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How did you arrive at this place?
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|
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| I considered marking this as OT but decided that it really isn't.
I've been participating here for a short time. I've gathered that
some came from a "hard" computer science background, and others came
from some kind of "administrator" or other background -- I'm unclear
on what kinds of backgrounds people may have come from.
I came from a "hard" computer science background. B.S. Comp Sci in
1972 (a six-year financial hardship case, bored beyond toleration with
required classes, paid programmer since 1968, finally decided to get
the damned paperwork done and get on with it). Spent about 30 years
actively working in the development industry, writing operating system
components, programming tools, subroutine libraries, developing
various arcane algorithms including some computer language translation
and realtime client/server applications. Got tired of sitting in a
cubicle, blew out of the industry, and began trying to make a living
as a craftsperson. Needed a website and started building one. So it
goes, it seems some cannot escape the clutches of lady logic.
What about you? How did you meander the path to this place?
--
http://www.ren-prod-inc.com/hug_sof...?action=contact
| |
|
| hug wrote:
> I considered marking this as OT but decided that it really isn't.
>
> I've been participating here for a short time. I've gathered that
> some came from a "hard" computer science background, and others came
> from some kind of "administrator" or other background -- I'm unclear
> on what kinds of backgrounds people may have come from.
>
> I came from a "hard" computer science background. B.S. Comp Sci in
> 1972 (a six-year financial hardship case, bored beyond toleration with
> required classes, paid programmer since 1968, finally decided to get
> the damned paperwork done and get on with it). Spent about 30 years
> actively working in the development industry, writing operating system
> components, programming tools, subroutine libraries, developing
> various arcane algorithms including some computer language translation
> and realtime client/server applications. Got tired of sitting in a
> cubicle, blew out of the industry, and began trying to make a living
> as a craftsperson.
What kind of crafts?
> Needed a website and started building one. So it
> goes, it seems some cannot escape the clutches of lady logic.
Logic is a lady, or are you using lady logic as opposed to gentleman
logic?
> What about you? How did you meander the path to this place?
I have always worked in offices, doing administrative jobs. Stopped
working with the birth of first son, and after my divorce decided I
didn't want to work outside the house, and have my kids in after
school care, so I went thinking about jobs one can do from home.
Decided I might as well do something I liked, which I figured would
have to be something with computers, and I decided on webdesign. Not
that I knew anything about it btw. Had never heard of HTML, let alone
CSS. Got finally round to actually starting when a friend reminded me
of my plans, adding that she'd like a website. March 2003 I published
it :-)
--
Els http://locusmeus.com/
Now playing: Pink Floyd - Matilda Mother
| |
|
| hug wrote:
> I considered marking this as OT but decided that it really isn't.
>
> I've been participating here for a short time. I've gathered that
> some came from a "hard" computer science background, and others came
> from some kind of "administrator" or other background -- I'm unclear
> on what kinds of backgrounds people may have come from.
>
<snip>
>
> What about you? How did you meander the path to this place?
>
I had been coding for years on a hobby level (Since I was a kid) I never
ended up going to college mostly due to the fact that I did not go to
school so much (Young, lazy and stupid). I saw an ad for a PHP developer
in town and I said I would chance it. The boss was reluctant to hire me
because I had no third level education and no related work experience.
He eventually agreed to let me take one of the sites home and give it a
shot over the weekend.
I spent saturday learning PHP and sunday doing the site, and when I came
back on monday he was delighted with the work. 4 years on, I am now the
lead developer here and I run the entire web department of our company.
Thank god for people willing to give someone a chance eh?
| |
|
| Els <els.aNOSPAM@tiscali.nl> wrote:
>What kind of crafts?
http://www.ren-prod-inc.com/random_pipes
>
>Logic is a lady, or are you using lady logic as opposed to gentleman
>logic?
I'm a sexist barstid. If logic was a gentleman I'd have just beaten
his XXX and moved on; a lady on the other hand, can enthrall and
capture a man as no man can. <g>
>
>I have always worked in offices, doing administrative jobs. Stopped
>working with the birth of first son, and after my divorce decided I
>didn't want to work outside the house, and have my kids in after
>school care, so I went thinking about jobs one can do from home.
Yah, that's a toughie, lots of folks are going through it these days
for one reason or another.
>Decided I might as well do something I liked, which I figured would
>have to be something with computers, and I decided on webdesign. Not
>that I knew anything about it btw. Had never heard of HTML, let alone
>CSS. Got finally round to actually starting when a friend reminded me
>of my plans, adding that she'd like a website. March 2003 I published
>it :-)
I think ya done learnt yer stuff. <g>
--
http://www.ren-prod-inc.com/hug_sof...?action=contact
| |
|
|
| William Tasso 2006-04-18, 6:59 pm |
| Fleeing from the madness of the . jungle
hug <contact_info@sig_line.clickit> stumbled into news:alt.www.webmaster
and said:
> ...
> How did you meander the path to this place?
Opened my newsreader searching for webmaster info - IIRC the firm I was
contracted to at the time (dev) was considering employing a webmaster -
they liked the buzzword. Actually what they needed was an admin that
has-a-clue to manage the web server platform.
--
William Tasso
http://williamtasso.com/words/what-is-usenet.asp
| |
| GreyWyvern 2006-04-18, 6:59 pm |
| And lo, hug didst speak in alt.www.webmaster:
> What about you? How did you meander the path to this place?
I have a BSc in the biological sciences and took only one computer-related
course during my entire university career (introduction to Java).
However, all during this time I was active online building my own
website. I didn't care about how things worked online back then, only
that I wanted to be a part of a community. To do that, I needed to learn
how to put things online for others to see. So unbeknownst to myself, I
taught myself web design. I already had an interest in programming
throughout high school which helped a great deal.
I worked from McJob to McJob for a couple years after university; a coffee
shop, a truck stop gas station, and a glass bottle factory.
Meanwhile, my cousin began boarding with my parents because he got an IT
job right around where we lived. Occasionally, he would be asked to do
some web work, and he in turn would come home and ask me how to do it.
Well, the company was growing, and soon my cousin had no time for web work
anymore. So I got a phone call asking me to drop off my resume and I've
been here ever since.
I came to AWW after an incident in another community, one I'd long been a
member of, prompted me to leave and seek more pleasant company. As hard
as it may be for some of you to believe AWW is more pleasant than
anyplace, trust me when I say this place is a bastion of sanity and calm
compared to most ;)
Grey
--
The technical axiom that nothing is impossible sinisterly implies the
pitfall corollary that nothing is ridiculous.
- http://www.greywyvern.com/orca#search - Orca Search: Full-featured
spider and site-search engine
| |
| TechnoHippie 2006-04-18, 6:59 pm |
| hug <contact_info@sig_line.clickit> wrote in
news:ufl9421nsg0rm5mcvdg95612mot244csvh@4ax.com:
>
> What about you? How did you meander the path to this place?
>
Hm. Remembering ...
After returning to college in 1993, I bought my first computer, solved my
own hardware and software troubles and got sucked into the cycle of fixing
all my friends, neighbors and relatives computers. After a couple of
years, I started my own business doing the same things I'd been doing for
free. In 1997, I began designing websites for profit and realized 1)
that's where the real money is at if you get the right clients ... and I
did; and 2) I hated designing for profit ... it took all the fun out of it.
My areas of focus have been Computer-aided Communication, online community
building, and development of tools for positive change. And, I'm an
excellent beta-tester. If there's a glitch ... I'm sure to find it :)
I've been participating in Usenet since the mid-ninties but most active
since 2000. It sure doesn't FEEL like six years :)
Judy
--
Trippy Triangle: http://www.technohippie.com
Bring Them Back: http://www.bringthembackfromiraq.com/btb/
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
*** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***
| |
| SpaceGirl 2006-04-18, 6:59 pm |
|
hug wrote:
> I considered marking this as OT but decided that it really isn't.
