.