Why did you became programmers?
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You must have had one reeeeeaaaaally horrible IT department. :)
Oh, you'll keep mate. Yes you will.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Hi guys, When you will still young like in grade school or earlier, did you already know that you would take a career in IT? Or do you have other dreams and it just happened that you would like to know how the computer works and stuff and ended up taking up a degree in IT?
I was lucky enough to own a ZX spectrum back in 1982 and ever since then have been fascinated with IT. Fortunately back in the 80's IT progress was slow enough that I could learn at a reasonable pace - although there was no world wide web so I had to make do with 400+ page manuals that could in no manner be described as user friendly. I can't say I knew it, but I was fairly sure after a few hours on the good old speccy that I would be using computers in one way or another in my adult working life. I took a degree in IT because I thought it would make me money - what I got was something even better than money, I got to work in an area that I really enjoy :)(being a lawyer or doctor would have made me much more wealthy)
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Hi guys, When you will still young like in grade school or earlier, did you already know that you would take a career in IT? Or do you have other dreams and it just happened that you would like to know how the computer works and stuff and ended up taking up a degree in IT?
I needed to fill the schedule for my senior year of high school and "computer math" seemed interesting enough. :shrug:
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Hi guys, When you will still young like in grade school or earlier, did you already know that you would take a career in IT? Or do you have other dreams and it just happened that you would like to know how the computer works and stuff and ended up taking up a degree in IT?
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Oh, you'll keep mate. Yes you will.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
Chris Maunder wrote:
Oh, you'll keep mate.
I'm not quite sure what that means. Is it some form of Aussie* dialect? *Australopithecus Africanus
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Chris Maunder wrote:
Oh, you'll keep mate.
I'm not quite sure what that means. Is it some form of Aussie* dialect? *Australopithecus Africanus
You'll keep[^] Our interpretation is close, but a little more flavoured with "...and I know where you live." ;)
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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You'll keep[^] Our interpretation is close, but a little more flavoured with "...and I know where you live." ;)
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
You have just barely avoided the Maunder Dictionary, but it won't last. :rolleyes:
Chris Maunder wrote:
I know where you live
True story. I once bought a present on Amazon and had it directly shipped to a friend with the gift note "you don't know who I am, but I know where you live." I also signed it with my name. It was a reference to King of the Hill, but he didn't get the reference and got very upset. :laugh:
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You'll keep[^] Our interpretation is close, but a little more flavoured with "...and I know where you live." ;)
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Hi guys, When you will still young like in grade school or earlier, did you already know that you would take a career in IT? Or do you have other dreams and it just happened that you would like to know how the computer works and stuff and ended up taking up a degree in IT?
I kind of fell into it. My background was in electronics and we needed to know assembly to troubleshoot the computers back when it was cost effective to do so. The real reason I got into programming was that when I was a lead tech on the production floor part of my duties were to inventory the new builds and returned products and provide throughput results. This consisted of manually counting the devices, writing the numbers down, entering the info into an Excel spread sheet so some office clerk could manually enter the data into Access to make a nice chart. This effort took a day a half to complete which took time from doing what I wanted to do. So I created a few macros in Access that automated most of the work and created the nice chart with just a few clicks. The inventory process took only an hour to do after that. They gave me a bonus check for $2000. I thought wow! All I did was knock out a few lines of code, wrapped in nice looking windows forms and they gave me 2 Grand… Sweet! I was hooked. I never looked back.
It was broke, so I fixed it.
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Hi guys, When you will still young like in grade school or earlier, did you already know that you would take a career in IT? Or do you have other dreams and it just happened that you would like to know how the computer works and stuff and ended up taking up a degree in IT?
I did it for the chicks. Why else would you do it?
*pre-emptive celebratory nipple tassle jiggle* - Sean Ewington
"Mind bleach! Send me mind bleach!" - Nagy Vilmos
CodeStash - Online Snippet Management | My blog | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier
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Quote:
This saying is really only used by well educated and intelligent individuals.
Nice!
I love the honesty and integrity of community sourced material.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Hi guys, When you will still young like in grade school or earlier, did you already know that you would take a career in IT? Or do you have other dreams and it just happened that you would like to know how the computer works and stuff and ended up taking up a degree in IT?
When I was young and in grade school we had these things called, "pencils," and used them, along with some cleverly flattened dead tree bits, to accomplish calculations. Later, in college, we had this thing called a "computer" on campus, attended by High Priests in white coats, all kept behind glass walls and unreachable by mortals except via more bits of flattened dead tree bits, punched full of holes, and neatly collected into ordered decks. These we slid through slots next to the glass walls in the vain hope that the Priests would submit them to the computer for its consideration at some time before the semester ended. It was considerably faster and more convenient to solve whatever silly problem we had with pencils and flat tree bits, but our teachers felt we should use the latest technology, whether it made sense to do so or not. Somewhere along the career path, while I was happily solving major technical problems with bits of silicon and germanium, some ninny decided to make them programmable, and that's when things went downhill. Everything I built had to be made to solve problems nobody had, and so had to be programmable, just in case that problem ever happened and needed a program change. Years went by, and things only got worse until everything became programmable, and people became so stupid that no one knew anymore how to work out a problem using a pencil and cleverly flattened dead tree bits. Somewhere in there I learned to program, but as far as I can recall, I never "decided to become" a programmer; it just grew on me, like a nasty tumor or a happily feasting tick. Once my professional skills led to the downfall of the nefarious USSR, I arranged to have myself laid off so that I would never have to program anything at all, but alas, even the local hardware store where I suffered dire underemployment for years and years had those damned computers, and they needed programming. Of course, now that almost nobody remembers how to solve anything without a computer, I and my pencil are kept happily entertained solving problems programmers cause for other people. It's not a bad life... :-D
Will Rogers never met me.
