So you want to know something more about me? I was born in Bulgaria on 20th February 1984 in Veliko Turnovo - the best city in Bulgaria and in the world. I have had some nice years before school when I still didn't know anything about computers and such and just used to play outside as the ordinary kids do (or at least did at that time). Then I started school and although I was very lazy and used to hate school I was good. Actually I was damn good...oh ok I just can't control myself sometimes.

Then in the second grade I used to go to a friend of mine (Yo Peter!) and then I knew - Computers Rule! Then I used every possibility I had to get my hands on a computer. My father had one in his office and I used to go there often, first only to play. It is still funny to me how I asked my father to rename the directory where the games were to JR (the way I used to call myself then - take it as a nickname of mine :) ) and the EXEs to jrp so that I had to type :

C:\>cd jr
C:\>jrp

Without even supposing what I was doing by that. However I got involved and wanted to know more how it all actually works. I started to read "DOS for Dummies" and I learned a lot. Actually I will really recommend the "... for Dummies" books in all spheres - the books are very easy to understand and still contain a lot more than the average user would need, but the info is so well structured that man can very easy skip what he doesn't want. Well, I didn't skip anything then and I was just thrilled from all the stuff DOS could do. BAT files and configurations and all. Then I read the book from Peter Norton about DOS 5 and learned how to really "program" these BAT files.

These were the times when I "grounded" my first company with a friend of mine Viktor called Jul&Vik Program House. Actually it had two names Jul&Vik or Vik&Jul as to show who of us has did the latest masterpiece". Then I found some books o the attic about programming in BASIC for the 8-bit AppleII clones produced in Bulgaria from Pravetz (http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=988) there were some nice images in of animated clocks and plotted functions and such and I decided I should also be able to do this. And started exercising with the GWBasic for DOS interpreter a very close clone to the old 8bit implementations of the language. Then came Quick Basic where I first wrote a small Tic-Tac-Toe clone with very nice sounds made by randomly choosing and playing notes later edited a bit by Viktor till it got really cool with "unbelievable" graphics of 640x350 in 16 colours. Then we did with a neighbour of mine a game clone of Galaga with a bit nicer graphics and I should say fast animations for a 4Mhz 8086 16bit processor. Maybe I should brake a bit the computer career here to say why I don't mention anything apart it.

Well it is not that I was some geek staying like 10hours in front of the computer but I just didn't really do anything special in that time. I was a normal kid and used to study enough to be always good. I was too young to go to bars and discos and I don't think someone want to really know how I went to some nice trips from the school to Voneshta Voda and had a lot of fun there - as of how a 12-14 year-old boy can understand that. In the mean time I also participated in Literature Course writing poesy but I felt it is not something for me. Then I did some very cool free-time activity - LEGO playing which has proven very good for my combinative thinking. I also did a drawing course, and I must admit I can draw, not a profi but enough to not frighten with my paintings, and mainly graphics.

Ok now back to the computer career. So I knew it was time to move on and BASIC was unable to provide me the tools needed to leap ahead. Then I started to read a book about Pascal. Actually there was one more reason for that - I wanted to get rid of the BAS files and the interpreter but write real EXEs like the cool games did. Pascal was a bit more difficult then basic as I had to do the transition from a non-procedural to procedural language but still I managed it quite fast. Then I subscribed to a course of Pascal Programming by the center for young people's education in Tarnovo held by a teacher whose name was Mr. Vavrek a very nice person which opened my way to the competitions in informatics. It was not that I really had that much to learn there as it was more meant as a really introductory course in programming as a whole, but it was there, where Mr. Vavrek found my talent and gave it a push to develop by supplying me supplemental exercises etc.

At this time one other very important point in my life came...the day where I first used to ring on my neighbour's door to seek advice. His name is Marin Velikov and is a programmer and system admin in Tarnovo. That was the day he told me "Why are you still messing with Pascal?! That is a dead language. Just learn C". And he gave me Turbo C++ 1.2 for DOS. And I started very enthusiastic to type in the code from a book called "Learn C++ in 101 Examples" (A book that my father strangely bought like 5 years earlier God knows why. A colleague of him commented about the book: "Oh man forget it! This is beyond your, mine or whoever else I know comprehension! And this was a man who at least was above average user)...and it didn't work. It was days later I called again Marin just to learn the book was for C++ and as I was typing C++ I had to save the file with a CPP extension not with C as the IDE (the editor) defaulted. Ok then it worked and I started learning. I read some book about the language itself. One of these I would also recommend "Get to know C" (�����C) I add the Bulgarian name here as I don't know the exact English name and I don't have the book by my side right now.

