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Tom Yates
Oct 1, 2021, 3:09:32 AM10/1/21
to
While we're establishing the internet's still working, I note with a
complex spectrum of feelings that today marks 30 years to the day since
I was first paid to sysadmin. Here am I, older, fatter, possibly a
little wiser, and still sysadminning.
Perhaps not any wiser, then, now I think about it. But fuck it, I just
love making computers work, and I'm not averse to getting paid for it,
and that's really all there is to say on the subject.
--
Tom Yates - Network Chap
complex spectrum of feelings that today marks 30 years to the day since
I was first paid to sysadmin. Here am I, older, fatter, possibly a
little wiser, and still sysadminning.
Perhaps not any wiser, then, now I think about it. But fuck it, I just
love making computers work, and I'm not averse to getting paid for it,
and that's really all there is to say on the subject.
--
Tom Yates - Network Chap
Paul Tomblin
Oct 1, 2021, 9:37:38 AM10/1/21
to
In a previous article, Tom Yates <madh...@teaparty.net> said:
>Perhaps not any wiser, then, now I think about it. But fuck it, I just
>love making computers work, and I'm not averse to getting paid for it,
>and that's really all there is to say on the subject.
I've been a professional programmer since 1985 (or possibly 1983 if you could
>Perhaps not any wiser, then, now I think about it. But fuck it, I just
>love making computers work, and I'm not averse to getting paid for it,
>and that's really all there is to say on the subject.
co-op work terms, since I was paid for those as well). I've never wanted to be
anything but a programmer. But I'm tired. Just so tired. Fortunately we've got
enough in our IRA/401(k)s that soon I'm going to be re-tired. I can't wait to
regain my amateur status.
--
Paul Tomblin <ptom...@xcski.com> http://blog.xcski.com/
"He's overweight, uninformed, and litigious. That's an American
hat-trick" - Lewis Black
Jay E. Morris
Oct 2, 2021, 12:10:18 PM10/2/21
to
On 10/1/2021 8:37 AM, Paul Tomblin wrote:
> In a previous article, Tom Yates <madh...@teaparty.net> said:
>> Perhaps not any wiser, then, now I think about it. But fuck it, I just
>> love making computers work, and I'm not averse to getting paid for it,
>> and that's really all there is to say on the subject.
>
> I've been a professional programmer since 1985 (or possibly 1983 if you could
> co-op work terms, since I was paid for those as well). I've never wanted to be
> anything but a programmer. But I'm tired. Just so tired. Fortunately we've got
> enough in our IRA/401(k)s that soon I'm going to be re-tired. I can't wait to
> regain my amateur status.
>
>
Started programming in 1988, sys admining about 1994 and planned on
> In a previous article, Tom Yates <madh...@teaparty.net> said:
>> Perhaps not any wiser, then, now I think about it. But fuck it, I just
>> love making computers work, and I'm not averse to getting paid for it,
>> and that's really all there is to say on the subject.
>
> I've been a professional programmer since 1985 (or possibly 1983 if you could
> co-op work terms, since I was paid for those as well). I've never wanted to be
> anything but a programmer. But I'm tired. Just so tired. Fortunately we've got
> enough in our IRA/401(k)s that soon I'm going to be re-tired. I can't wait to
> regain my amateur status.
>
>
doing it until I died at the prompt. Unfortunately in 2010 my government
contractor job went civil service and I along with it. Within a couple
years I was moved to pushing papers because contractors were doing the
sys admining again. Fortunately I'd made some wise (lucky) moves with my
money and was able to retire early on December 31, 2016. There was
fireworks to celebrate me leaving.
Garrett Wollman
Oct 3, 2021, 12:36:19 AM10/3/21
to
In article <sja098$s9v$1...@dont-email.me>,
unheard-of and makes me exceedingly unattractive to anyone else who
might want to hire me[1]). My plan is still to reture at the end of
2037. There's a decent chance that the sum of my individual
retirement savings and the pension I'm grandfathered into will pay out
more than I would earn by continuing to work past 65. Expecting some
lucrative consulting gigs around then for people who remember how to
program in C on 32-bit machines.
