I've been writing code since 1974 in various languages, some of which I won't mention here, due to their hoary age and reputation. Most of this work was for various U.S. government contracts on various mainframes and minis. Bought a personal computer from Radio Shack (some of you know which one) and tried storing programs on cassette tapes - LOL - funny now, not so funny then when you tried to read the programs back into the machine.

Conducted one of the first hardware hacks of an East Coast university computer system (no names here to protect all the innocent) using a semi-smart terminal, a modem and RS-232 dot matrix printer so I could write programs at home for my college programming courses instead of waiting for punch card machines, many of which had missing or broken keys, at the computer center after working all day. This decreased my popularity with the faculty and the administration. Did not get the computer science degree...

Built and programmed S100 bus computers before the IBM PC was available.

Never did buy an IBM PC but I did buy a series of the compatibles, including the Kaypro II and the Compaq Portable. My first hard drive for these machines was a 10MB model on a plug-in card that cost $995.00. I think I still have it somewhere... ...rummages around...

Wrote several applications in dBase and FoxPro for commercial customers over several years in the home health care, food service, employee timekeeping and university administration areas, as well as other areas.

Served as network administrator to a small private hospital in Washington, D.C., responsible for all aspects for procurement, network design and support, application support, scripting, help desk management, overseeing small staff.

Served as Senior Developer and Network Administrator for U.S. Navy facility in South Florida for 9 years developing financial management applications and ensuring uninterrupted network access during business hours.

Due to financial crash, and lack of certification/degree, I now work in a pharmacy during the day.

But I still code at night. And during the day, but only in my head. I go home at night and keyboard all the stuff I thought of during the day. I write apps, scripts now to make the things I do easier, but I'm always looking to sell something, maybe make a better mousetrap, find a job coding again.