I'm an Old Programmer, too, and was introduced to the ArpaNet around the same time; had an adm3a terminal and a Ven-Tel 300 baud acoustic coupler loaned to me, while still a teen in highchool, but a friendly "free computing" promoter guy at UC Santa Cruz; years and years of watching all this stuff happen... and I never got rich! What'd I do wrong? D'oh!
Where'd I put my beard and suspenders? Damn kids, get offa my lawn!
- Tim
aka:
---> Tim Bessie ----- {ucbvax,dual}!unisoft!tim ---> Unisoft Systems; 739 Allston Way; Berkeley, CA 94710 ---> (415) 644-1230 TWX II 910 366-2145
I had a Ven-Tel 300 baud acoustic coupler and a Lear-Seigler ADM3a terminal as my first bit of computer equipment. Don't know whatever happened to it - probably gave it all away.
The fact that it is capped is my main concern; also, I have very little job security. I've never been an employee of a very big company (not that that provides much more security), mostly startups or smaller companies, or been a contractor. So work has been shakey, except in the best and richest of economic times. I suppose I could get a gub'mint job if I wanted security, and I've considered that.
Yes, $125K sounds like a great salary. If you live in a major US city, however (especially one with a hyper-inflated housing market, even today, like San Francisco), it begins to sound small. $125K, compared to the average house price in San Francisco, is a terrible ratio compared to other areas of the country.
It *is* my own fault that I've always been bad at saving and investing, however. I'd hoped, when younger, that I could live well and retire purely from savings from my work income.
I'm about to be 45, and I've been a software engineer since I was around 18 (started way before, but didn't get my first "real" job until then).
Since then, the highest title I've reached is... Sr. Software Engineer, which is where I've been pretty much most of my career. Never had an interest in management, Lead, or anything that would take me out of the trenches of coding.
This also means my salary has been capped where I live at around $125K or thereabouts.
I had some strange idea that the more experience I had, the more money I'd make, no matter what my title was... but I've hit the wall.
There are some who are good at managing people and projects, and some, like me, who just like the CRAFT of it all, and not the overly-serious nature of the responsibilities one takes on in a management role.
Do you have any opinions on that to add here? Maybe I should Ask Slashdot myself?:-)
So why don't you use Gimp for Windows, if that's what you've got at work? I've got it at home (my box multiboots slackware and nt, gotta have it for work), and it seems to work pretty well. A few flaky bits, but it's quite amazing to have an almost-up-to-date copy of the Gimp running without X.
- Tim
Slashdot Mirror
I'm an Old Programmer, too, and was introduced to the ArpaNet around the same time; had an adm3a terminal and a Ven-Tel 300 baud acoustic coupler loaned to me, while still a teen in highchool, but a friendly "free computing" promoter guy at UC Santa Cruz; years and years of watching all this stuff happen... and I never got rich! What'd I do wrong? D'oh!
Where'd I put my beard and suspenders? Damn kids, get offa my lawn!
- Tim
aka:
---> Tim Bessie ----- {ucbvax,dual}!unisoft!tim
---> Unisoft Systems; 739 Allston Way; Berkeley, CA 94710
---> (415) 644-1230 TWX II 910 366-2145
I had a Ven-Tel 300 baud acoustic coupler and a Lear-Seigler ADM3a terminal as my first bit of computer equipment. Don't know whatever happened to it - probably gave it all away.
- Tim
The fact that it is capped is my main concern; also, I have very little job security. I've never been an employee of a very big company (not that that provides much more security), mostly startups or smaller companies, or been a contractor. So work has been shakey, except in the best and richest of economic times. I suppose I could get a gub'mint job if I wanted security, and I've considered that.
Yes, $125K sounds like a great salary. If you live in a major US city, however (especially one with a hyper-inflated housing market, even today, like San Francisco), it begins to sound small. $125K, compared to the average house price in San Francisco, is a terrible ratio compared to other areas of the country.
It *is* my own fault that I've always been bad at saving and investing, however. I'd hoped, when younger, that I could live well and retire purely from savings from my work income.
- Tim
I'm about to be 45, and I've been a software engineer since I was around 18 (started way before, but didn't get my first "real" job until then).
Since then, the highest title I've reached is... Sr. Software Engineer, which is where I've been pretty much most of my career. Never had an interest in management, Lead, or anything that would take me out of the trenches of coding.
This also means my salary has been capped where I live at around $125K or thereabouts.
I had some strange idea that the more experience I had, the more money I'd make, no matter what my title was... but I've hit the wall.
There are some who are good at managing people and projects, and some, like me, who just like the CRAFT of it all, and not the overly-serious nature of the responsibilities one takes on in a management role.
Do you have any opinions on that to add here? Maybe I should Ask Slashdot myself? :-)
- Tim
Yay! Another Sonic-lover like me!
- Tim
Does the ad misspell it, too?
Not trying to be snarky, just wondering.
- Tim
So why don't you use Gimp for Windows, if that's what you've got at work? I've got it at home (my box multiboots slackware and nt, gotta have it for work), and it seems to work pretty well. A few flaky bits, but it's quite amazing to have an almost-up-to-date copy of the Gimp running without X. - Tim