-GAWollman
[1] Who am I kidding? There are fewer than a handful of places where
the sort of thing I do even exists, and likely even fewer of them in
16 years.
--
Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can,
wol...@bimajority.org| act to remove constraint from the future. This is
Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together."
my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015)
Jay E. Morris <mor...@epsilon3.comcon> wrote:
>Started programming in 1988, sys admining about 1994 and planned on
>doing it until I died at the prompt. Unfortunately in 2010 my government
>contractor job went civil service and I along with it. Within a couple
>years I was moved to pushing papers because contractors were doing the
>sys admining again. Fortunately I'd made some wise (lucky) moves with my
>money and was able to retire early on December 31, 2016. There was
>fireworks to celebrate me leaving.
I've been doing this since 1997 (for the same employer, which both is
>Started programming in 1988, sys admining about 1994 and planned on
>doing it until I died at the prompt. Unfortunately in 2010 my government
>contractor job went civil service and I along with it. Within a couple
>years I was moved to pushing papers because contractors were doing the
>sys admining again. Fortunately I'd made some wise (lucky) moves with my
>money and was able to retire early on December 31, 2016. There was
>fireworks to celebrate me leaving.
unheard-of and makes me exceedingly unattractive to anyone else who
might want to hire me[1]). My plan is still to reture at the end of
2037. There's a decent chance that the sum of my individual
retirement savings and the pension I'm grandfathered into will pay out
more than I would earn by continuing to work past 65. Expecting some
lucrative consulting gigs around then for people who remember how to
program in C on 32-bit machines.
-GAWollman
[1] Who am I kidding? There are fewer than a handful of places where
the sort of thing I do even exists, and likely even fewer of them in
16 years.
--
Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can,
wol...@bimajority.org| act to remove constraint from the future. This is
Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together."
my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015)
mrob...@att.net
Dec 10, 2021, 10:35:28 PM12/10/21
to
Tom Yates <madh...@teaparty.net> wrote:
> While we're establishing the internet's still working, I note with a
> complex spectrum of feelings that today marks 30 years to the day
> since I was first paid to sysadmin.
I got paid (in beer, IIRC) for helping the actual sysadmin re-image some
> While we're establishing the internet's still working, I note with a
> complex spectrum of feelings that today marks 30 years to the day
> since I was first paid to sysadmin.
machines around 27 or 28 years ago. The first time I was formally paid
U.S. dollars to write software was a little over 26 years ago.
The last time I was formally paid to write software was about 7 years
ago, because reasons. I had a lead on a job in spring 2021, but I ended
up not getting it.
I still write software, I just don't get paid for it. I even built a
web site on my own time. I can't put either of those things on my
resume', though.
If I can keep the booze down to a dull roar, I might still remember
enough to cash in on fixing Y2.038K.
I *do* still have my nanosecond sitting on the top of my keyboard.
Matt Roberds
Peter Corlett
Dec 12, 2021, 8:26:41 AM12/12/21
to
Gary Barnes <g...@adminspotting.org> wrote:
[...]
> The first time I was paid for writing software was:
> https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=14996
> I had to chase up the payment, though.
I thought "that sounds awfully familiar", checked who published Amstrad
Action, and was totally unsurprised to discover it was Future Publishing.
They ignored my chase-up letters and finally coughed up when I made a
courtesy call from the County Court to explain that I was just filling in
the paperwork (this being before MCOL) and would they like to fish my
invoice back out of the bin?
It may be surprising that a publisher of niche magazines for a tech-savvy
audience is still trading in 2021, but of course that is a lot easier if you
don't pay your suppliers.
> Reading the included bumf, my dream back in 1992 was to upgrade to a 486.
> I did achieve that, at least, a 486DX25 with a whopping 16M of ram!
I ended up with a 25MHz 68040 with 6MB of RAM, and it probably wiped the
floor with your 486 except for 3D games. It's still around here somewhere.
[...]
> The first time I was paid for writing software was:
> https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=14996
> I had to chase up the payment, though.
I thought "that sounds awfully familiar", checked who published Amstrad
Action, and was totally unsurprised to discover it was Future Publishing.
They ignored my chase-up letters and finally coughed up when I made a
courtesy call from the County Court to explain that I was just filling in
the paperwork (this being before MCOL) and would they like to fish my
invoice back out of the bin?
It may be surprising that a publisher of niche magazines for a tech-savvy
audience is still trading in 2021, but of course that is a lot easier if you
don't pay your suppliers.
> Reading the included bumf, my dream back in 1992 was to upgrade to a 486.
> I did achieve that, at least, a 486DX25 with a whopping 16M of ram!
I ended up with a 25MHz 68040 with 6MB of RAM, and it probably wiped the
floor with your 486 except for 3D games. It's still around here somewhere.
Garrett Wollman
Dec 12, 2021, 7:04:18 PM12/12/21
to
In article <slrnsrbm9...@logan.adminspotting.org>,
Gary Barnes <g...@adminspotting.org> wrote:
>Hmm, my first paid sysadmin gig would be the University of Wales,
>Aberystwyth in 1994.
For weak values of "paid", "sysadmin", and "gig", my first would be at
Village Drug, Richmond, Vermont, in about 1985. The pharmacy owner
paid me to install software updates and new price databases he
received on floppy from the makers of the pharmacy-management software
he used. I think there was also some work setting up his printer so
that the forms would line up properly. (There were two kinds of
forms: the prescription label forms, which could be a bit sloppy, and
the NCR forms to insurance payers, which had to be *exactly* aligned
or they would refuse payment.)
I assume he's retired now; I know the drug store is long gone. (Well,
the building still stands -- it was about a century old back then --
but HMOs, PBMs, and chain pharmacies killed independent drug stores.
I recall him railing against the expansion of HMOs even back then,
because if he wanted to serve their customers, he had to sell at a
loss.)
-GAWollman
Gary Barnes <g...@adminspotting.org> wrote:
>Hmm, my first paid sysadmin gig would be the University of Wales,
>Aberystwyth in 1994.
For weak values of "paid", "sysadmin", and "gig", my first would be at
Village Drug, Richmond, Vermont, in about 1985. The pharmacy owner
paid me to install software updates and new price databases he
received on floppy from the makers of the pharmacy-management software
he used. I think there was also some work setting up his printer so
that the forms would line up properly. (There were two kinds of
forms: the prescription label forms, which could be a bit sloppy, and
the NCR forms to insurance payers, which had to be *exactly* aligned
or they would refuse payment.)
I assume he's retired now; I know the drug store is long gone. (Well,
the building still stands -- it was about a century old back then --
but HMOs, PBMs, and chain pharmacies killed independent drug stores.
I recall him railing against the expansion of HMOs even back then,
because if he wanted to serve their customers, he had to sell at a
loss.)
-GAWollman
Wojciech Derechowski
Dec 13, 2021, 1:13:52 AM12/13/21
to
On Sun, 12 Dec 2021 13:26:39 +0000, Peter Corlett wrote:
> It may be surprising that a publisher of niche magazines for a tech-savvy
> audience is still trading in 2021 [...]
> It may be surprising that a publisher of niche magazines for a tech-savvy
Despite the risk of sounding overly nostalgic this makes me think about
SKB columns, wherever they were published.
WD
--
Who is Entscheidungs and what is his problem?
