Tag Archives: work

Capricon Notes

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As I wrote previously , Mia (my wife) and I spent last weekend at Capricon, a Chicagoland science fiction convention. We went to most of the Capricons in the ’80’s and ’90’s, but in our first years in Minnesota the pressures of parenthood prevented us from going. Those have eased somewhat and we have been to most of the Capricons (and Windycons) since 2009. While most Capricons have been in the Chicago suburbs, this year the convention was downtown, at the Sheraton Grand Hotel.

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Chicago again

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Mia (my wife) and I spent last weekend in Chicago for the Capricon, another science fiction convention that has been part of our life for decades. This year the convention was downtown, at the Sheraton Grand Hotel. Our room was on north side of the 28th floor and the view from our window was magnificent by night and day:

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Another Undead Computer Language

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From Competitive Programming to APL, with Conor Hoekstra.

The first half or so of this article was like reading an anthropological report of a strange culture far away: There were no programming contests when I was getting started out in the field (1967-1976). I rarely had the kind of technical interviews that Hoekstra went through, and did not get any of the five programming jobs I held from 1977 to 1998 through such an interview.

I started reading more closely with

Conor: So, I heard about APL five different times between the year 2010 and 2019.
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The Lifetimes of Programming Languages

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I started programming computers in February of 1967, when I was a junior in high school. After dropping out of grad school I began a 41 year career in information technology in January of 1977. I have seen a lot of computer languages come and go. So I read 5 Programming Languages You Won’t Likely Be Using by 2030 with some interest. The only one on the list I had ever used was Perl. It was kind of fun, but I did not get very attached to it 🙂

Meanwhile, some much older languages live on. Last year COVID-19 demonstrated how much the financial world still depends on COBOL:

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My job

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My title at work is “Principal Database Administrator.” My employer is looking for another one, to be my peer. Here is the job posting. I helped write it, and it did not get too badly garbled by the HR process. If you want the official view of what I do at work, this is it. If you have the relevant background, and are willing to work closely with me, feel free to apply.