Re: What do you do in real life?

To: Boot Zero
On Sun, 4 Jan 2009 21:57:03 -0500, Boot Zero wrote:

Anyone who is lurking in this forum has been immersed in technology for
at least the last twenty years. Many have gone on to jobs in technology.

I started with A2 BBSing in 1983, and now I build content management
systems of streamed content for large corporations. User login,
registration, admin, chat, content management. Back then it was a
message board, now its a blog. Funny how 26 years later, it's still the
same ***.

I bet many of us have landed in interesting positions in technology.

Eight bit computing is a nice escape from modern computing. So I ask
readers of c.s.apple2 -- what do you do in the real life? What do you
do for a living?

Sorry to disappoint but I'm not making a living in a technology field.
At present, I am unemployed. Technically, I'm on a temporary layoff
from the auto parts factory that I worked at but seeing as I've been off
for 8 months now and more than half the plant has been laid off, I'm
pretty sure I won't be going back.

I had always intended to be in the computer and/or electronics fields.
When I started high school (that's grade nine here in Ontario), the only
computer classes were for grade 11 students and up. However, my math
teacher, seeing that I had an average in the 90% range, figured I would
take to computers easily and he used to take me into the computer room
and it got to the point where no one questioned my being there. I
borrowed a Waterloo Structured BASIC text from the grade 11 Computer
Science teacher, read it and have been programming ever since.

When I finished high school I decided to take Electronics Technology (as
opposed to Electronics Technician) to learn to design electronic devices
seeing as I already knew how to program.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as I would have liked and the computer
industry settled on IBM PC style systems with Mac's being the only real
hold out as a niche machine. Personally, I didn't like either machine's
architecture. I didn't even own a PC until about 1996 when I tried to
start a home based business doing computer services. For some reason
the world just seemed to want to make things difficult. Anyone remember
all the problems with IRQs and setting up CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?
Apple IIs, you just plugged in your cards and turned on the machine.
:-)

I wouldn't mind having a job as a programmer somewhere but this
mentality of things having to be difficult is still around and all the
jobs I've seen listed want C++, C# and Java programmers along with
knowledge of all the latest buzzwords. I was taught C in college (after
they taught us 8086 assembly because it was easier to learn) but I've
never used it since except to convert sample code that I find to
something easier to understand. I'm sure I could program in these
languages but I'm not really sure I want to deal with it as that would
make the job too frustrating.

On the hardware side, I've been helping out a local computer store with
PC service lately (virus scans and cleanup, replacing bad hardware,
doing installs of Windows and drivers) and even that is getting to me
and I'm close to telling him I won't be doing it anymore because it is
so time consuming and annoying.

I'm hopeful that 2009 will turn out better for me. I have lots of
things I want to do, both in the computer and electronic fields, as well
as other endeavors that should prove fruitful.
.

Loading