Origins
In 1994, I decided it was finally time to see what all the fuss was about with these "computer" things. At the time, my interest in computing was a solid zero, but I had some free time and a dangerous amount of curiosity. Armed with a few newsstand magazines and a dream, I sourced a pile of parts and managed to assemble a Pentium 100 without any leftover screws.
To truly complete the experience, I treated myself to a state-of-the-art 14.4k modem. For those who didn’t live through it, that meant waiting several minutes for a single image to load while the household phone line was held hostage by a series of electronic shrieks. Within hours of the final delivery, I was successfully hearing the Windows 95 startup sound and doing what any self-respecting PC owner does: playing games.
The "eureka" moment arrived via a trial version of Visual Basic 4 on a magazine cover CD. I followed the tutorial to build a standard-issue calculator, but the real fun started when I ignored the instructions and began poking at the code to see what I could break. I wasn't just a user anymore; I was hooked on the power of the "undo" button and the thrill of making things work.
The Birth of Dotnetrix
Dotnetrix was born from the classic combination of free ISP web space and a total lack of creative direction. I sat at my desk for hours, racking my brain for a grand vision, only to realize I had absolutely nothing to contribute to the Information Superhighway. So, I took the logical next step: I built a page dedicated to exactly that. You can still see the high-concept minimalism of those early days on my Nothing page.
Eventually, I found my way into the Microsoft Newsgroups and Forums—which was a test of patience on a 14.4k connection. I soon realized I was typing out the same explanations so often that my keyboard was starting to complain. To save my fingers and my sanity, I began archiving my answers on my website so I could just drop a link and move on. Because the TabControl seemed to be a universal source of developer frustration, that section grew the fastest—proving that if you answer the same question enough times, you eventually become the "accidental expert."