>
> I've been participating here for a short time. I've gathered that
> some came from a "hard" computer science background, and others came
> from some kind of "administrator" or other background -- I'm unclear
> on what kinds of backgrounds people may have come from.
>
> I came from a "hard" computer science background. B.S. Comp Sci in
> 1972 (a six-year financial hardship case, bored beyond toleration with
> required classes, paid programmer since 1968, finally decided to get
> the damned paperwork done and get on with it). Spent about 30 years
> actively working in the development industry, writing operating system
> components, programming tools, subroutine libraries, developing
> various arcane algorithms including some computer language translation
> and realtime client/server applications. Got tired of sitting in a
> cubicle, blew out of the industry, and began trying to make a living
> as a craftsperson. Needed a website and started building one. So it
> goes, it seems some cannot escape the clutches of lady logic.
>
> What about you? How did you meander the path to this place?
>
> --
> http://www.ren-prod-inc.com/hug_sof...?action=contact
I think I was born in here.
| |
| Auggie 2006-04-18, 6:59 pm |
|
"hug" <contact_info@sig_line.clickit> wrote in message
news:ufl9421nsg0rm5mcvdg95612mot244csvh@4ax.com...
>
> What about you? How did you meander the path to this place?
If I went in to all the details mine would be a long and tangled story, but
I'll be brief:
In the early 1980s I got my first computer, a Commodore 64. By 1985 I
taught myself to program in assembler and machine language and was writing
my own games (even had 3 published in Canada).
Going into high school in 1986 I was planning on going in to law after I
graduated, so I was gearing my education in that direction. Needed another
science class so I took Computer Science 11. Liked it and went on to
Computer Science 12.
My Computer Science 12 final project for the year earned me a scholarship to
BCIT (back then one of the top computer/IT schools) and after I graduated I
went on to BCIT taking Computer Systems Technology instead of going into
Law.
In September 1989 at the start of my second year I was top of my class and
had already received job offers from IBM and Hewlitt Packard. I had my
first exposure to the internet as it was back then (very slow and cumbersome
to use). In November 1989 I was being arrested by the RCMP for a
computer/internet incident and kicked out of BCIT.
In 1990 nothing was going to come of the police incident and BCIT allowed me
to return, but I was only allowed to continue my education through night
school. In need of something to do during the day I opened up a
game/toy/hobby store.
1990-1997: I was taking nightschool courses and eventually completed the
program. My store was doing pretty good and role playing games (IE:
Dungeons and Dragons books) were my "bread and butter". However, by the end
of 1997 Role Playing Game sales were starting to decline sharply. The
problem was Amazon.com was doing this big push to get business to their
website and offering big discounts and free shipping and that pretty much
killed my business.
In 1998 I closed to the store and sold the rest of my RPG stuff online. 2
months later I was working for the Goverment of British Columbia in
Mainframe Operations.
In 1999 my department was being downsized and the goverment offered to send
me back to school or relocate me to a new department at a pay cut. I chose
to go back to school and took a course in web design and internet
programming.
And here I am. I've effectivly been on the internet since 1988 and
particpated in usenet through the 1990s so finding this place after I
graduated from my web course wasn't a stretch.
| |
|
| TechnoHippie <technohippiechick@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote:
>hug <contact_info@sig_line.clickit> wrote in
>news:ufl9421nsg0rm5mcvdg95612mot244csvh@4ax.com:
>
>
>Hm. Remembering ...
>After returning to college in 1993, I bought my first computer, solved my
>own hardware and software troubles and got sucked into the cycle of fixing
>all my friends, neighbors and relatives computers. After a couple of
>years, I started my own business doing the same things I'd been doing for
>free. In 1997, I began designing websites for profit and realized 1)
>that's where the real money is at if you get the right clients ... and I
>did; and 2) I hated designing for profit ... it took all the fun out of it.
It's a XXXXX ain't it, you can have fun, or you can have money, but
finding a combination that gives you both is like looking for the Holy
Grail.
>My areas of focus have been Computer-aided Communication, online community
>building, and development of tools for positive change. And, I'm an
>excellent beta-tester. If there's a glitch ... I'm sure to find it :)
>
>I've been participating in Usenet since the mid-ninties but most active
>since 2000. It sure doesn't FEEL like six years :)
I've been participating in online conferencing since the early '80s,
in usenet since the early '90s, maybe '93 or so. Nothing ever feels
like what it is, at least in my experience.
--
http://www.ren-prod-inc.com/hug_sof...?action=contact
| |
|
| GreyWyvern <spam@greywyvern.com> wrote:
>And lo, hug didst speak in alt.www.webmaster:
>
>
>I have a BSc in the biological sciences and took only one computer-related
>course during my entire university career (introduction to Java).
>
>However, all during this time I was active online building my own
>website. I didn't care about how things worked online back then, only
>that I wanted to be a part of a community. To do that, I needed to learn
>how to put things online for others to see. So unbeknownst to myself, I
>taught myself web design. I already had an interest in programming
>throughout high school which helped a great deal.
I think that's the best way to learn.
>I worked from McJob to McJob for a couple years after university; a coffee
>shop, a truck stop gas station, and a glass bottle factory.
>
>Meanwhile, my cousin began boarding with my parents because he got an IT
>job right around where we lived. Occasionally, he would be asked to do
>some web work, and he in turn would come home and ask me how to do it.
>Well, the company was growing, and soon my cousin had no time for web work
>anymore. So I got a phone call asking me to drop off my resume and I've
>been here ever since.
<g> One of life's little nudges... "psst, hey buddy, why'ntcha try
this!"
>I came to AWW after an incident in another community, one I'd long been a
>member of, prompted me to leave and seek more pleasant company. As hard
>as it may be for some of you to believe AWW is more pleasant than
>anyplace, trust me when I say this place is a bastion of sanity and calm
>compared to most ;)
That's my take on AWW too.
--
http://www.ren-prod-inc.com/hug_sof...?action=contact
| |
| Matt Probert 2006-04-18, 6:59 pm |
| On Tue, 18 Apr 2006 06:13:26 -0600, hug
<contact_info@sig_line.clickit> wrote:
>I've been participating here for a short time. I've gathered that
>some came from a "hard" computer science background, and others came
>from some kind of "administrator" or other background -- I'm unclear
>on what kinds of backgrounds people may have come from.
I am a former independent researcher into behavioural psychology with
particular focus in the fields of the relationship between stress and
immuno-deficiency and memory. This led me to create computer models
(AI if you like) which required a large knowledge base of general
human information. You can guess what happened to that database when
the model was no longer required, I couldn't bear to bin it and it
became The Probert Encyclopaedia.
I do still enjoy behavioural psychology, but don't mention it as here
in the UK it's akin to saying your hobby is shagging children.
Matt
--
Odi profanum vulgus
| |
| Mark Parnell 2006-04-19, 3:44 am |
| Deciding to do something for the good of humanity, hug
<contact_info@sig_line.clickit> declared in alt.www.webmaster:
> What about you? How did you meander the path to this place?
Up to the point of leaving school in 1999, I was going to study law.
Almost at the last minute, I decided I didn't want to go to uni at all,
and instead did a 1 year course in multimedia at a local college. Once I
left there, I grabbed the first IT job I could, which was software
support. I'm still working for the same company and still doing support,
but my role has now expanded to include web development and other
programming.
I'd love to be able to work for myself doing web development, but with a
wife and 2 kids to support, I can't afford to risk it.
As for Usenet and AWW, I can't really remember how I got onto Usenet in
the first place, though I know it was alt.html in about 2002. AWW was
mentioned there a few times - I checked it out for a while but didn't
post much and gave up after only a couple of months, then came back
about a year ago and have been here ever since. I'm even starting to get
my own layer of dust!
--
Mark Parnell
My Usenet is improved; yours could be too:
http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
| |
|
|
|
|
"hug" <contact_info@sig_line.clickit> kirjoitti
viestissä:ufl9421nsg0rm5mcvdg95612mot244csvh@4ax.com...
