I started my first programming job, well trainee programmer in September 1989. Five people applied for the job and I ended up taking my TV and Atari ST to the interview to show them some stuff I had written in STOS Basic.

Got the job and started with dBase II on Concurrent DOS.

I am surprised I had to scroll this far to find a dBase reference. I am the same vintage as OP, and yeah... back in the day dBase was the key to riches...at least as a contract dev. I remember spending A Lot of Money on the big box of dBase IV when it was released...all the diskettes and manuals. Around that time there was much talk about migrating from dBase databases (those .dbf files) to the magic of "SQL" which at the time meant nothing to me. Needless to say dBase IV cratered, and the industry went elsewhere. Good times!

I also have some fond memories of writing a 'smart' algorithm in STOS Basic for generating Madelbrot fractals. And is still took hours to fill the screen.

I should add "Have you been accessing sensitive sites such as your Google accounts" on a shared computer." The HN reference was to distinguish if the poster's complaint was worth of a discussion or is it one of 100k+ people a day that get caught by keyloggers/phishing/social-engineering through their own stupidity (like accessing Google wallet on a shared computer)

I love Codea on the iPad and that is a App that creates Apps (using Lua).

Dave

Am 42 and went into software development at 15. I didn't really finish school and managed to land a job as a trainee programmer (told the company I was basically finished at school but had to back for my exams, I never did).

I never really learnt new skills much after VB 6 (missed the whole .net thing), I got sick of having to learn new stuff every few years. I was a MCSD but that was nothing, read a book, sit a exam.

I left IT and took up photography for a few years, tried to get back in and have never had a interview.

I am now doing the odd website for friends and trying to make my first iPad App.

Dave

I can't get the tryruby.org site to work properly. If I do anything wrong it just locks up and I have to refresh the browser window.

For instance at the "type 2 + 6" question, if I type 2+6 it freezes. If type 2 + 6 it's fine.

Running OSX Lion and Google Chrome.

Dave

Me and my son (aged 15) are trying to develop our first iPad app but he is not interested in the programming side at all. He is happy drawing out stuff on paper for the levels etc... So am not forcing the programming no him, if he has no interest. I just want him to have the experience of getting a app on the app store and knowing he was part of it.

We are using the Corona SDK (in case anyone is interested).

Dave

Nice idea but you have some competition. Won't mention sites on here, played with a identical solution a few weeks ago. Also found somewhere that is doing a WP app for a one off charge of $17, you download source code, edit it, compile it and submit it to the app store.

Dave

Competition should generally be looked at as market validation. How many companies have competition and are doing fine?

I had the exact same idea a year ago. Looked for competitors and found one very good looking that provided this service for free, with a great website. That's why I didn't develop it. I hope there's enough demand so that op has success, though.

I was the CEO of a startup and I spoke to people who had the same idea that I had. They had the idea a year early but I was lunching the product.

I don't think you should stop startup up a business because there are competitors.

Competitors don't kill you. Most entrepreneurs kill their ideas themselves.

I would defo be up for this. Am a developer ASP, PHP, HTML, etc...

I don't live in London but only up the road in Liverpool.

I work for myself now doing photography (15 years in the IT industry), so am free almost every weekday.

Dave (thedavebaxter@gmail.com)