Martinminerva Posted July 31, 2018 Posted July 31, 2018 Yet another Classicist (what is it about coins and Classics??) and Classics teacher for last 26 years. You can probably tell that by my user name!! 1 Quote
will1976 Posted July 31, 2018 Posted July 31, 2018 10 hours ago, Madness said: Feeling a bit out of place. Once again I have stumbled across a hobby dominated by intelligent professionals. Professional? Me? Definitely not! Intelligent? The jury is still out...….. Quote
Peckris 2 Posted July 31, 2018 Posted July 31, 2018 8 hours ago, Paddy said: before that I was IT Consultant on IBM Mainframes (Like Peck) both with IBM and other companies. COBOL and PL/1 me, plus a little known thing called EASYTRIEVE. What about you? (One time I could also tell you about JES3, TSO, and stuff like that! All forgotten now.) Quote
Paddy Posted July 31, 2018 Posted July 31, 2018 42 minutes ago, Peckris 2 said: COBOL and PL/1 me, plus a little known thing called EASYTRIEVE. What about you? (One time I could also tell you about JES3, TSO, and stuff like that! All forgotten now.) PL/1 with DB2 and IMS/Db to start with, then another another little known application development suite called Sapiens (RAD). Then much more into the Business Analyst side for Insurance companies - a lot in support of the sales process. Eventually all got too stressful and cost me my marriage so I got out of the rat race. EASYTRIEVE rings a bell somewhere but I cannot remember what it did or where I met it! Quote
Peckris 2 Posted July 31, 2018 Posted July 31, 2018 2 hours ago, Paddy said: PL/1 with DB2 and IMS/Db to start with, then another another little known application development suite called Sapiens (RAD). Then much more into the Business Analyst side for Insurance companies - a lot in support of the sales process. Eventually all got too stressful and cost me my marriage so I got out of the rat race. EASYTRIEVE rings a bell somewhere but I cannot remember what it did or where I met it! Interesting - I designed a small Excel application for a friend's company's users which we called Sapiens! No connection with yours of course. EASYTRIEVE was essentially a stripped down version of COBOL. Its main advantage was the utter simplicity of File Definitions for input / output operations, but the syntax was also very easy too. There were no complex functions like you had with PL/1 but its use was in any case basic commercial stuff. 1 Quote
Peter Posted July 31, 2018 Posted July 31, 2018 Another Quantity Surveyor / Commercial manager here. Freelance since 2006 but taken my foot off the loud peddle. Quote
blakeyboy Posted July 31, 2018 Posted July 31, 2018 I restore old Recording Studio consoles ( mixers), but only one make, Neve, and only between 1968 to 1980. There's only me doing it full time, with all the spare parts, in Europe now, and I'm old enough to have once been taught Fortran using punched cards........ I knew at the time it would come in handy!! Not. 1 Quote
Paddy Posted July 31, 2018 Posted July 31, 2018 Ah yes - I did Fortran IV at university on punch cards. I hereby formally apologise to Ian Pickles for shuffling his deck when he wasn't looking. 1 2 Quote
Coppers Posted August 1, 2018 Posted August 1, 2018 ALC with DB2 -- and hopefully Ian Pickles had taken the precaution of numbering his punch cards before you shuffled them. 1 Quote
declanwmagee Posted August 1, 2018 Posted August 1, 2018 I've pretty much done every job there is over the last 35 years, but I had two "careers" during that time: Lab technician testing construction materials during my twenties, spent my thirties in I.T., ran away to join the hippies at my mid-life crisis at 37, then ten years as a freelance gardener/tree surgeon. Gradually realised I was making more money from buying and selling coins than I was from the sweat of my brow, so laid my chainsaw down for the last time at the end of 2015. Now a full time coin dealer 3 Quote
Fubar Posted August 1, 2018 Posted August 1, 2018 When I started in computers this was the norm. Size of a foolscap sheet of paper. Can't remember how many bytes that was. something like 256 bits per patch and double sided. Didn't really have a programming language. Hex machine code did my head in. From that to PCs in a little over 10 years. From change a chip to chuck it away. 1980s mostly. Quote
Unwilling Numismatist Posted August 1, 2018 Posted August 1, 2018 On 7/31/2018 at 9:05 AM, Madness said: I aspire to delivering junk mail. Me too, but until then I have to continue doing what I'm doing now. 'Er indoors said so. 1 Quote
bagerap Posted August 1, 2018 Posted August 1, 2018 An Ex described me as a serial entrepreneur, and it wasn't meant as a compliment. It's just that I'm better at working for myself, or as an employer, than being an employee. In the late 60s before Uni I was a Coin Dealer's runner, buying and selling at Seabys 3-4 times a week for my father. After university, freshly minted and full of enthusiasm I had absolutely no idea what to do. I'd worked at Pinewood in the sound dept but the British film industry was going through one of its periodic slow deaths and there was little work. All of my mother's family were publicans and I took to that like a duck to water for 15 years or so but at the cost of a couple of marriages. I'm a language and linguistics grad and started using that for the first time, ending up at DHL learning about freight and courier trade. For a while I was the International Trouble Shooter/Hatchet Man. 82 countries in 3 years. Since then I've owned and operated Freight Forwarding companies, restaurants,hotels, shop fitting companies and at one time the only Asian outside catering company certified by the KLBD (Kosher London Beth Din). And I'm neither Asian nor Jewish. And now I sell a few medals and tokens. I kid myself I'm retired but there is always something on the boil. It's not the money, it's the involvement. 3 Quote