Luis Bruno
Dec 19, 2021, 3:09:59 PM12/19/21
to
On 2021-12-11 03:35, mrob...@att.net wrote:
> If I can keep the booze down to a dull roar, I might still remember
> enough to cash in on fixing Y2.038K.
heh, y2k was my first paid-in-money gig :) some ms access shenanigans
> If I can keep the booze down to a dull roar, I might still remember
> enough to cash in on fixing Y2.038K.
were done, a GUI in visual basic was created. no jack bauer shite,
thankfully.
so, i'm pretty sure the above is old enough not to fall under the UI
prohibition; but what about mechanical keyboards and their fancy
layouts? because let me tell you: getting an ergodox with ortholinear
[rather than staggered keys] layout definitely drove home how badly I
never learnt to touch type :)
The Horny Goat
Dec 20, 2021, 12:28:24 AM12/20/21
to
company and normally alcohol is strictly forbidden on the premises.
However for Y2K they had all been working hard to be ready and that
year they had re-jigged their normal department Christmas party to a
New Year's Eve party and at 5 before midnight she pushed the dolly
with ice (and libations) into the server room and used the main
counter in the server room as a bar. Non-alcoholic until 12:30 and as
it became clear they didn't have issues needing emergency fixes she
had her assistant wheel in a second dolly with champagne to pop corks.
A few toasts, a few rounds of Auld Lang Syne and she hustled them all
downstairs to the waiting cabs to take them all home, happy, relieved
and most of them more than a bit bubbly.
When I was programming we had the outdoors summer party with beer
tickets in mid summer and that was it.
Good times!
Luis Bruno
Dec 24, 2021, 1:07:19 PM12/24/21
to
On 2021-12-20 05:28, The Horny Goat wrote:
> On Sun, 19 Dec 2021 20:09:57 +0000, Luis Bruno
> <im+u...@lbruno.org.example.com> wrote:
>
>> On 2021-12-11 03:35, mrob...@att.net wrote:
>>> If I can keep the booze down to a dull roar, I might still remember
>>> enough to cash in on fixing Y2.038K.
>>
>> heh, y2k was my first paid-in-money gig :) some ms access shenanigans
>> were done, a GUI in visual basic was created. no jack bauer shite,
>> thankfully.
>>
>
> On Sun, 19 Dec 2021 20:09:57 +0000, Luis Bruno
> <im+u...@lbruno.org.example.com> wrote:
>
>> On 2021-12-11 03:35, mrob...@att.net wrote:
>>> If I can keep the booze down to a dull roar, I might still remember
>>> enough to cash in on fixing Y2.038K.
>>
>> heh, y2k was my first paid-in-money gig :) some ms access shenanigans
>> were done, a GUI in visual basic was created. no jack bauer shite,
>> thankfully.
>>
>
> 20 years ago my sis-in-law was IT director for a major insurance
> company and normally alcohol is strictly forbidden on the premises.
it became forbidden at my college too, on the year I started and through
> company and normally alcohol is strictly forbidden on the premises.
no fault of my own; I had been working doing that VB thing, and my
hometown is too small to have two groups of Linux folks; my boss used VB
skills to pay the bills while building infra stuff like mail/dns on a
proper linux foundation, everyone knows everyone, etc
the IT folks at college didn't have that experience, they grab him for a
late night "can you help us install that mail/dns thing from that crypto
guy?" party, and I happen to tag along for some shoulder
surfing/learning. we got paid in beer, unsurprisingly
which i then proceed to park on top of a cisco half-rack full of some
cisco gear that was the hub of all the government dedicated lines across
the district
"maybe i shouldn't park my beer there? what's all that stuff?" asked I,
innocently; the answer sobered me up long enough to reach for the bottle
two-handedly, and very carefully
the next year i left work for college, and the beer vending machines
serve chocolate now
The Horny Goat
Dec 24, 2021, 1:57:02 PM12/24/21
to
On Fri, 24 Dec 2021 18:07:16 +0000, Luis Bruno
<im+u...@lbruno.org.example.com> wrote:
>"maybe i shouldn't park my beer there? what's all that stuff?" asked I,
>innocently; the answer sobered me up long enough to reach for the bottle
>two-handedly, and very carefully
>
>the next year i left work for college, and the beer vending machines
>serve chocolate now
Well with all due respect, with all the hard work they did for "Y2K"
<im+u...@lbruno.org.example.com> wrote:
>"maybe i shouldn't park my beer there? what's all that stuff?" asked I,
>innocently; the answer sobered me up long enough to reach for the bottle
>two-handedly, and very carefully
>
>the next year i left work for college, and the beer vending machines
>serve chocolate now
(and they did) and making sure there weren't any serious glitches, the
view from the top was that that warranted a change from the usual
no-alcohol policy for the night of 12/31/1999 - 1/1/2000.
