Mark Lanthier (i.e., me) was born in 1968 here in Ottawa. Here is the oldest picture I have of me (in the middle):
It appears that I was a cute kid ... it must have been a long time ago:
I went to
hockey school at one time, but was not very good at it. I'm better
now...I think.
I grew up,
somewhat normally, I think:
I loved to color pictures, do puzzles, build model cars, and enjoyed playing the family Atari 2600.
I also enjoyed
solving various types of rubik's cubes:
I watched lots of Giligan's Island, Happy Days, Good Times, Three's Company, Looney Tunes and Laurel & Hardy on TV:
My favourite
movies were the Pink Panther series with Peter Sellers:
I played drums when growing up. I also had professional training as a percussionist where I also learned to play the Vibraphone and Tympani.
I was also in a
band called at Zodiac
(later
called PartyLine) where we
played for school dances, and other various events, parties and
occasions:
As a teen, I
went camping and white-water rafting a couple of times:
Ok.
Haven't you even balanced a spoon on your nose ?
Yes, I've been
to the Bahamas:
I became interested in computers when I was in grade 10 where I took an Informatics class. I bought my first computer, which was a Timex Sinclair ZX81 ... it hooked up to the TV and used a tape recorder to store programs:
I loved programming and created a hang man game, a pac man game and other programs. Eventually, the family moved up to a Commodore 64 computer and I created more advanced programs such as an inventory control system for my Dad's business as well as various games:
Over the years,
I owned various PCs and Laptops (e.g., Dell 386, 486, Compaq Presario,
Mac Centris 610, iMacs, etc..). I began a Bachelor's degree
in the School of Computer Science at Carleton University in the fall of
1986.
I graduated the my
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science in 1991. I was among the
first batch of co-op graduates from Carleton:
For my Master's
degree at Carleton, I build a walking robot with pre-programmed
instinctive behaviors:
At my Ph.D.
graduation at Carleton. My dad was very proud because I was the
first (and only) Ph.D. in the family:
