Here's a topic list for my chat with Lex: 1:22 - First computer 7:00 - Dropping out of high school 14:41 - Joining Microsoft 16:53 - MS-DOS 20:05 - Windows 95 26:52 - The man behind Windows 31:48 - Debugging 37:05 - Task Manager 42:14 - 3D Pinball: Space Cadet 47:13 - Start menu and taskbar 58:12 - Blue Screen of Death 1:00:21 - Best programmers 1:08:22 - Scariest time of Dave's life 1:15:50 - Best Windows version 1:17:40 - Slot machines 1:21:23 - Autism and ADHD 1:40:43 - Fastest programming language 1:44:48 - Future of programming

I think the NFL should establish a mandatory post-injury flight-risk protocol, especially for international games. A player shouldn't automatically be prohibited from flying because of a bruised leg, but significant lower-extremity trauma (like his cleat injury) deserves special attention before a 10-hour flight. The medical basis is established: prolonged immobility increases the risk of deep vein thrombosis, and a recent injury can further increase that risk. I'm not a doctor; I'm not saying it's even related. But I'd think twice about sitting on a 10-hour flight with a massive leg clot!

Can you be a good parent with terrible executive function? Yes. Can you be a good single parent? Of course, but it's much harder. With four kids in sports and activities and a busy life on top of that, I've relied on my wife to create a color-coded schedule for us. I store things visually, so once I've seen it, I have at least a chance of remembering where I'm supposed to be and when. I think it's like that - you need to "cheat" and use whatever tools and techniques help you to stay on track, even though a "normal" person might just do so naturally. So it's more work, but not a disability.

I build for myself. And the times when something has proved popular have been the times when I did a good job of making something for MYSELF that I wanted, which, by serendipity, other people also wanted. If you can build something with the attitude that you're making it the BEST possible version of what YOU want, odds are you'll produce something good. Maybe everyone won't feel that way. Or maybe you have bad taste. There are no guarantees, but trying to guess and anticipate the supposed needs of others while building something you're uninterested in generally leaps to slop. My best projects - from Pinball to Task Manager to TMOG - have been things I was making because I was in love with the idea itself, and wanted it! tmog.org

When I was restoring my '70 GMC, I enlisted the "help" of my kids, mostly with the teardown. Neither one is going to rebuild a big-block Chevy on their own any time soon, but by taking everything apart while I explain it, they at least know what's inside the stuff and how it works! If you don't have a truck to restore, don't make the perfect the enemy of the good: build a birdhouse with them!

My Dad and Grandma, circa 1950. I was the fourth generation to work there. But then I pivoted from Hardware to Software ;-) Is it weird that they had rifles for sale in the front window of a family hardware store in Canada in the 1950s? It wasn't remarkable at the time...

Text mode? I'll take it up a notch, Alex! ;-) Here's the @Dell Prox Max with GB300 running TMOG, emulating AND training on 192 instances of Robotron, plus running the PDP-Gary AI in the background. It's pulling 1000W and only half busy... quite the machine! tmog.org supports Windows, Linux, and Mac!

That's my great-grandfather's pocket watch... he actually looks like a younger me! It was just passed down to me by my oldest surviving relative.

I just booted 2.11BSD UNIX on a PDP-11 backplane… with the actual DEC CPU card sitting on the bench beside it... The CPU is an emulated 11/73 running on the ARM cores of a BeagleBone (via a QBone Dual). It talks to a real M8043 serial card over the QBUS, and to an emulated MSCP disk. I logged in as root and did normal file operations. Basically, the ARM chip emulates an 11/73 and then communicates with the vintage bus via the PRU. No physical PDP-11 processor involved!

True. The Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl in the same year the Saskatchewan Roughriders won the Grey Cup! Which is only fair, because both teams have suffered the most painful championship losses in history. So they owed it to me. We all know about Seattle's ill-fated pass attempt at the goal line. The Riders were about to kick the go-ahead field goal and made it. But it turns out they had too many men on the field, so they had to back up 5 and re-kick. They missed it, lost the game, and the championship. I stole this from a hockey card I keep tucked up under...

What was your first home computer? Come and tell me in person at VCF Montréal! cvcfed.org/vcf-montreal-2-0/