Jason, born January 22, 1978 is a California native. He survived 15 years in Fontana, CA, (he even has the shirt to prove it) and watched it grow from 48,000 occupants to well over 150,000. Jason received his first computer at the early age of nine. It was a Timex Sinclair 1000. His next computer at the age of 10 was a Texas Instruments TI-91a. It was with both of these early computers that he learned the Basic programming language on. Frustrated with losing his programs, (neither of these devices had the ability to store data other than a lengthy process of “recording” data to an audio tape) his grandmother and great uncle gave Jason his first dos based computer for his 12th birthday. The computer he received was a 286 12mhz clone with a whopping 4mb of ram. Jason was also the first on his block to have VGA graphics with which he was able to play Kings Quest and other VGA titles.

In 1994 Jason learned about BBSes, and began calling various BBSes in the local area. PCBoard and WWiV were mainly the types of BBSes he was into. He began making friends over these boards and eventually met some people that were living in Fontana too. One of these people was Trevor (tre-bone) who was an ANSI artist and part of an art crew. Jason added a second phone line to his house and started his own BBS. People began calling in to chat, leave messages, and play games. He linked his BBS with a few others to create a NET of BBSes that could send mail and datafiles between the various nodes of the network. Slowly people started leaving the BBS scene and hopping on this new thing called the internet.

Not to be left out Jason and Trevor purchased shell accounts from a provider called DeltaNet. In order to access “the web,” they used one of two programs; SLIRP or TIA. Slirp emulated PPP connections over a shell account, and allowed you to gain access to the web and various other internet protocols. Jason’s main way of communication now that he was on the net was ICQ, AIM and IRC. He met many people on IRC and is still in contact with many of them today. One of these people was Jennifer aka Saisha who he met on #losangeles and then later #california.

Jason began tinkering with web design, created his own webpage, and even created his high school’s web site. After school he had a job working at the small internet service provider, IEPSNET. He stayed with them for about six months but the commute proved to be too much. He then graduated in 1996 from A.B. Miller High. After graduating, he began working at the commercial giant Wal-Mart of all places.

After six months of leaving a bad taste in his mouth, he moved on to work at a photo copy shop and then to his first “office gig” at Digital Evolution on the west side of Los Angeles. The 78 mile commute took its toll on him as well as his vehicle. It was during this time that he met Steve (xinu). Jason met Steve through Trevor who was in the #losangeles IRC channel. Steve mentioned he was looking for a sysadmin to work with him at SMS. Trevor relayed this information to Jason who was very interested. Jason and Steve chatted online and set a time to meet up.

After meeting, Steve offered Jason the job and he accepted. Since SMS was located in Orange County, he shaved off about 30 miles from his commute. He began working with Steve babysitting computers almost as old as he was. About a year into working at the company, it was bought out and moved around before being permanently relocated to San Diego. Both Steve and Jason relocated to San Diego to continue their work temporarily. One week after relocating to San Diego, Steve and Jason received a text message indicating that they were required to turn in all company owned property. Their department and positions with the company were being dissolved. Jason moved back home for about three months. Both gluttons for punishment, they ended up working together at a startup internet company in Irvine months later.

Once Jason started working in Irvine again with Steve, he moved out of his mom’s house and relocated to Huntington Beach. He lived with his roommate Pete; an old friend of his from the BBS days. This company, like many in the dot com era was failing. Steve abandoned ship before the boat sank but Jason stayed for the ride. The now defunct startup was purchased by one of the upper management and Jason began working for her.

Jason found his soon to be wife Jennifer (saisha on irc) and later relocated to Whittier to rent a house with her and her son and daughter. This new rebirth of the company allowed him to work from home which he did for a year and a half. After which time the company closed its virtual doors and left Jason to find work again. Six months past and there was no work to be found.

Jason his girlfriend Jennifer and her two children moved in with Jen’s Grandmother and then Jason found work. This job was an entry level position at an internet webhosting company. Jason moved up the ladder quickly and made Level 3 tech support person. Steve lost his job and since relocated to Washington State was looking for work. Jason returned the favor and got him a sysadmin job working for the hosting company remotely.

A year came and went and Steve left the company for another oppertunity and Jason married his girfriend Jennifer on September 3rd 2004. Towards the beginning of that year Jason’s new family began renting a house in Whittier and Jason found a new job working for a toy and novelity company in the city of Industry. The shortest commute of his professional career he drives 15 minutes to work on a bad day. On August 25th Jessalyn Elise Tucker was born in Whittier Presbyterian Hospital. That now brings us to current.