To set the stage, BC, before children and calligraphy took over my life, I was a computer programmer. I began in the early to mid-1980's working in the early days of computers for small business. Personal computers were still a decade away, and we worked on mini-systems. Computers were no longer so large they needed their own building like ENIAC and UNIVAC, but they were still large, about the size of a full-sized automobile. I worked for a small, software house where my job was to tweak the back-office accounting package the company sold to banks. I had the lofty title of "consultant" and served 21 banks in 5 states.
The Young One told me, in general terms, a bit about working on the game project and working in a group.
"...and then we didn't have much to do because we had to wait for the code monkeys," she said.
"Excuse me?"
"Code monkeys...programmers."
"Code monkeys? CODE MONKEYS! Programmers. COMPUTER PROGRAMMERS. I'll have you know we were treated like gods!
"I was picked up at the airport in a limousine. When I went to the banks, crowds would part like the Red Sea when I walked down the corridors. I would hear hushed and reverent whispers, 'Here comes THE Programmer. THE Programmer is here.' I would be shown to a private office or corner workstation where workers were told 'Don't disturb THE Programmer.' Someone would be assigned to bring me a cup of tea just the way I liked it or to timidly ask if I would like a muffin, donut, bagel, or sandwich. At one bank, the woman who was in charge of keeping track of the safe deposit boxes wept with gratitude after I wrote a small program to automate when the safe deposit boxes were to be renewed. She no longer had to wade through an index card file. Hours of work for her was reduced to a few minutes with the press of a button. After that, every time she saw me, she thanked me profusely.
"Computer Programmers. We were like gods."
"Yeah, so, we had to wait for the code monkeys to finish..."
It's your turn to play. From Elizabeth: Now it's time to share your Second on the 2nd. The rules are quite simple and everyone is welcome to join the fun look back. All you have to do is bring back a post that you are especially proud of, or perhaps one you shared before anyone knew your blog existed. Any post, any genre, any artistic endeavor is acceptable. Join hosts Bleubeard and Elizabeth to see what else is being served up the Second Time Around.
Technology has sure changed. But I want you to know at school, when there is a computer glitch, like even something as simple as the internet being down, the IT folks are the heroes of the day. The head IT guy knows nothing about being a classroom and isn't so popular, but we love all the techs. Thanks for sharing this. It was an interesting read. Happy January 2!
ReplyDeleteGood to know that the techs are respected.
DeleteYes, those were the days! We had our first home computer in 1978, from Radio Shack, I had to do all the programming and put the thing together! Valerie
ReplyDeleteAh, I miss DOS and being able to tweak things the way I want
DeleteVery interesting.
ReplyDeleteThose were the days
DeleteWow that was a cool job. My husband taught himself how to work a computer back in the day when they were very large used floppys I think-our friend that worked for digital brought him a very old and used one that he put together from old ones and then brought in a huge stack of how to books-there ya go haha
ReplyDeleteWow that was a cool job. My husband taught himself how to work a computer back in the day when they were very large used floppys I think-our friend that worked for digital brought him a very old and used one that he put together from old ones and then brought in a huge stack of how to books-there ya go haha
ReplyDeleteI wasn’t involved with the hardware, just the software. Though I did have to hold a client’s hand to give him a warm, fuzzy feeling while he was upgrading to a new machine
DeleteLOL No one appreciates the the ones who keep it all going! Having been in the 'business' myself (and married to one and giving birth to one) I totally get it! :D (the world would spin out of control without the 'code monkeys'!)
ReplyDeleteI think Code Master would have been a better title 😺
Deleteso interesting to read. My husband was a programmer for years and worked his way up to director but i really never understood any of it when he would talk in 'code". I enjoyed reading this. I always felt lucky that when i did get a personal computer to do my transcription on he was there to always help if there was a problem. Before that i had to do everything on an iBM selectric 1, 2 and then 3. I always loved getting to change the "ball" to another font style.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked for Marquette Cement (inside sales), I had an IBM Selectric 2. Lovely machine. I was partial to the Elite type
Deletei can't believe I gave away my ibm typewriters - damn i wish i still had them. oh yeah the elite type...i liked it too . did you ever hear of the "Mag Card" the first computer type thing i ever typed on - you put a magnetic card in this system and it recorded your typing and then you could print it out. IBM i believe.
DeleteNope. I did learn to program on IBM cards. After you got your program typed onto the cards, you stacked them into a card reader which basically checked for typing errors. Then once all typing errors were corrected, the stack was put into the computer where the program was "compiled" and then run. Oh, I also worked for a cement company where we sent orders by teletype to the plant. Some customers ordered the same amount so we would save the paper teletype tape to repeat an order. I thought paper tape was the wave of the future.
DeleteYou may have noticed I didn’t stop by to visit, or I didn’t host my own Second on the 2nd. The reason is quite simple. Wednesday evening, just as I was saying good-bye to my dear friends SC and ND who dropped by to wish me a happy new year, my electricity went out. When I looked outside and saw the neighbors across the street, whose lights NEVER go out when mine do were also out, I knew it wasn’t a blown transformer. My friends decided to stay to see what the problem was. Not more than three or four minutes later, we heard sirens, not just police, but fire, too. We knew it sounded close, so we walked in the direction of the sirens. It was quite dark, but my friends had their cell phone lights to guide them. Two blocks west and one block south we saw that someone in a big truck had hit a light pole so hard, it knocked it over and stretched the wire so hard, the electricity went off in the area on one side, while the other side was draped over someone’s house and was zapping live sparks on the ground in the road.
ReplyDeleteAt first we thought it was a drunk driver, but after the ambulance arrived, we saw the man either had a heart attack or possibly a seizure. As the electric company was arriving, they told the crowd it would be at least a day before we would get our power back. Instead of staying home in the cold and dark, my friend SC, who lives in another town, invited me to her home. I am just now getting home. Even though she has an I-Pad, I don’t know the password that gets me onto blogger (which is stored on my computer only). I’ll be back soon, just want you to know why I wasn’t around to visit and play host. The electricity is on (I’m not sure how long it’s been on), but it’s freezing here. Thanks for understanding, dear friend.
Had to add my first computer didn't even have a hard drive. Everything went on floppies and even the boot drive was part of the floppy, too. I had my first computer made and the guy tried to get me to have my floppy as my A drive and my hard floppy as my B drive. I told him the hard floppies were the way of the future. Little did I know how right I would be. This was 1984 and even though I wasn't a code monkey, I miss DOS and the simplicity before windows showed up.
This was an interesting read … thank you.
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
Thanks for reading.
DeleteWow CJ!! Very very cool!
ReplyDelete