I’ve been using WinAmp since sometime in 1998 or 1999. Very sad to see it go.

I’d vote it as probably the best piece of software ever written as it is completely stable, does exactly what it is supposed to do, is very customizable and uses few resources.

Back in the late ‘90s it was the only player that could decode an MP3 without issues on low-end hardware.

No matter that it won’t be developed anymore; I will keep using it until (as will inevitably occur) user-installed programs are made illegal, and even then I will break the law and use it anyway.

AOL bought WinAmp and pretty much ruined what could have been but it is still perfectly suited for what it does and as long as it works I will keep using it.

I lucked into an IT career. My other possible path was journalism, and if I’d done that I would’ve been totally screwed now.

It’s also lucky that I look much younger than I am, as IT has a lot of age discrimination. Judging by family history when I am 50, I’ll still look about 35-38 or so. Right now, people usually guess my age as about 26-28 though I am actually 37.

A few weeks ago, a woman who I talk with occasionally at work while discussing our jobs said to me, “It’s pretty cool someone so young as you is up so high up on the org chart.”

And I said, “How old you think I am exactly?”

She said, “Maybe 26?”

Heh.

It was a curse when I was younger, as people thought my sister (four years my junior) was older than me. And I was carded at R-rated movies until my late 20s and accused of having a fake ID while buying alcohol one time (I was 25).

But now I quite like it. There is also evidence that people who retain a youthful appearance live longer, so there’s that.