Posted on 01/16/2014 6:31:45 AM PST by SeekAndFind
I started programming when I was 5, first with Logo and then BASIC. The picture above is me, age 9 (with horrible posture). By the time this photo was taken, I had already written several BASIC games that I distributed as shareware on our local BBS. I was fast growing bored, so my parents (both software engineers) gave me the original dragon compiler textbook from their grad school days. That's when I started learning C and writing my own simple interpreters and compilers. My early interpreters were for BASIC, but by the time I entered high school I had already created a self-hosting compiler for a nontrivial subset of C. Throughout most of high school, I spent weekends coding in x86 assembly, obsessed with hand-tuning code for the newly released Pentium II chips. When I started my freshman year at MIT as a computer science major, I already had over 10 years of programming experience. So I felt right at home there.
OK, all of the above was a lie. With one exception: That is me in the photo. When it was taken, I didn't even know how to touch-type. My parents were just like, “Quick, pose in front of our new computer!” (Look closely. My fingers aren't even in the right position.) My parents were both humanities majors, and there wasn't a single programming book in my house. In sixth grade I tried teaching myself BASIC for a few weeks, but quit because it was too hard.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
I liked punched cards and the "Big Iron". I got my finger cut pretty badly on paper tape that was being read at 1000 characters per second. Ah, the PDP-11 was a honey.
My list of computers I've used is really long. Most people have never heard of many of them.
Sometime we got more done with those than people do with theirs today. But again, we were not waiting for bloatware to swap out.
Our “disk packs” would hold about 1 meg each, and the whole data storage unit was about 18” x 18” by 3 foot high.
Biggest I ever had the displeasure of having to service was the 300 meg. Forgot how many platters were in the disk packs, too long ago.
“Mine was a Timex-Sinclair for home.”
Same here. I worked in QC for a foundry sand mill and wrote a BASIC program to handle the daily manual testing calculations.
Set up a cassette deck and an old black/white tv in the lab and cut out about 3 hours of work each day by having the computer crunch the numbers.
Is this guy kidding? I know geeks - been in the biz for 34 years now - and trust me, if you can't produce, everybody, and I mean everybody knows it.
“Good looking people have a “leg up” in just about every field. ;-) “
Indeed. I knew a kid with JFK good looks who got hired by a mega bank as a teller.
A bit over a year later he was an assistant Mgr., year later branch manager, 3 years later regional mgr. 2 years later VP for a district.
-PJ
Wow, the KXP-1124 was my first computer printer. I used it until 2002. It was very reliable and cartridges were easy to find. I threw it out along with a box of paper this past June. It was very economical.
thats awesome.
I started out with Legos and ended with Lincoln Logs.
Understand.
Imagine today trying to take exam with nothing but a blue book and a pencil?
Slide rule was not precise, but it worked except for add & subtract. No power issues. It is like using vernier caliper today. All still work well. Few any longer have the skills to operate effectively.
I am an old Ham Op. We had the reputation of being the cheapest people in the world. So of the reputation was true.
Not so today, all appliance operators.
I am restoring a 5 tube 1937 Indian Head AM receiver for a banker friend. It was his father’s. Finally got knob off tuning dial with heat gun, without destroying anything. Fixed the drive band on the tuning. cleaned everything up. Found a schematic, that was amazing. Checked the single tube that was loctal. Still have problem with front end. Someone bypassed it with antenna lead. Suspect dead front end tube, but have not traced that out with voltages yet.
Work of love, not practical use of time.
I drive an old Toyota Pickup. Love the ugly thing. Very reliable. Cheap to operate.
Wife won’t even ride in it with me. hee hee hee
Am back working some of the family farm. Lots of old equipment. Actually have the original planter that my great grandfather pulled behind a team drawn wagon coming to this county in 1889. Lots of other stuff that came later. Such is living in the Big Nothing.
You have my sincere admiration.
One of these days, I’m going to clear out some garage space and start noodling around out there. I think some part of me is afraid to because once I install heat and increase the amperage, I may just move out there :)
Well.... I WANTED to have MORE of those opportunities. We 'fooled around' a little once or twice. But, I'd known her since were in grade school. She was more like my little sister than a romantic interest. Although, the door was ALWAYS open on my side. ;-)
Yes... clearly, good looks are a pre-requisite for being a good bank VP. I don't remember seeing too many that looked like Helen Thomas or Henry Waxman.
Hmnnn... maybe, that's why Waxman has such a hard-on against banks??
The sweetest fruit is the one never tasted. Take solace in knowing there are men out there that have completely burned out on putting up with her shit.
-— . Seriously. I mean, guys would come HIT on her while she and I were having dinner!
She went into Computer Science -—
I worked in sales for a short time, and I learned that a good looking woman can make gobs of money without even trying.
Yes, life isn’t fair.
If he had written an article which essentially said: "I'm good at software. I was BORN smart, learned without help from the public school system, and succeeded through my genetic-provided intelligence plus a lot of sacrifice by my parents and hard work from me"....
Would Salon have published it?
This is the ONLY narrative on the subject of success that a Lefty site would touch.
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