My younger (but taller...) brother had to write a report about a person. Being the loving type, he did it about me. So we figured we'd place this piece of work up for you all to take a look at.
Michael Conrad Tilstra
Andy Tilstra
6-7 hour
2/22/97
Michael Conrad Tilstra was born on August 29, 1976, at 10:32 AM in Fairmount, Minnesota. He is someone I admire because he is self-determined and very smart. Computer programming is Mike's favorite thing to do and he has made a software company called Tadpol Tech. Tadpol Tech has made six computer programs for the Macintosh, three shareware programs and three freeware programs.
Computers have fascinated Mike all of his life. When he was young his parents owned a Commodore 64. These are some of the first personal computers on the market and his family was very fortunate to own one. Commodore 64's use Basic as their programming language. He entered the programs he found in "3-2-1 Contact" magazines and in this way he learned to use Basic.
When Mike was a Sophomore in high school he bought a Macintosh Computer for himself. It did not take him long to learn how to program on a Macintosh and in a couple of years he made his first program, Three's©, in 1994. He got a copyright on this program and is selling it as shareware for five dollars. He also made GetColor that same year. This program is freeware. Whether a program is freeware or not is determined by how long it takes him to make it. If it takes him two days or less, the program is freeware. He does not copyright freeware since he gets no return from it . He made ScrollBarPat© in 1995, which is the same year he graduated from the Luverne High School.
In his freshman year of college Mike made Plug Master©. This is probably Mike's most well known program. This program was featured in the computer magazine MacWorld as the "Pick o'the Week." Mike is currently a sophomore at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He plans on finishing at least four years of college and then maybe get a masters in Computer Science. His most recent programs are Clp Convert and Autohide, made in 1997. These are both freeware programs.
As of now Tadpol Tech does not make enough money for Mike to live on so he also works out for other people and companies. Mike earns about thirty to fifty dollars a month from Tadpol Tech.
Although Tadpol Tech and Mike Tilstra are not well known at the present time, I think we will be hearing more of them in the future.