<snip>
> What about you? How did you meander the path to this place?
In beginning half of 80's when I was kid, ended up getting computer and
wanted to know what made it tick. Little stab at doing some Basic coding and
it was obvious it's was too slow for my purposes, two weeks after got
computer started to learn assembly language. Coded demos for Commodore 64
(few games too, but only for own fun), took quick peek on several other
assembly languages besides 6502/6510 then end half of 80's got Atari ST and
STe, learnt ASM coding for it too. Fought back getting PC rather long, but
about decade ago had to give in and get one too. And learnt programming with
it, Pascal, Delphi, Visual Basic, some x86 assembler, bit C/C++, always
little coding things to do to learn, now C# and some PHP...
School always bored me because of too strict timetables, too "monorailed"
system to teach, trying to press all people in same form/mental shape.. I
wanted to learn in my own pace that usually were faster on somethings, so
ended up not bothering studying but just learning things myself.
When got PC, I looked around and noticed internet and web pages, and ofcoz
wanted to learn HTML too to make some site(s). That point I ended up in
several newsgroups (like this), mainly to just lurk in them. Because of
history tinkering with computers, ended up oddperson ppl asked to help with
computers or programming, viruses, spyware, help how to make web pages and
whatever. Basically when friends want not to think themselves they come to
me ;) It didn't take long to realize HTML itself was lacking some, so had to
ofcoz learn CSS...
Biggest issue always been that I never learned charge properly from what
ever I did because most of the time I did/do it for the fun and to learn
more, so that generally has lead me being flatbroke most of the time, heh.
Then again, it could be worse, so can't complaint too much.
So, when I'm not reading books to distract me from reality, or writing
things, I'm either watching documentaries, movies, or listening Metal music
and tinkering something with computers and if I happen to have beers,
making sure they don't last too long ;) Oh, and lurking in background of
this and dozen other newsgroups most of the time observing - like a ghost..
| |
| Blinky the Shark 2006-04-19, 3:44 am |
| hug wrote:
> Blinky the Shark <no.spam@box.invalid> wrote:
>
>
> Blinky, you are older than dirt! <g>
If you listen very closely from there, you can hear my fins creaking as I
type.
--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
Coming Soon: Filtering rules specific to various real news clients
| |
| Toby Inkster 2006-04-19, 6:45 am |
| hug wrote:
> What about you? How did you meander the path to this place?
My mum worked for IBM in Sydney during the 70s, so I pretty much grew up
around computers -- though generally ancient ones -- I was using an old
IBM-clone running DOS 2.1-3.3 (depending on which boot disk you used!)
until 1996.
I used to do some basic "programming", mainly through BASIC and batch
scripting.
In 1996 the family moved to the UK, and we got a newer computer: a 486
running Windows 3.11. This, using the power of batch scripting, combined
with DOS DriveSpace I somehow managed to convert into a reasonably secure
multi-user operating system -- different settings for each user, and a
private area for storing files, not accessible to other users.
I was still programming using the limited tools I had available. I
remember one hacking a program's "Help" files to create an interactive
story book. Eventually asked for Visual BASIC 3.0 for my birthday.
We got Internet access, through AOL at first, then through a small local
ISP that eventually got swallowed up by NTL. Even before we'd signed up, I
started to design some web pages -- just silly stuff. I didn't really see
any overlap between my programming and web development -- except perhaps
offering programs as downloads -- this would change soon enough.
In 1999 I went to Uni, with my own brand new computer: 400 MHz Pentium
Celeron, 32 MB RAM, 3.2 GB HDD (plus a 17 GB HDD I'd just picked up). Ran
Windows 98, and I'd just purchased a copy of SuSE Linux 6.2.
I could never get my modem working under SuSE; and without my modem, there
was no Internet; and without the Internet, no serious work. So serious
work ended up being done with Windows, and I'd just tinker occasionally
with SuSE.
On campus, the opposite was the case -- the vast majority of computers in
the Dept of Computing ran Red Hat, and only a handful dual-booted Windows.
Eventually I started to prefer using Linux for programming-type stuff. AT
college we were programming in Haskell, Turing, C, C++, Java, Prolog,
Perl, Assembly and so forth.
Web-wise at this point, my web site had outgrown the small amount of
free space allocated by my ISP, so I started signing up with all those
free web space places. Ended up with about four of them. Of course,
keeping navigation menus, fonts, images, etc synchronised everywhere was a
nightmare; so I ended up doing my first web programming -- I wrote a
VisualBasic (6.0 now!) program that could maintain a set of pages spanning
multiple servers, merge them with a template and then output the finished
HTML ready to be uploaded by FTP.
It really was genius.
At this point, I was frustrated though with Windows' unreliability and
general annoyingness; so I downloaded a copy of Mandrake 8.1 and stuck
that on my machine. At about the same time, got Ethernet in college halls,
so I didn't need to worry about my stinking modem any more.
Hurrah, I was online with Linux. Gradually all my serious work started to
be done on Linux at home as well as college; and I finally abandoned
Windows in early 2001. (Later, in about 2003, I would get VMWare for
testing things in Windows browsers.)
At college there were several projects that involved web work -- some PHP,
Perl, SQL, etc. This was all very useful experience.
After graduation, I had a few temp jobs (general office admin) until one
of the places I was temping at hired me -- part time doing general admin,
part time IT admin/support/programming/web stuff. After about a year or
so of that, they put me in charge of IT full-time, adding purchasing and
budget control to my responsibilities.
At work, and at home, I've had the opportunity to expand my knowledge of
programming and web design, particularly Apache, SQL (Postgres), PHP,
Perl, (X)HTML, CSS and Javascript, which is where my main interests now
lie: data handling and business logic, using the web as an interface.
Right now, I'm seconded to the Marketing and Communications dept at work,
"helping them out with" (i.e. building from scratch) the new website,
which has always been the overall responsibility of that dept (for mainly
historical reasons). Massive CMS to be designed and built in only one
month -- we're relaunching on May 4th (be with you). I've got an assistant
on 3 months contract (hoping to extend that though) to help with the IT
stuff while I'm away from it -- hurrah!
--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact
| |
| Brian Cryer 2006-04-19, 6:45 am |
| "hug" <contact_info@sig_line.clickit> wrote in message
news:ufl9421nsg0rm5mcvdg95612mot244csvh@4ax.com...
>I considered marking this as OT but decided that it really isn't.
>
> I've been participating here for a short time. I've gathered that
> some came from a "hard" computer science background, and others came
> from some kind of "administrator" or other background -- I'm unclear
> on what kinds of backgrounds people may have come from.
>
> I came from a "hard" computer science background. B.S. Comp Sci in
> 1972 (a six-year financial hardship case, bored beyond toleration with
> required classes, paid programmer since 1968, finally decided to get
> the damned paperwork done and get on with it). Spent about 30 years
> actively working in the development industry, writing operating system
> components, programming tools, subroutine libraries, developing
> various arcane algorithms including some computer language translation
> and realtime client/server applications. Got tired of sitting in a
> cubicle, blew out of the industry, and began trying to make a living
> as a craftsperson. Needed a website and started building one. So it
> goes, it seems some cannot escape the clutches of lady logic.
>
> What about you? How did you meander the path to this place?
I think I took a wrong turn somewhere ...
Seriously, as a child I had a micro in my bedroom (BBC micro .. that was a
long time ago). Always had an interest in computing. Hence computing related
degrees and a "career" in software engineering.
I only got into web development on the back of getting internet access at
home. I signed up with freenetname who were giving "free".co.uk domain names
with each account. Having got my family name I thought I really ought to put
something up there, and started migrating various software engineering notes
to the web.
First came across alt.www.webmaster when I was thinking of ways to either
plug my site or some of my software tools. Since then I've learnt better
techniques from the group and wish for sufficient time to start my site all
over again.
