My first web customer (this is by password/invitation only—it's an HTML 1.0 CGI app that provides a shopping cart [before the invention of the 'cookie'] written in C++)
My 'wanted' poster, just in case you want to save the fifteen bucks that the
'enhanced' security check costs to find out what I'm 'wanted' for in Texas (we assume). I've got blue eyes
his are brown.
I've also got considerably more hair, and it's brown, not red.
Cliff's notes verision of resume
Programmer: Assembler, C(++,#), Perl, PHP, Python, Java(Script),batch/script files
Administrator: Windows(DOS), *nix, SQL(s), software builds, version control
Maintainer: Wires, boxes (IT and Telecom), paperwork
Vaporizer: Moving to the cloud is a specialty
Debugger: all of the above, two decades
Me in a nutshell
So far, all of my IT related diagnoses have been accurate and all
code has worked up to specifications.
Of course, that is no guarantee of the future, but it's an honest
statement. Generally, it's been within schedule and below budget.
This is not universal. In many instances where my specifications have been
fuzzy, I've overprogrammed things which could have been cheaper if they'd
just been specific.
I've trained many people to mimic my behavior. I have yet to have inspired
anyone to think like I do. I'm not sure I can, but I always hope.
Philosophy of Work Tidbits
My problem in understanding the situation is always the same. I can put the things together. I can tell you if they are working right. But I can't tell you if YOU like them.
It's kind of like being a mechanic. I can tell you that your car will do fine on a trip to Yosemite. I can't tell you if you'll have a good time on the trip, and the fact that I might know how to get there is only incidental to my mechanical skills.
From an old work friend who made circuit boards:
"Experience is recognizing a mistake when you make it again. Knowledge is recognizing it before you make it."
and
"If I'm not catching myself making at least one BIG mistake every day, it's because I'm either not doing anything important, or not paying attention to what I am doing."
"I try to be cynical, but I just can't keep up." (Lily Tomlin)
I used to be a supervisor of a Transportation Department of four full-time and twenty or so part-time employees.
I had possibly the worst subodinate anyone could ever ask for (and no one could get rid of, as it was a state job). He told me one day, "Rich, I thought about
quitting yesterday, and putting you in a bind, but I decided to stay, and KEEP YOU IN ONE" (his emphasis).
Robert Heinlein: "Specialization is for insects."
Yogi Berra: "In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they're not."
