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Mike Mullikin wrote: It's all very hush hush. The final truly amazing bits don't get activated until I get my 2nd knee done.
Let's just say that $6 million doesn't even begin to cover it.
Well I at least hope it is known as Operation Steve.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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I also started as a Mechanical Engineer in the defense industry. Got into Finite Element Analysis and did quite a bit of FORTRAN programming. When the personal computer era started up, I learned assembly programming (my first computer was an Atari 400). Bought an IBM PC when they first came out. I moved into automated manufacturing doing programming using Pascal and C. Then moved on into C++ and now do C# and web app development.
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Started studying Law - met a lot of lawyers, didn't like any of them so switched to Science - a much better class of party.
Did a combined science degree in Astronomy, Mathematics (stats and computing) and psychology (just for fun/filler).
Got a PhD in Computer Science - became a professor of same for three years!
Second career: Got a real job as a developer - never looked back.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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From 1969 through May of this year, I worked in I.T., lastly for a mental health facility (queue the puns, jokes and comments.... ) Unfortunately, I was forcibly retired due to the seemingly imminent adoption of a third-party Electronic Health Record (EHR). Guess what? That still has not happened.
I miss being "in the game." However, on the bright side, I am working harder than ever, and am now in better physical shape, working on my wife's ranch. Here, I fix fence, haul feed, move livestock and so forth.
As you can tell, I live in a rural area. I have found that finding a nearby I.T. job at my age is akin to "Mission: Impossible." No one wants to hire an "old timer." At the same time, they bemoan that all the recent I.T. graduates are moving to the cities.
__________________
Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now.
© 2009, Rex Hammock
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kmoorevs wrote: You should be enjoying your well earned retirement!
Retirement??? There is just no way I could enjoy sitting around doing nothing!
I had a sweet gig where I could go to an office and do my hobby for eight hours, five days a week and, believe it or not, they would actually pay me for it!
__________________
Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now.
© 2009, Rex Hammock
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I'm 2 days away from final retirement from 30+ years as a developer, it is weird feeling that I won't have targets and deadlines and meetings and all the bullshit that goes with the job. I've been working 10 days in a month for the last few months.
I retire to Cairns where there is no IT industry to live on an acreage, not quite a farm, but there is lots to do outside. Looking forward to it.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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I was in diapers when you were already in IT. The recruiters already started telling me that I'm old...
I love goats! May I have a job at your farm? ))
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You would have to be willing to live in an area where Internet access is basically limited to DSL, HughesNet, or 4GLTE. 5G will not be available here – the low population density and antenna density requirements (and their costs) precludes 5G. To make that worse, cell phone service is spotty. One corner of my wife's ranch has no service except from our WiFi router which is located line-of-sight 0.15 miles away at the house (I know, this seems unbelievable! But, with very few other local radio sources, it is real. ). If you want to watch television, you will need a satellite dish – cable is not available and there are only four over-the-air stations available. You will also need to haul your own garbage, as garbage pickup is not available.
For your children, the nearest high school is almost five miles away. This being Texas, football is big here – over the last 100 years, this high school has produced three NFL players. The local community college is ten miles away.
My local post office is located in a very small town, with one "dollar store," one convenience store and gas station, one restaurant (German) and only one traffic light. That is all.
The nearest large town (population 25,000) has two supermarkets – WalMart and HEB, one liquor store, no new car dealerships, six convenience stores, eleven thirteen fast-food restaurants, four bars, three auto parts stores, two hardware stores, a few sit-down restaurants and not much else.
Working on a ranch is hard, physical work. My wife needs to be a hard taskmaster. There is always the proverbial mile of fence that needs to be repaired. Firewood needs to be cut, split and stacked (we heat with wood). Animals need to be fed, watered, inspected, cared for, and occasionally, hauled to auction. We get paid only when we sell livestock.
On the bright side, we get fresh eggs daily and can grow much of what we eat. Air pollution is minimal. Heavy traffic is three pickups waiting at the traffic light.
Ranch living is not for everyone, but we love it.
__________________
Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now.
© 2009, Rex Hammock
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You've just described my dream place... I purposely banned TVs from my house. The Internet while being on optical fibre is mostly used for non essential things. Yet we live in a very densely populated area near Amsterdam. The air traffic over the house is horrible, the air stinks and the supermarket food tastes like cardboard most of the time. Even the organically grown food is horrible. And expensive. The organic red bell peppers for instance are packaged individually in plastic and sold for around 1.5 EUR each. You'd think they're gold plated. My car is a 18 years old Volvo which I bought last year. I mostly travel by motorcycle and bicycle. All these while my parents somewhere in Eastern Europe grow a lot of their own food, chop wood for heating and make their own wine. Needless to say they are in better shape than me.
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If you are serious, I suggest looking into buying farmland or ranchland here in the United States. By European standards, American farmland is relatively inexpensive to purchase. Think about what you would like to raise, pick an appropriate climate zone and talk to a real estate agent.
You will need to talk to an immigration lawyer about moving to the US. Since Donald Trump became President, the rules have changed only slightly but the interpretation of those rules is very different.