I'm still a full time (employed) software engineer, web development remains
a hobby although I get to do some webby stuff at work now (mostly .net). It
would be nice to have sufficient income via the web to give up my day job -
or at least to be able to (not sure that I ever would though because I enjoy
it too much).
My wife says I spend too much time on my website (always "tinkering"), I
suspect that's a complaint of many hobbyist's wives.
--
Brian Cryer
www.cryer.co.uk/brian
| |
| Charles Sweeney 2006-04-19, 6:45 am |
| hug wrote
> What about you? How did you meander the path to this place?
I first got online early 1998. I wanted to make a website for some Autocad
software I had made. This I did, on my ISP webspace. I had never been
online before, or seen a website, so it was all very new to me. I still
remember the thrill of seeing my first "hello world" page!
I first came to AWW not long after that. I can't remember how I discovered
it. I dipped in and out of it, but was never a regular in the way I am
today. The only name I remember from my earliest visits was Tina's
(probably because she's a woman!).
I then got a job with an employer, so for a while the web stuff took a back
seat.
I left that job at the end of 2001, and have been self employed, and an AWW
regular since!
--
Charles Sweeney
http://CharlesSweeney.com
| |
| Brian Cryer 2006-04-19, 6:45 am |
| "Blinky the Shark" <no.spam@box.invalid> wrote in message
news:pan.2006.04.18.19.28.43.503352@thurston.blinkynet.net...
<snip>
> First programming class (Fortran) in 1965; last programming class in 1965.
> :)
1965 was a good year, it must have been because it was the year I was
orn - or does that make it a bad year?
Fortran used to be popular at University, well, popular in the sense that it
seemed to get taught everywhere. I actually got to use it for a couple of
years in my first job. I quite liked it at the time ... that must have been
in the late 1980s. I wonder if its still used anywhere?
--
Brian Cryer
www.cryer.co.uk/brian
| |
| William Tasso 2006-04-19, 6:45 pm |
| Fleeing from the madness of the jungle
Brian Cryer <brianc@127.0.0.1.activesol.co.uk> stumbled into
news:alt.www.webmaster
and said:
> ...
> My wife says I spend too much time on my website (always "tinkering"), I
> suspect that's a complaint of many hobbyist's wives.
It used to be (maybe still is) said that photography is everybody's second
hobby. Now I think web tinkering is vying strongly for that spot.
--
William Tasso
http://williamtasso.com/words/what-is-usenet.asp
| |
| SpaceGirl 2006-04-19, 6:45 pm |
|
hug wrote:
> I considered marking this as OT but decided that it really isn't.
>
> I've been participating here for a short time. I've gathered that
> some came from a "hard" computer science background, and others came
> from some kind of "administrator" or other background -- I'm unclear
> on what kinds of backgrounds people may have come from.
>
> I came from a "hard" computer science background. B.S. Comp Sci in
> 1972 (a six-year financial hardship case, bored beyond toleration with
> required classes, paid programmer since 1968, finally decided to get
> the damned paperwork done and get on with it). Spent about 30 years
> actively working in the development industry, writing operating system
> components, programming tools, subroutine libraries, developing
> various arcane algorithms including some computer language translation
> and realtime client/server applications. Got tired of sitting in a
> cubicle, blew out of the industry, and began trying to make a living
> as a craftsperson. Needed a website and started building one. So it
> goes, it seems some cannot escape the clutches of lady logic.
>
> What about you? How did you meander the path to this place?
>
> --
> http://www.ren-prod-inc.com/hug_sof...?action=contact
Okay, my story;
My dad was one of the founders of the net, and we always had puters at
home. One of my earliest memories is of a big clunky machine that used
punch cards. I used my first brick-sized mouse at an experimental thing
at a local university age 5. I was hardwired to love technology and art
- my dad being the computer-uber brain, my mum an avid sci-fi read,
writer and artist.
I flunked school. Hated it. I never fitted in. Spent my last two years
hiding in the art department. The BBC sponsored our school with
graphics work stations and nobody knew how to use them. I did :) Had my
first computer art exhibition age 16. That's all I got from school.
Art college for 2 years, while discovering I really didn't like the way
other people work.
Escaped that, got an admin job at a local insurance company. Meanwhile
I was playing with computer graphics on this new WWW thing, which
nobody was really using yet. My boss heard me talking about it, and
wanted to see some of my stuff. He was easily impressed (thankfully)
and asked me if I wanted to do the company web site. I really didn't
know what I was doing but said yes. That company became AXA.
I started exerimenting with other sites... fan sites for things I was
interested in, and music sites. I got lucky and was hired to do some
front end work for a company here in Scotland. Meanwhile, one of my fan
sites was spotted by my fave band, and they asked me if I wanted to do
their site. Of course I said yes. Since then I've been mostly
freelancing in the music industry, building commercial band site and
handling online promotion. I've worked with lots of big companies as a
day job - right now I'm will Yell - but my passion is my freelance
work. I have a retainer with a big US label, and have worked with
Universal Music, Geffen and Warner over the past 5 years.
I own my own web servers in the US where I have a small number of
private clients, and a place to play.
So, that's me!
| |
|
| Blinky the Shark <no.spam@box.invalid> wrote:
>hug wrote:
>
>
>If you listen very closely from there, you can hear my fins creaking as I
>type.
I took my first programming class in 1967 I think it was, Fortran-II
running on an IBM-1620. Brother dinosaurs, eh? <g>
--
http://www.ren-prod-inc.com/hug_sof...?action=contact
| |
|
| "Brian Cryer" <brianc@127.0.0.1.activesol.co.uk> wrote:
>"Blinky the Shark" <no.spam@box.invalid> wrote in message
>news:pan.2006.04.18.19.28.43.503352@thurston.blinkynet.net...
>
><snip>
>
>
>1965 was a good year, it must have been because it was the year I was
>orn - or does that make it a bad year?
>
>Fortran used to be popular at University, well, popular in the sense that it
>seemed to get taught everywhere. I actually got to use it for a couple of
>years in my first job. I quite liked it at the time ... that must have been
>in the late 1980s. I wonder if its still used anywhere?
It's a special-purpose language, good for what it was designed for;
I'd be surprised if there isn't some FORTRAN floating around NASA
someplace, military ballistics calculation places, or maybe the
climate-analyzing folks, anyplace there's a truely massive amount of
scientific number-crunching going on. The thing about FORTRAN is that
it's heavily oriented toward floating-point operations, and places
like IBM that supply them super-computer thingies know everything
there is to know about the floating-point processor and can optimize
the bejesus out of a FORTRAN compiler, which will make a significant
difference every few billion calculations. Scarey thought ain't it?
--
http://www.ren-prod-inc.com/hug_sof...?action=contact
| |
|
| Toby Inkster <usenet200604@tobyinkster.co.uk> wrote:
>Massive CMS to be designed and built in only one
>month
I used to get off on that kind or project. Lots of all-nighters,
coffee coming out my ears, wired to the moon on caffeinne and
lackasleep. It's amazing how much you can do, and how fast you can do
it, when you lock yourself into a padded cell with a computer and a
coffee pot.
Do enough of those projects and you start to get clever at it. Now if
I have to hit one hard, most of my time is spent staring off into
space, then finally I sit down and type out the code as fast as I can.
> we're relaunching on May 4th (be with you).
Happy landings. Better get that lithp taken care of. <g>
--
http://www.ren-prod-inc.com/hug_sof...?action=contact
| |
| Chaddy2222 2006-04-19, 6:46 pm |
|
>
> What about you? How did you meander the path to this place?
>
Well.
I can't remember how I actually got to and or found this NG Specificly,
but I believe it was while doing a search through Google for Webmaster
related news groups.
But, I am another one of these hobby web designers as well, I designed
my first website as a part of a school project back in 2003 and did
some more web design the following year, as a part of my second year of
high shcool, yet another IT project.
Then also in 2004 I also designed a website for my local community
radio station. (that site is no longer online).