The fact that they used the main server console as their bar with
managers serving drinks should tell you (and all the staff called in
that night) something was up.
To the best of my knowledge they've not done that since.
Bernard Peek
Dec 25, 2021, 2:10:24 PM12/25/21
to
On 2021-12-24, The Horny Goat <lcr...@home.ca> wrote:
> On Fri, 24 Dec 2021 18:07:16 +0000, Luis Bruno
><im+u...@lbruno.org.example.com> wrote:
>
>>"maybe i shouldn't park my beer there? what's all that stuff?" asked I,
>>innocently; the answer sobered me up long enough to reach for the bottle
>>two-handedly, and very carefully
>>
>>the next year i left work for college, and the beer vending machines
>>serve chocolate now
>
> Well with all due respect, with all the hard work they did for "Y2K"
> (and they did) and making sure there weren't any serious glitches, the
> view from the top was that that warranted a change from the usual
> no-alcohol policy for the night of 12/31/1999 - 1/1/2000.
One of the nice things about working in an ad agency was the ready
> On Fri, 24 Dec 2021 18:07:16 +0000, Luis Bruno
><im+u...@lbruno.org.example.com> wrote:
>
>>"maybe i shouldn't park my beer there? what's all that stuff?" asked I,
>>innocently; the answer sobered me up long enough to reach for the bottle
>>two-handedly, and very carefully
>>
>>the next year i left work for college, and the beer vending machines
>>serve chocolate now
>
> Well with all due respect, with all the hard work they did for "Y2K"
> (and they did) and making sure there weren't any serious glitches, the
> view from the top was that that warranted a change from the usual
> no-alcohol policy for the night of 12/31/1999 - 1/1/2000.
availability of clients' products. At the time the team pulled an
all-nighter swapping out 500Gb drives and replacing with 1Tb ones we had
just taken on a new account. A champagne brand.
When we took on the account the client sent a 40' truck of free-samples.
After the all-nighter The IT team were shut in a room with a couple of cases
of champagne and told to shout out if they needed a refill. They were then
poured into taxis to take them home.
Policies on using customer products could have interesting effects. One day
we resigned the Compaq business and took on IBM. Over a weekend every Compaq
desktop machine had magically disappeared, replaced by a spiffy new IBM box.
Replacing the servers took a little while longer.
--
Bernard Peek
b...@shrdlu.com
The Horny Goat
Dec 25, 2021, 6:42:17 PM12/25/21
to
On 25 Dec 2021 19:10:21 GMT, Bernard Peek <b...@shrdlu.com> wrote:
>One of the nice things about working in an ad agency was the ready
>availability of clients' products. At the time the team pulled an
>all-nighter swapping out 500Gb drives and replacing with 1Tb ones we had
>just taken on a new account. A champagne brand.
>
That's one of the happy stories.
>One of the nice things about working in an ad agency was the ready
>availability of clients' products. At the time the team pulled an
>all-nighter swapping out 500Gb drives and replacing with 1Tb ones we had
>just taken on a new account. A champagne brand.
>
My daughter is a freelance graphic designer and had a photo shoot
scheduled back in March 2020 with one of the best known soccer players
in the world (you would definitely have heard of the fellow in
question) but they cancelled at the start of the first lockdown. So
unfortunately it works both ways....
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