And then I saw this small notice on my programming course's room's door about a Programming contest. It was all about making a program - a small file manager like PC Tools or Norton Commander. It was the early spring of 1997 when I started programming. The contest was so arranged that two contestants from a city could go to the last national round. And actually there were only two contestants from my city. I and Svetlin Nakov. Svetlin is something like the Idol of informatics for me. I can even tell another story with him which is very interesting. It was like two years earlier when a friend of mine told me, he had seen a program called NakovTools which was clone of PC Tools with even more stuff packed in. It was developed by someone called Svetlin Nakov from Veliko Tarnovo. After I saw the program we commented that this must be some programmer that is really cool and I had in my mind the image of some middle aged man with big glasses. That is why when I saw the hairy guy standing there with its wiped jeans jacket and I heard something like Nakov I just couldn't believe it. The idol, the old man I had in my mind, was barely older than I was. Then I knew I could do it, it was not too late. I must admit I have learned very much from him and I am very grateful to him for everything he has done for me and my city and Bulgaria throughout his wisdom in Informatics. Now back to the summer of 1997, it was the middle of July and we were already in Stara Zagora where the contest was held. It was the day before the presentation of the projects where we got the comments of the jury for our programs. Nakov having a review that was a dream and I having merely two lines written: "We couldn't start the program on our test machine and couldn't make any personal experience with it. From the description it comes clear the program at least fulfills the requirements for the contest so it has been admitted for presenting". Ok I really had to do my best to at least present it in a good wayif I could make it run. Well it worked and at least I did it well to some extents but there were so many good programs, I only hoped not to be the last one. And then later when the jury presented the winner and that was me. It was the happiest moment of my life to that point. I have won my first contests I ever participated at! And THIS was the point which made me dedicate all my free time to computers. That become my hobbyit was just two years later that this become my job too.

In the next years I was quite active in mathematics too, participating in some competitions and Olympiads. Not really having quite high achievements on a national level apart from some places in the first five in 1998, 2000 and 2003. It was informatics that I really aimed at and I have made more than 30 competitions in this area. I was always above average almost always in the first 5 but still the fact that I worked part time job and had to learn for school didn't leave me enough time to perfect myself. It was also my laziness maybe, but still I was a good competitor. It was this lust for competing. The pleasure to look the others in the eyes when you have solved something and demoralize them in that way. It made some sadistic fun for me. It was 1999 or 2000 when I first started to work professionally. Marin was again who has offered me the job. Meanwhile we have built a friendship that brought a lot of wisdom for me and he actually is "The Pate" of my professional career as a programmer. I still remember the first task I got and then in the first three days as I couldn't do anything and I was on the verge of declining the task when I finally found the information I needed in internet. Then I knew everything you need - you can find in internet and this was the point when I stopped reinventing the wheel each time I needed something common. I can't really say that I haven't done at all any commercial programming before but the tasks I got where rather small and of no particular financial interest but more to develop my own skills.

The next interesting moment of my life came the last year at school when I really wanted to win a good place at the national Olympiad in informatics in order to be admitted without exam in the Sofia University. There was one more thing that bothered us much - the national exams that were planned for us. It was not the problem that we had to learn more. The problem was that we didn't know what to learn till the very last moment. That is why we (the students from the whole country) organized ourselves and made protests. I was in the committee in my city with a few more students from my class and I had to lead the protest by reading the protest note aloud before more then a hundred people gathered in the centre of the city. It was not a very massive strike in our city which really drove me mad. So much people either too scared from the system or who just didn't cared about their own future. It was scary to know that this is the future of Bulgaria. But then at the end we won and the court suspended the exams for a few more years till everything gets clear (I guess it is about time to start the exams (2005)).

Once this was cleared I did a lot of exercise to get myself fit for the Olympiad but still the job I had ate too much time and on the first day of the contest I did really bad, winning only 80 from the 300 points possible. This although miserable result didn't really knock me off but actually made me ruthless and wild and I was too furious with myself to let me screw the second day too. I fought really hard and even though the problems were harder I got the second best result with 220 from 300 points thus actually jumping incredibly to the top of the list and eventually getting the 12th place from around 200 contestants. It was not the best I could do but still not as miserable as the middle place it seemed I would get after the first day. It was also like 70% of the winners points and according to the old rules I would have won a 5.75(min. 2 max. 6) note. But the new rules were different and I didn't get anything. However there was still hope that the rules could be brought to what they were. The problem was that the school year was approaching its end and I had to think about having to go to exams...

At this point the idea to study abroad was already in my mind. Actually I have also sent my documents but still waited for the result. That is why I started studying very hard maths. It was only a month later when my informatics teacher called me to say the rules has been changed and I got the 5.75 note. It was crazy! I was free to live! No more studying no more shit! I had to celebrate that day hard. Actually a few days later I did an exam in my own city and got the maximal note 6.00 - but I was very calm that I don't have to get by all means. Meanwhile the information that I was admitted in Germany in Darmstadt came too. So I have to prepare myself for the journey of my life. The idea was not a very comfortable one. A man like me that is a traditionalist to the bone - did have some back thoughts about leaving not only his own house or city but the country too. However I had to do it. I had to go ahead - to develop. There was one more stressful situation later when they said that the High schools Diplomas won't be ready that fast that year and there was a risk that I won't be able to send my papers in time. But they did got ready just a few days before the deadline and I made a small jump and run game to Sofia and back home two or three times to get everything ready as past as I could. And I sent the documents just three days before the end date with TNT to Germany. And on 28th August 2003 I set off from Burgas Airport to Frankfurt...



Now I am a student in the 4th semester here studying Mathematics with Computer Science and meanwhile working as a HiWi (jobs for students) in the Fraunhofer Institute (yes we (well not I, but they) did the MP3 format) as a programmer in the area of Augmented and Virtual Reality - A very nice but demanding job. I won't really spill a lot more about the time here as I haven't lived that much here yet. But once I finish my bachelor I will put it in this short autobiography too.

I would like to mention that my life was full of happy moments thanks too my friends and family and I would like to thank you all for all the support and joy you gave me through the years. That is why I arranged the section "My Friends" of this web site - to have some place to give the needed respect to all of you!

P.S.: Maybe you will find interesting to read this text and to compare with my life. Can you find something similar :-P : http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/real.programmers.html