The hardest part of the transition is living with Americans. We tend to be independent, ornery and self-reliant. Think John Wayne. The days of the "wild west" may be over, but the attitudes that settled the West remain. Many of us, especially rural residents, want as little government in our lives as possible.
As a farmer or rancher, you will need to thrive in isolation. My nearest neighbor lives one tenth of a mile away as the crow flies, but three tenths of a mile away, if you take the road. My wife and I feel that he lives too close to us for our comfort.
Farming or ranching is a lifestyle commitment. It is hard work. It is not for everyone. If you are up to the challenge, welcome to our party! It is a lifestyle with its own rewards.
__________________
Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now.
© 2009, Rex Hammock
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That would be a very bold move on my side. Got a wife and two small kids. Probably it would be hard to get them to the US. I hold a Canadian passport, but they don't. I have traveled in many places in the US and I have a few friends and a cousin living there. I even drove my car from the west to the east coast and California from San Francisco to San Diego. Beautiful country you have. And the few people I met were quite helpful and open.
I am aware of the wild west attitude and I personally don't mind it since I'm likely built the same way. The main issue, immigration aside, is that I don't have any farming experience and I don't have the money to support my family until I can make a farm profitable (if a small farm can be profitable in this day). Now, I'm not one to back down from a challenge, but this might prove to be a bite bigger than I can chew. I'm pretty good with mechanical stuff, so I can probably fix an old tractor, but I never grew anything except my house plants. One of them was a hot pepper plant, so that's how close I ever came to farming.
But you did get me thinking... thanks.
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I always liked working with computers, that's why. Started as student, programmed mathematical models for my Doktor-Ingenieur. In Turbo Pascal. Then an Israeli guy wanted to make a start-up in Sofia and invited me to join. Learned for 2 years from the best hackers in town and then moved to Canada. Nobody ever asked me to do anything related to my Mechanical Engineering degree
modified 20-Oct-19 21:02pm.
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Good question.
My first career was programming.
So is my third (and current).
But for 12 years I was in animation and visual effects for film/TV/advertising. My desire to become a filmmaker drove me first. My slightly painful insight of my artistic shortcomings drove me back...
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
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I was in Sales and got way too burn out, sacked it in and went back to University to learn about computers, and sort of got the bug for programming!!!
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How many People have changed careers to a second career in I.T.?
It feels like I do that every time I change jobs. Within I.T.!!!
Explanation (a sample of jobs):
Learn about IT in voter registration and ballot counting.
Learn about IT in satellite design.
Learn about IT in boatyard management.
Learn about IT in gentlemen clubs.
Learn about IT in casinos.
Learn about IT in the insurance business.
Every one of those IT "experiences" was a whole different ball of wax -- different information, different tech, different processes and workflows, etc.
Latest Article - A Concise Overview of Threads
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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Marc Clifton wrote: Learn about IT in gentlemen clubs.
Tell me something... How would you go about learning IT in gentlemen's clubs?
Asking for a friend.
I'm retired. There's a nap for that...
- Harvey
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It is all about creating fake meetings in calenders and clearing browser history automatically.
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H.Brydon wrote: Asking for a friend.
Sure you are!
Latest Article - A Concise Overview of Threads
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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He is. I'm that friend.
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You're all pussies, some of the jobs I have had before I started programming.
Milkmans offsider
Type Fitter
Bowser Boy
Truck Driver
Jackaroo
Surveyors Offsider
Factory drone (not the flying ones)
Then I tried Sales
Encyclopedias
Computer timesheet plans
Roof Tiles
PC (286-486)
Software
That is when found out I was better at coding than selling
Excel Macros (from Lotus 123)
Superbase - Consultant
Access (1st contract)
SQL Server
VB5-6
VB.Net - Winforms
C# winforms
C# Silverlight - I am still pissed it was canned
C# WPF
and now
C# Xamarin Forms - just like WPF but for mobiles
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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Dropped out of studying law
Admin clerk at medical aid
Secretary
Shop assistant
Secretary/personal assistant
Project administrator
Personal assistant
Embedded C developer on PIC and AVG (no one saw that coming, not even me! )
Project administrator
Embedded C developer (upgrade to embedded Linux OS)
iOS developer (still)
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I was a professional chef for over 20 years. unfortunately my knees gave up.
Now I am a software developer for 24 years.
now I only cook for my wife, and she loves it.
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Money.
I started in mech/aero engineering, but there is sod all career in that in the UK really. So, list of jobs goes:
Buyer in company making ice cream making machines
Estimator/designer, steel work for stone cladding industry (some of my metal is in Canary Wharf, Stanstead airport...)
That company folded, so I ended up running my own garage and doing odd jobs, private investigator was an amusing one. Started scouting around for something more long term/better paid so...
Studied C language on a correspondence course so got a job as a welder, then in a company making turbine blades to tide me over.
Then first job in IT, correspondence courses from the OU in software design, and the career took off.
Second IT job was doing windows drivers for the military, worked mostly in the kernel since for companies around the world.
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