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Hi guys, When you will still young like in grade school or earlier, did you already know that you would take a career in IT? Or do you have other dreams and it just happened that you would like to know how the computer works and stuff and ended up taking up a degree in IT?
> Why did you became programmers? Quite by chance. I was studying Electrical Engineering and had to take a Programming 101 course as a pre-requisite to Numerical Analysis. My math prof told me, "Go take a course in Fortran." When I went to the CS department to sign up, they laughed at me and said, "Fortran is obsolete - we teach structured programming here. Sign up for Pascal 101." (Please don't laugh - this was 32 years ago). So here I was, a grad student with stubble amidst a sea of freshmen, when the instructor walked into the class and on day 1 ordered us to "empty your minds, for I am about to teach you how to think". It was love at first sight (with CS, not the instructor) and I've never looked back. Today, I write code for a living, then come home and write code for myself. I spend most of my weekends writing code and building and maintaining my freeware apps. Building software is all I ever want to do in life. :cool: /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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Hi guys, When you will still young like in grade school or earlier, did you already know that you would take a career in IT? Or do you have other dreams and it just happened that you would like to know how the computer works and stuff and ended up taking up a degree in IT?
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Hi guys, When you will still young like in grade school or earlier, did you already know that you would take a career in IT? Or do you have other dreams and it just happened that you would like to know how the computer works and stuff and ended up taking up a degree in IT?
My father was a lecturer in cybernetics, so I was lucky enough to actually have a computer and robots at home in the days before most people knew what one was, and feared the other. Taught by self Basic on the commodore PET , then6502 assembler. Wrote a version of missile command on the PET (a challenge on a non-bit mapped screen, I can tell you!) when I left school there were only 3 universities I the uk doing comp sci courses - I ended up joining the Metropolitan Police as a trainee programmer - much better than being a poor student as they trained me to code while paying me and providing accommodation and the best bacon rolls on the planet. The rest, as they say, is history. Some may say 'ancient history'
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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I did it for the opportunity to meet women. :laugh: Actually, I knew I wanted to be a programmer since I wrote my first "app" in BASIC. At the time, I thought I would only ever be able to do it as a hobby. Once I figured out someone would pay me to do it, I never looked back.
Tim Corey wrote:
I did it for the opportunity to meet women. :laugh:
There is a Doonesbury cartoon for that. PS. Actually, it a computer operator's job, not a programmer's.
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Because I'm a control freak who reckoned he could do it better than the IT department where I was doing grad work. Turns out I was right :D
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
I thought it was your prediliction for supervising machines powered by small, voracious rodents?
Software Zen:
delete this; -
When I was young and in grade school we had these things called, "pencils," and used them, along with some cleverly flattened dead tree bits, to accomplish calculations. Later, in college, we had this thing called a "computer" on campus, attended by High Priests in white coats, all kept behind glass walls and unreachable by mortals except via more bits of flattened dead tree bits, punched full of holes, and neatly collected into ordered decks. These we slid through slots next to the glass walls in the vain hope that the Priests would submit them to the computer for its consideration at some time before the semester ended. It was considerably faster and more convenient to solve whatever silly problem we had with pencils and flat tree bits, but our teachers felt we should use the latest technology, whether it made sense to do so or not. Somewhere along the career path, while I was happily solving major technical problems with bits of silicon and germanium, some ninny decided to make them programmable, and that's when things went downhill. Everything I built had to be made to solve problems nobody had, and so had to be programmable, just in case that problem ever happened and needed a program change. Years went by, and things only got worse until everything became programmable, and people became so stupid that no one knew anymore how to work out a problem using a pencil and cleverly flattened dead tree bits. Somewhere in there I learned to program, but as far as I can recall, I never "decided to become" a programmer; it just grew on me, like a nasty tumor or a happily feasting tick. Once my professional skills led to the downfall of the nefarious USSR, I arranged to have myself laid off so that I would never have to program anything at all, but alas, even the local hardware store where I suffered dire underemployment for years and years had those damned computers, and they needed programming. Of course, now that almost nobody remembers how to solve anything without a computer, I and my pencil are kept happily entertained solving problems programmers cause for other people. It's not a bad life... :-D
Will Rogers never met me.
Great post, Roger. One question: what's a tree?
Software Zen:
delete this;