After that I designed my current site, http://freewebdesign.cjb.cc I
started the site last year, last year I also helped out the guys with
the site for the Cliff Young Australian Six Day Race. I am still
continuing to help them a bit with website related stuff...
I have also recently started studying Public Relations at University
this year, so the web design has kind of stoped at the moment, though I
do frequent these groups on a dayly bayses.....
Anyway, that's my story so far.. I should add that when I havn't been
reading these NG's or studying, I have been out socialiseing.... So
it's kind of kept me flat-out.... So I have not really found much time
to work on my website..
But hopeing to get back in to it very soon...
--
Regards Chad. http://freewebdesign.cjb.cc
| |
| Karl Groves 2006-04-19, 6:46 pm |
| hug <contact_info@sig_line.clickit> wrote in
news:ufl9421nsg0rm5mcvdg95612mot244csvh@4ax.com:
> What about you? How did you meander the path to this place?
>
I was born at a very young age...
I began using computers at the VERY early stage of the web. Well, I
actually had my first computer around 1984 or so, it was one of those
Texas Instruments deals that plugged into a black & white TV and had a
cassette tape drive and I used to write very rudimentary BASIC stuff on
it. It bored the hell out of me and after a month or so, I was back to
doing kid stuff like riding bikes and strapping M-80s to my GI Joes (I
was 11 at the time).
I got my first credit card at 18 and immediately ran it up to the limit
with frivolous shit I didn't need & couldn't afford. One of the things I
bought was a computer. I had a friend, Danny, who was a whizkid on
computers and I wanted to do the stuff he could do, so I bought a
computer. After a week, it bored the shit out of me, so I went back to
doing 18 year old kid stuff like binge drinking, smoking beaners and drag
racing.
When I finally "got my shit together" at 21 (I was done drinking right
around the summer I was actually legal to do so), I went away to college.
I bought a desktop word processor. After a year, I decided the word
processor wasn't cutting it and I bought a computer. By now, it was the
semi-early days of the web. I proceeded to rack up hundreds of dollars in
connection time to AOL, wasting time in chat rooms and other unproductive
pursuits.
In the mid-90s I began working in the music industry, first promoting my
band and bands I knew. I started using the Web to do a lot of my
promotion and had a crappy web page that listed shows and ran a mailing
list for a while. I eventually got a job at a big talent agency in New
York and later I split off to run my own agency. At first, you could
really only do booking over the phone, but eventually, I started doing
almost all my booking over the Internet, either via e-mail or from taking
offers from the web site.
After several large business setbacks, I decided that I needed to make a
career change and decided to get into web development. I was already
doing it as a hobby. I studied for and received the Master CIW Designer
certification and started hunting for jobs. By then, it was 2001 and the
Dot-Com bust had already occurred. Finding a job was next to impossible.
Sometime during this process is when I stumbled on AWW.
I eventually found a job as "E-Commerce Manager" at a credit union. They
really liked my previous experience using the Web as a marketing tool and
liked my technical skillset as well (which my predecessor had been
lacking). After a year or so there, I got my present job, which is
"Director of Web Development". It is a big title for a little job. I work
with 6 people in a company whose primary function is doing Usability
consulting. I handle most of the development work, but I also do project
management and manage other internal and outsourced developers and handle
our Section 508 consulting work.
I also take on small & interesting freelance jobs to help pay for my
obsession with old cars.
--
Karl Groves
http://karlcore.com
http://chevelle.karlcore.com
Accessibility Discussion List: http://smallerurl.com/?id=6p764du
| |
|
| "Chaddy2222" <rockradio2000@yahoo.com.au> wrote:
>I should add that when I havn't been
>reading these NG's or studying, I have been out socialiseing.... So
>it's kind of kept me flat-out.... So I have not really found much time
>to work on my website..
Let's see, would I rather work on my website, or party? <rotflmao>
--
http://www.ren-prod-inc.com/hug_sof...?action=contact
| |
|
| "SpaceGirl" <nothespacegirlspam@subhuman.net> wrote:
>My dad was one of the founders of the net, and we always had puters at
>home.
Did he run for President? <g> <j/k>
> One of my earliest memories is of a big clunky machine that used
>punch cards.
"I heard" that in olden times, IBM used to lease/sell this punch-card
machine. Customers could purchase an expensive upgrade option. The
CE would go out and remove the jumper-wire that disabled it. Prolly an
urban legend, yeah that's it. <g>
>I flunked school. Hated it. I never fitted in.
Schools are for fish.
>Art college for 2 years, while discovering I really didn't like the way
>other people work.
<g>
--
http://www.ren-prod-inc.com/hug_sof...?action=contact
| |
| Chaddy2222 2006-04-19, 6:46 pm |
| did
> some more web design the following year, as a part of my second year of
> high school yet another IT project.
Umm, ahhh........ I believe I meant to write "second last year!......
--
Regards Chad. http://freewebdesign.cjb.cc/contact.html
| |
| Matt Probert 2006-04-19, 6:46 pm |
| On Tue, 18 Apr 2006 12:12:17 -0600, hug
<contact_info@sig_line.clickit> wrote:
>www@probertencyclopaedia.com (Matt Probert) wrote:
>
>
>Are you saying that you think stress is bad for one? <gasp!>
More than that.....From prolonged stress many people acquire immune
deficiency syndromes.
However, this is not the place, nor the time for the discussion of
such matters
--
Odi profanum vulgus
| |
|
|
| Ed Jay 2006-04-19, 6:46 pm |
| hug scribed:
> What about you? How did you meander the path to this place?
I've been a geek since childhood. Now, I'm an old geek. I received my ham
radio license at 11 and designed and built my own radio equipment by the
time I was 13. I spent time in the US Navy as an electronics tech and went
on to get a PhD in physics.
After working as a theoretical physicist for a short few years, I decided
to segue and become a businessman in the technology field. I did very well
and retired at about age 40. After three years of living on Cozumel
Island, Mexico, I decided it was time to be productive again. I moved back
to California and began looking for something to do.
I ultimately bought a computer company and decided to sell the computers
with packaged software. I developed the user interface integrating
productivity software. This was in X80/Z80 assembly language.
In the early- to mid-80's, my company was invited to be a partner in a
medical diagnostic entity. One partner was a French medical research
scientist reputed to be the world's leading breast cancer diagnostician. I
was to provide the computers and oversee the development of a software
program to emulate the expert diagnostician's methodology. This was
I ended up writing the application. I had to learn the scientist's
diagnostic method. I moved to Strasbourgh, France and spent the next six
months working as the expert's assistant, absorbing everything he did in
his work. Monday through Friday he would pick me up and off we'd go to the
hospital to examine women who had come in for a breast cancer screening.
In the afternoon, I would watch the expert study the data and do his
diagnostics thing. After I learned how to replicate his work, I wrote an
AI program emulating his technique. The program was widely acclaimed and
became the "industry standard." My work caught the attention of a few
well-known pain specialists. After about six months training under their
aegis at Johns Hopkins Medical Center, I wrote an AI application emulating
their techniques at diagnosing various pain syndromes. Those applications
were received well also.
Then, in 1985, came my divorce. I used the medical programs to set up a
medical laboratory and put my former wife to work running the show (It
precluded my paying alimony!). I set off to return to the acquisitions and
mergers business. Four years later my former wife closed the company and
went her own way.
I strayed to become a real estate developer. The Japanese, in their bubble
economy, provided the working capital. I became a success at building
resorts (Cayman Island Yacht Club and Marina is my biggest development
achievement.) By the end of 1990, the Japanese bubble burst, and all of my
money source went with it.
I bummed around for the next few years until in 1994, I received a call
from my previous Japanese money provider asking if I would help them
divest their US real estate holdings. I agreed and started a company to do
as they desired.
The easiest way to promote the company seemed to be to build a web site
that would serve as the company brochure. Because of my programming
experience, and because it looked like fun, I decided to write the site.
