I traded my hobby for programming for a career in programming in 1989 by applying to a "head hunter" service and then proving my talent on the job. And while I don't dismiss a degree in computer science I don't think it is necessary to become a professional programmer. As a hiring manager for a global technology company I look for transferable skills: the understanding of how to think conceptually, collaborate and overcome boundaries; build clean systems that last and are readable and maintainable. If you can demonstrate to me the basics understanding of being a professional developer rather than someone who has learned to write code, I would consider your application over someone with a 4 year degree who can't build a clean, sustainable legacy code base. Just my 2 cents.

My first "real" computer was the True-Blue PC AT 8mhz with 640K and the 384K add-on board for TSR programs, 32 MB HDD and 2 1.2MB HD floppies and EGA video. Second hand at a "must-sell all" sale for only $1,100. Although if moving up from cassette is the only criteria, then it's an Atari 800XL. (Great programming system)

One of our assemblies works with asset classes across multiple apps. Naturally, like all coders, we tend to abbreviate and so rather than writing methods and events like "Asset_Reclaclulate_OnHand" we would write it as "A**_Onhand", which is fine until you get the "Asset_Wipe_From_Temp" and the ever-popular "Clean_Asset" methods, which I don't think I need to tell you how they were named.. These actually stayed in place for 10 years before the company was purchased and code reviews began to be shared across global teams.. Suddenly we have a swatch of change items for classic naming conventions.. Curious, that. Still my favorite has to be our first calculation timing class, R.E.F.T. which we told management was "reclacluate every flagged topic", but every one knows means "Recalc every friggin thing". That acronym is still proudly intact. ;)