Index
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Writing
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Short Fictional Stories
| Do you remember the days when knowing how to hand code HTML was the mark of a web guru? If you knew how to make a waving flag using a sine function then you were an elite programmer. Everyone was fascinated by spinning cubes with pictures of their family or pets on each face. But times have moved on. To give you an example of how much things have changed I have posted a list of some of the languages, APIs and tools that I have used. |
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Languages Used: 6510 microprocessor (C64) asm BASIC (C64) GWBASIC (Amstrad) QBASIC x86 asm HTML Visual Basic C C++ STL Flash CSS PHP Regular Expressions MySQL APIs Used: Allegro OpenGL Win32 ODE Physics Library Tools Used: a86 assembler Getback (joystick operated C64 assembler written by me) Define (x86 assembler/disassembler written by me) DJGPP TClite MIRC Borland C++ Builder Dev-Cpp VB IDE Frontpage Photoshop Macromedia Flash & Dreamweaver FreeWorld Editor (world editor written by me) Competently used hundreds of other applications General Computer Skills Used: FTP Programs MIRC/Scripting Console/Amiga Emulators CD/DVD Data Backups Building Computers Computer Maintenance Computer Administration Computer Networking Website Development Installed & Configured 100s of games, patches and mods Completed 100s of games (recovering gameaholic) Graphics Designer Object Orientated Programming Experience: Writing Tutorials Program Design & Implementation Website Design Search Engine Optimization Website Administrator (5 years personal, 9 months contracted) |
| And for all this effort I have made a grand total of $25 as a programmer. I'll just repeat that. I have earned exactly $25 (US) from programming. This excludes working as a freelance web developer and the occasional computer repairs, which is something most programmers have to fall back on to make a living. Of course I could have just added some pay-per-click advertising on my website and hope that more than 5% of people click through but this isn't practical with such a specialist subject like programming tutorials. Not to mention that I do not want to subject my visitors to the combined data gathering capabilities of GoogleAds, Amazon, eBay, PayPal and the like. To compound matters, I have a high school education and have no formal education in programming. This of course is seen as a negative, but I beg to differ. I began programming late and I was self motivated enough to try for something better than manual laboring, and, for all intents and purposes, achieved a very high level of skill. If we were to compare how far I have come with that of a typical student then I feel that I have put in a supreme effort. And to this day I have received no recognition from any educational institution and don't expect to any time soon; though a couple of schools have asked to use my tutorials in their classes and a few more have done so without asking. The IT job section at my local employment agency is grayed out and unavailable. There are simply no IT jobs to list. In order to even be considered for a programming related job (ideally long distance) I will now have to pay over $16,000 dollars and invest four years of my time to get a piece of paper that confirms to some recruiting personnel that I do indeed know what I know. I know I'm not alone in this situation, most IT resumes read like a small book these days and there are some incredibly gifted people in the field of computer programming that also can't find employment, but I'm no crack addict either. What really annoys me is that if I was to run a hundred meters in under ten seconds or could consistently put a ball through some sort of goal then I would be a household name in Australia and worth a fortune. At least I can say that I was there at the beginning :) See you after I get edjamacated. Alan Baylis |