This was in 1997.
In 2001, I got back into real estate development. I bought a convention
center and was planning to build a hotel next to it in an attempt to
capture part of the US business convention market. Ten days after I took
possession, on September 11, my dream ended. It took me three years to
unload the property and business, during which time I had no time to play
programmer.
A few months ago I received a call from a couple of medical doctors. They
asked if I would provide them with the diagnostic applications I had
developed in 1984. I couldn't provide them with an outdated Z80
application, but I consented to rewrite the apps. I ultimately decided to
start a new web-based diagnostic business employing new, web-based
applications based on my earlier work.
I quickly found that I needed to learn javascript, re-learn HTML, and
learn something called PERL and something else called CSS to accomplish my
goals. The obvious places to go for help in expediting my tasks were the
various newsgroups specializing in these disciplines. AWW was the place to
get assistance bringing it all together.
I'm almost finished with the first application, a breast cancer risk
analysis application, and the pain diagnostics applications will soon
follow. I'll be charging for the use of the pain diagnostics. I've decided
to not charge for the breast cancer application. It's going to be my way
of 'giving something back' to a world that's been kind to me. I do,
however, expect to make hay with the pain applications.
--
Ed Jay (remove 'M' to respond by email)
| |
| Toby Inkster 2006-04-19, 6:46 pm |
| hug wrote:
> Let's see, would I rather work on my website, or party? <rotflmao>
Website -- no contest!
--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact
| |
| Toby Inkster 2006-04-19, 6:46 pm |
| hug wrote:
> It's a special-purpose language, good for what it was designed for;
> I'd be surprised if there isn't some FORTRAN floating around NASA
> someplace, military ballistics calculation places, or maybe the
> climate-analyzing folks, anyplace there's a truely massive amount of
> scientific number-crunching going on.
I can confirm the sighting of some Fortran code in the wild in late 2001.
Anyone seen any more recently?
--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact
| |
| Toby Inkster 2006-04-19, 6:46 pm |
| hug wrote:
> most of my time is spent staring off into space, then finally I sit
> down and type out the code as fast as I can.
That's generally the best option. 90-95% of development time should really
be thinking and research time -- these days, with high-level languages and
very mature libraries of reusable functions, there should be very little
actual typing required to get a job done.
Another good technique is to build your solution quickly, play with it a
bit, and then throw it away and write a new one. Don't copy and paste a
single line of code from the old one to the new one. Don't have time for
that on my current project though. (Eventually of course, this
implementation may end up *being* the throw-away implementation!)
I do think it will be finished on schedule though -- so much so that I
didn't do any work on it today and just caught up with other stuff. :-)
--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact
| |
| Eric Jarvis 2006-04-19, 6:46 pm |
| hug contact_info@sig_line.clickit wrote in
<ufl9421nsg0rm5mcvdg95612mot244csvh@4ax.com>:
>
> What about you? How did you meander the path to this place?
>
Oh Dog! Where to start.
Did a few months of computer science in 6th Form, and then was taught
Fortran 4 whilst doing a physics degree course at Imperial College. This
experience of running punch cards through mainframes left me with a deep
abiding hatred for all computers that saw me through a decade and a half
of working in music, theatre and dance.
In the early 90s I was hit by a van whilst cycling and laid up for almost
a year. At the same time I sued the landlord for not doing repairs and
bought a computer with the proceeds. I then set out to see what this world
wide web thing was.
After pottering around for a few months I decided to see what "chat"
meant. First chat room I went into was frequented by a bunch of developers
and designers who entertained themselves by building spoof web sites
whilst chatting. I learned to join in. After a couple of months of mucking
about I starting building sites for friends. By the time I recovered my
health I was busy enough to need to charge to create sites.
When it comes to specialist areas of expertise I suppose mine is
marketing, though I'm pretty confident when it comes to
internationalisation and accessibility too.
As for aww, I found it by following a crosspost from alt.html.
--
eric
www.ericjarvis.co.uk
"live fast, die only if strictly necessary"
| |
| Blinky the Shark 2006-04-19, 6:46 pm |
| Brian Cryer wrote:
> "Blinky the Shark" <no.spam@box.invalid> wrote in message
> news:pan.2006.04.18.19.28.43.503352@thurston.blinkynet.net...
>
> <snip>
>
>
> 1965 was a good year, it must have been because it was the year I was orn
> - or does that make it a bad year?
>
> Fortran used to be popular at University, well, popular in the sense that
> it seemed to get taught everywhere. I actually got to use it for a couple
> of years in my first job. I quite liked it at the time ... that must have
> been in the late 1980s. I wonder if its still used anywhere?
As engineering students back then, we got Fortran; the Bidness Majurs got
COBOL; mostly I tried to get laid.
--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
Coming Soon: Filtering rules specific to various real news clients
| |
| Blinky the Shark 2006-04-19, 6:46 pm |
| hug wrote:
> Blinky the Shark <no.spam@box.invalid> wrote:
>
>
> I took my first programming class in 1967 I think it was, Fortran-II
> running on an IBM-1620. Brother dinosaurs, eh? <g>
CDC (Control Date Corp) 3600, here.
http://research.microsoft.com/users...talk/img028.gif
--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
Coming Soon: Filtering rules specific to various real news clients
| |
| Blinky the Shark 2006-04-19, 6:46 pm |
| Toby Inkster wrote:
> hug wrote:
>
>
> Website -- no contest!
Heck yeah! Websites never make you throw up outside in the flower bed and
they never give you crabs.
Okay, okay...good ones don't.
--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
Coming Soon: Filtering rules specific to various real news clients
| |
|
| Ed Jay <edMbj@aes-intl.com> wrote:
>hug scribed:
>
>
>I've been a geek since childhood. Now, I'm an old geek. I received my ham
>radio license at 11 and designed and built my own radio equipment by the
>time I was 13. I spent time in the US Navy as an electronics tech and went
>on to get a PhD in physics.
Snipped the most interesting stuff. Sounds like you've had a bunch of
experiences. <g>
--
http://www.ren-prod-inc.com/hug_sof...?action=contact
| |
|
|
|
| Karl Groves <karl@NOSPAMkarlcore.com> wrote:
>I also take on small & interesting freelance jobs to help pay for my
>obsession with old cars.
I was at the (almost) local saw shop today having some bandsaw blades
welded. Outside was parked a Jeep FC170 in perfectly restorable
condition. Fortunately for all concerned I was and am flat broke as
usual. The Jeep FC170 is a four-wheel drive truck with a very high
coolness factor. It is basically a cabover flatbed sort of thing,
very rare. <sniff>
--
http://www.ren-prod-inc.com/hug_sof...?action=contact
| |
| Blinky the Shark 2006-04-19, 10:44 pm |
| hug wrote:
> Toby Inkster <usenet200604@tobyinkster.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
> Quick, somebody get that man a bartender!
Nurse! Nurse! More beer!
--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
Coming Soon: Filtering rules specific to various real news clients
| |
| Blinky the Shark 2006-04-19, 10:44 pm |
| hug wrote:
> Karl Groves <karl@NOSPAMkarlcore.com> wrote:
>
>
> I was at the (almost) local saw shop today having some bandsaw blades
> welded. Outside was parked a Jeep FC170 in perfectly restorable
> condition. Fortunately for all concerned I was and am flat broke as
> usual. The Jeep FC170 is a four-wheel drive truck with a very high
> coolness factor. It is basically a cabover flatbed sort of thing, very
> rare. <sniff>
More on this: http://jeepfc.50megs.com/fc170/fc-170.htm
--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
Coming Soon: Filtering rules specific to various real news clients
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Ed Jay 2006-04-20, 3:44 am |
| hug scribed:
>Ed Jay <edMbj@aes-intl.com> wrote:
>
>
>Snipped the most interesting stuff. Sounds like you've had a bunch of
>experiences. <g>
I can't remember ever being at a loss for something to do. :-)
--
Ed Jay (remove 'M' to respond by email)
| |
| Jerry Stuckle 2006-04-20, 3:44 am |
| hug wrote:
> "Brian Cryer" <brianc@127.0.0.1.activesol.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> It's a special-purpose language, good for what it was designed for;
> I'd be surprised if there isn't some FORTRAN floating around NASA
> someplace, military ballistics calculation places, or maybe the
> climate-analyzing folks, anyplace there's a truely massive amount of
> scientific number-crunching going on. The thing about FORTRAN is that
> it's heavily oriented toward floating-point operations, and places
> like IBM that supply them super-computer thingies know everything
> there is to know about the floating-point processor and can optimize
> the bejesus out of a FORTRAN compiler, which will make a significant
> difference every few billion calculations. Scarey thought ain't it?
