I’ve had my Amateur Radio license since 1978. Amateur Radio was solely responsible for my career in Computers and Programming because when I got my full call, it made me realise that I could do anything I put my mind to and it set me on the path to a successful career.
I’ve now been a software developer for over 30 years and recently retired. I’ve mainly been involved in writing client/server business applications for PC’s and mainframes as well as data interrogation and reporting.
I was an IT Manager, Analyst/Programmer and part time TAFE Lecturer for the first 8 years. I then started my own software business and contracted to a variety of Companies and Govt institutions particularly during the Y2K era. For the last 13 years I worked full time for a US Company writing & supporting software used in Australia/NZ, US, Europe, Malaysia and Singapore. In the last 15 or so years, my experience was with Delphi (Pascal) and Oracle. Our team eventually moved across to Microsoft C# and SQL Server. I have programmed in many other languages over my career such as Assembler, Algol, Basic, COBOL, Clipper & Foxpro (both dBase derivatives) and C.
I wanted to learn something new and when I had the opportunity to write an iPhone app for Parks n Peaks, I jumped at the chance. It seemed like a good idea at the time but I very quickly realised, it was a huge challenge which really tested my analysis, design, programming skills and my patience to the limit. It also made me realise that I am a bit of a perfectionist and I never gave up no matter how hard it was, tomorrow was a new day!!