>
More than just math. The first Adventure game for DOS was written in FORTRAN.
You are in a twisty maze of passages, all alike.
Sounds like some of the C code I've seen. :-)
--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attglobal.net
==================
| |
| Jerry Stuckle 2006-04-20, 3:44 am |
| Blinky the Shark wrote:
> Brian Cryer wrote:
>
>
>
>
> As engineering students back then, we got Fortran; the Bidness Majurs got
> COBOL; mostly I tried to get laid.
>
>
I'll bet the business majors had more success with COBOL :-)
--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attglobal.net
==================
| |
| Blinky the Shark 2006-04-20, 3:44 am |
| hug wrote:
> Blinky the Shark <no.spam@box.invalid> wrote:
>
>
> I looked for something about how many were made but didn't see anything.
> They can't have made many, this is the first one I've ever seen and I've
> been a jeepwatcher for a long time. I was surprised that it was
> introduced in 1957, I had guessed a decade earlier.
This page lists (but doesn't discuss) an FC150 from 1955. It lists an
FC170 for 1962, which doesn't match anything else. :)
http://tinyurl.com/m3gbe
Ah! Here:
"Jeep also introduced a forward control cab-over-engine variation to the
CJ line, the FC-150 (4 cylinder engine) and FC-170 (6 cylinder engine) in
1957. They were made until 1964."
http://tinyurl.com/olrm4
Production figures:
"Willys Motors began production of the four-wheel-drive Jeep Forward
Control (FC) truck in 1956. Two models were offered, the four-cylinder
FC-150 and the six-cylinder FC-170. The FC-170 had a 3,500 pound payload
capacity and a 110" truck bed that was actually longer than the wheelbase
length! Approximately 32,000 Jeep FCs were built before the end of
production in 1965."
http://www.greenbayroute.com/2005jeepfc170.htm
Comparative production figures for some other Jeeps:
http://www.wagoneers.com/FSJ/FSJ-production.html
You owe three Zorkmids. ;)
--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
Coming Soon: Filtering rules specific to various real news clients
| |
|
| hug wrote:
: I considered marking this as OT but decided that it really isn't.
:
: I've been participating here for a short time. I've gathered that
: some came from a "hard" computer science background, and others came
: from some kind of "administrator" or other background -- I'm unclear
: on what kinds of backgrounds people may have come from.
I have no background really. I just got a computer in 1998, got online
within a few days of getting said computer and then wanted to make a 'good'
website. So I came here by good fortune. =) The net gods were smiling on me.
=)
Heidi
| |
| Blinky the Shark 2006-04-20, 3:44 am |
| Jerry Stuckle wrote:
> Blinky the Shark wrote:
> I'll bet the business majors had more success with COBOL :-)
Than me getting laid? Hey! ;)
--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
Coming Soon: Filtering rules specific to various real news clients
| |
| Blinky the Shark 2006-04-20, 3:44 am |
| Jerry Stuckle wrote:
> You are in a twisty maze of passages, all alike.
e
--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
Coming Soon: Filtering rules specific to various real news clients
| |
| Mark Parnell 2006-04-20, 3:44 am |
| Deciding to do something for the good of humanity, Blinky the Shark
<no.spam@box.invalid> declared in alt.www.webmaster:
> Jerry Stuckle wrote:
>
>
> e
You see an old shark, with creaking fins. In the poor light it takes you
a few moments to realise that it is yourself, reflected in a dirty
mirror. You can only go west.
--
Mark Parnell
My Usenet is improved; yours could be too:
http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
| |
| Blinky the Shark 2006-04-20, 3:44 am |
| Mark Parnell wrote:
> Deciding to do something for the good of humanity, Blinky the Shark
> <no.spam@box.invalid> declared in alt.www.webmaster:
>
> You see an old shark, with creaking fins. In the poor light it takes you a
> few moments to realise that it is yourself, reflected in a dirty mirror.
> You can only go west.
kill mirror with rusty blade
--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
Coming Soon: Filtering rules specific to various real news clients
| |
| Mark Parnell 2006-04-20, 3:44 am |
| Deciding to do something for the good of humanity, Blinky the Shark
<no.spam@box.invalid> declared in alt.www.webmaster:
> Mark Parnell wrote:
>
>
> kill mirror with rusty blade
Your blade cuts through a layer of dirt. The mirror is not damaged.
--
Mark Parnell
My Usenet is improved; yours could be too:
http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
| |
| Blinky the Shark 2006-04-20, 3:44 am |
| Mark Parnell wrote:
> Deciding to do something for the good of humanity, Blinky the Shark
> <no.spam@box.invalid> declared in alt.www.webmaster:
>
> Your blade cuts through a layer of dirt. The mirror is not damaged.
s
--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
Coming Soon: Filtering rules specific to various real news clients
| |
| Mark Parnell 2006-04-20, 3:44 am |
| Deciding to do something for the good of humanity, Blinky the Shark
<no.spam@box.invalid> declared in alt.www.webmaster:
> Mark Parnell wrote:
>
>
> s
You bump into the wall. You can only go west.
--
Mark Parnell
My Usenet is improved; yours could be too:
http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
| |
| Blinky the Shark 2006-04-20, 3:44 am |
| Mark Parnell wrote:
> Deciding to do something for the good of humanity, Blinky the Shark
> <no.spam@box.invalid> declared in alt.www.webmaster:
>
> You bump into the wall. You can only go west.
That was a test. Dammit. ;)
I'll bet this isn't going to be pretty...
w
--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
Coming Soon: Filtering rules specific to various real news clients
| |
| Mark Parnell 2006-04-20, 3:44 am |
| Deciding to do something for the good of humanity, Blinky the Shark
<no.spam@box.invalid> declared in alt.www.webmaster:
> Mark Parnell wrote:
>
>
> That was a test. Dammit. ;)
<g>
> I'll bet this isn't going to be pretty...
>
> w
You are in a twisty maze of passages, all alike. A small rat is here.
--
Mark Parnell
My Usenet is improved; yours could be too:
http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
| |
| Toby Inkster 2006-04-20, 3:44 am |
| Ed Jay wrote:
> I wrote an AI application emulating their techniques at diagnosing
> various pain syndromes. Those applications were received well also.
An interesting read.
I remember in my AI module at Uni we were told that many times these
medical expert systems outperform human[1] doctors -- particularly in
areas like back pain.
> I'm almost finished with the first application, a breast cancer risk
> analysis application, and the pain diagnostics applications will soon
> follow.
What sort of methods do you use? Standard Bayesian analytics; or
something less conventional, like neural networks?
____
1. but not Time Lords.
--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact
| |
| Blinky the Shark 2006-04-20, 6:45 am |
| Mark Parnell wrote:
> Deciding to do something for the good of humanity, Blinky the Shark
> <no.spam@box.invalid> declared in alt.www.webmaster:
>
> <g>
>
>
> You are in a twisty maze of passages, all alike. A small rat is here.
Is that a Viper joke?
look
--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
Coming Soon: Filtering rules specific to various real news clients
| |
| Toby Inkster 2006-04-20, 6:46 am |
| Eric Jarvis wrote:
> As for aww, I found it by following a crosspost from alt.html.
Yes, it seems a bunch of us arrived here via alt.html.
For those readers unfamiliar with alt.html, it's very much like this
group, but tends to stay a lot more on topic. (Despite the name, issues
like CSS, Javascript, PHP, etc are generally considered on-topic there,
although there are often more specialised groups in the comp.* heirarchy,
where you may receive a better answer.)
I know there are one or two regulars here who are often in dismay at the
number of off-topic posts in this group -- they may be interested in
trying alt.html.
--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact
| |
| Ed Jay 2006-04-20, 6:46 am |
| Toby Inkster scribed:
>Ed Jay wrote:
>
>
>An interesting read.
>
>I remember in my AI module at Uni we were told that many times these
>medical expert systems outperform human[1] doctors -- particularly in
>areas like back pain.
The basic premise behind an expert diagnostic system is that 'the most
difficult question can be answered with a finite number of yes/no
questions if an expert decides which questions are asked.' This translates
into a decision-tree interrogatory session with questions and their weight
defined by an expert. The interactive decision tree drives a statement
generator.
>
>
>What sort of methods do you use? Standard Bayesian analytics; or
>something less conventional, like neural networks?
>
In a medical question where there are no proven causal relationships, it's
Bayesian probability all the way. Nothing is certain, and all conclusions
are based on conditional statistics.
The results obtained using expert diagnostic systems are inherently more
accurate than a doc's prognostication. They're more accurate, reliable and
repeatable.
My expert programs solicit specific objective qualitative and quantitative
responses to a set of questions posed by the expert. The questions usually
require simple answers, e.g., "Is the left side warmer then the right
side?" The result is uniformity and accuracy of predictions generated by
multiple diagnosticians.
A Nat'l Institute of Health study had 11 analysts assessing the cancer
risk of the same 1,000 patients, with and without the application.
Without, assessments were essentially random. With the application, asking
each analyst the same questions, 92% of the assessments were identical and
the remaining 8% were close enough that one could claim almost 100%
conformity.
If the questions are properly phrased, the 'diagnostician' performing the
expert analysis is not required to be an expert. A minimally trained clerk
will produce the same expert conclusions as the expert.
Who will be the first to translate the applications into Hindi so that
medical diagnostics can be outsourced to India?
--
Ed Jay (remove 'M' to respond by email)
| |
| Blinky the Shark 2006-04-20, 6:46 am |
| Toby Inkster wrote:
> Eric Jarvis wrote:
>
>
> Yes, it seems a bunch of us arrived here via alt.html.
>
> For those readers unfamiliar with alt.html, it's very much like this
I wonder how many that is. I know the mapping isn't really one to one,
but I think of it as being the same crew.
--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
Coming Soon: Filtering rules specific to various real news clients
| |
| William Tasso 2006-04-20, 7:27 pm |
| Fleeing from the madness of the http://blinkynet.net jungle
Blinky the Shark <no.spam@box.invalid> stumbled into news:alt.www.webmaster
and said:
> Toby Inkster wrote:
>
>
> I wonder how many that is. I know the mapping isn't really one to one,
> but I think of it as being the same crew.
well, I certainly know where it is and how to get there but it's a bit
like Belgium in that I'm not too sure if I really want to go.
--
William Tasso
http://williamtasso.com/words/what-is-usenet.asp
| |
| Blinky the Shark 2006-04-20, 7:28 pm |
| William Tasso wrote:
> Fleeing from the madness of the http://blinkynet.net jungle Blinky the
> Shark <no.spam@box.invalid> stumbled into news:alt.www.webmaster and said:
>
>
> well, I certainly know where it is and how to get there but it's a bit
> like Belgium in that I'm not too sure if I really want to go.
:)
Anyway, Belgium is Tuesday.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064471/
--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
Coming Soon: Filtering rules specific to various real news clients
| |
|
| Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> wrote:
>More than just math. The first Adventure game for DOS was written in FORTRAN.
>
>You are in a twisty maze of passages, all alike.
I seem to remember that one, though not the DOS version, it was on
some mainframe somewhere, strictly character-mode. I saw it in the
early/mid '70s, played with it a little. At the time I was working
for a networking company, making some modifications to the operating
system kernel for some Honeywell system, now forgotten... I think I
was adding autodial capability or some prehistoric nonsense. Some of
the twistiest assembler I've ever seen, it's no wonder they went with
the 'saurs. <g>
--
http://www.ren-prod-inc.com/hug_sof...?action=contact
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Ed Jay <edMbj@aes-intl.com> wrote:
>hug scribed:
>
>
>I can't remember ever being at a loss for something to do. :-)
Sounds like my life these days. No money, always scraping along with
a couple bucks if I'm lucky, but damn it's interesting and as long as
the feeling of penniless panic can be avoided it's more fun than
anything.
I remember the last time I bought a new car, I forget what year it
was, not so long ago really. Anyway it was a Jeep Grand Cherokee with
the HO engine, a fun little 4wd road rocket. I recall vividly sitting
there looking at the invoice, something like $50k, wondering whether I
should take the zero-interest financing, put it on my Visa, or just
write a check. I look back at that and laugh, the funny thing was, I
had money up the wazoo and was having no fun whatsoever, I was
freakin' miserable and wasn't even aware of the misery.
I'll keep my old Ford pickup and my freedom and total lack of boredom
until the poverty goes away and see what happens then. <g>
--
http://www.ren-prod-inc.com/hug_sof...?action=contact
| |
|
|
|
| Ed Jay <edMbj@aes-intl.com> wrote:
>Who will be the first to translate the applications into Hindi so that
>medical diagnostics can be outsourced to India?
Are they into accupuncture? <g>
More seriously, an expert system like you describe can be a very cool
thing. It's basically data-driven, and if you give the participating
physicians some kind of knowledge-rating and let them add to the
database, who knows where it could go.
--
http://www.ren-prod-inc.com/hug_sof...?action=contact
| |
|
|
| Jerry Stuckle 2006-04-20, 7:28 pm |
| hug wrote:
> Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> I seem to remember that one, though not the DOS version, it was on
> some mainframe somewhere, strictly character-mode. I saw it in the
> early/mid '70s, played with it a little. At the time I was working
> for a networking company, making some modifications to the operating
> system kernel for some Honeywell system, now forgotten... I think I
> was adding autodial capability or some prehistoric nonsense. Some of
> the twistiest assembler I've ever seen, it's no wonder they went with
> the 'saurs. <g>
>
Yep, you're right - I mean to say a PDP-11. The DOS version came later. But
it was still FORTRAN. Not the most elegant language for it, I'll admit! But
also the first language I learned, back in the mid-60's on an IBM 1401.
Shouldn't try to remember things at midnight after I've been "out with the guys"
:-).
BTW - this got me to searching the web a little, for "IBM 1400" (the series).
One of the first hits was http://www.answers.com/topic/ibm-1400-series. OK,
interesting info (from Wikipedia). But the real hoot was the sponsored links at
the bottom:
1400 Series
Looking for 1400 Series? Buy direct from sellers and save
www.eBay.com
--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attglobal.net
==================
| |
| Jerry Stuckle 2006-04-20, 7:28 pm |
| Toby Inkster wrote:
> Eric Jarvis wrote:
>
>
>
>
> Yes, it seems a bunch of us arrived here via alt.html.
>
> For those readers unfamiliar with alt.html, it's very much like this
> group, but tends to stay a lot more on topic. (Despite the name, issues
> like CSS, Javascript, PHP, etc are generally considered on-topic there,
> although there are often more specialised groups in the comp.* heirarchy,
> where you may receive a better answer.)
>
> I know there are one or two regulars here who are often in dismay at the
> number of off-topic posts in this group -- they may be interested in
> trying alt.html.
>
Toby,
I agree there are specialized groups for things like html, javascript, etc., and
I go to those groups when I need that kind of help.
| | |