Peckris 2 Posted August 1, 2018 Posted August 1, 2018 11 hours ago, Fubar said: When I started in computers this was the norm. Size of a foolscap sheet of paper. Can't remember how many bytes that was. something like 256 bits per patch and double sided. Didn't really have a programming language. Hex machine code did my head in. From that to PCs in a little over 10 years. From change a chip to chuck it away. 1980s mostly. A bit scary, the number of ex computer pros on here! Quote
Unwilling Numismatist Posted August 2, 2018 Posted August 2, 2018 So I guess coin collecting must be subconsciously theraputic to the IT crowd Quote
davidrj Posted August 2, 2018 Posted August 2, 2018 1 minute ago, Unwilling Numismatist said: So I guess coin collecting must be subconsciously theraputic to the IT crowd Or collectors who are not digitally savvy, have never found this forum. 3 Quote
Paddy Posted August 2, 2018 Posted August 2, 2018 I have long had a theory than both IT and collecting (along with certain brain focused games such as Chess and Bridge) are particularly attractive to people with a low level (often undiagnosed) autism. The need for high focus of concentration, attention to detail and retention of large amounts of data seem to work together. 4 Quote
DrLarry Posted August 2, 2018 Posted August 2, 2018 15 minutes ago, Paddy said: I have long had a theory than both IT and collecting (along with certain brain focused games such as Chess and Bridge) are particularly attractive to people with a low level (often undiagnosed) autism. The need for high focus of concentration, attention to detail and retention of large amounts of data seem to work together. yes I think you may be right, As I posted a while ago on my own thread, I believe that the too close attention to detail ay have created my own neurological disorder as I was in that fluid zone coming out of chemo haze. It does seem to have re-wired that part of my brain that recognises facial pattern but in my case bloody lions and lambs....such a strange theme to have decided upon although I am sure it made sense at the time .....I blame the Lydians for those first coins!!!!!!!!! Quote
Madness Posted August 2, 2018 Author Posted August 2, 2018 (edited) 40 minutes ago, Paddy said: I have long had a theory than both IT and collecting (along with certain brain focused games such as Chess and Bridge) are particularly attractive to people with a low level (often undiagnosed) autism. The need for high focus of concentration, attention to detail and retention of large amounts of data seem to work together. *Madness raises his hand and then quietly whispers that he suspected something similar* I wasn't diagnosed until I was 41. Edited August 2, 2018 by Madness 2 Quote
Paddy Posted August 2, 2018 Posted August 2, 2018 34 minutes ago, Madness said: *Madness raises his hand and then quietly whispers that he suspected something similar* I wasn't diagnosed until I was 41. I have never been diagnosed as such but have come to same conclusion for myself over a number of years. I thinks some indicators: - get on better with things than with people, even get emotionally attached to inanimate objects more than people. - able to focus intently on mental games for hours, but get bored quickly making idle chatter with people - Love "ticking the boxes" collecting and filling gaps in a collection. Love sequences, similarities and differences in a collection - can remember facts about things - periodic table, history, coins etc - with no difficulty but forget people's names in an instant. - find "unfinished business" intensely bothersome. - have to focus to be understanding and tolerant of other people's faults, but can't see the problem with my own! Anyone else tick a few of those boxes? 😁 2 Quote
Peckris 2 Posted August 2, 2018 Posted August 2, 2018 May I dip a tentative toe into the controversial autism waters? I think - and this is only a theory based on autistic characteristics - that 'completists', i.e. collectors of date runs and every known variety, are possibly more 'on the spectrum' than type collectors? Of course, the other connection between coins and IT is that if you get bored, you can always switch off, then switch back on again in the future. 1 Quote
DrLarry Posted August 2, 2018 Posted August 2, 2018 3 hours ago, Paddy said: I have never been diagnosed as such but have come to same conclusion for myself over a number of years. I thinks some indicators: - get on better with things than with people, even get emotionally attached to inanimate objects more than people. - able to focus intently on mental games for hours, but get bored quickly making idle chatter with people - Love "ticking the boxes" collecting and filling gaps in a collection. Love sequences, similarities and differences in a collection - can remember facts about things - periodic table, history, coins etc - with no difficulty but forget people's names in an instant. - find "unfinished business" intensely bothersome. - have to focus to be understanding and tolerant of other people's faults, but can't see the problem with my own! Anyone else tick a few of those boxes? 😁 and I wonder why you all give me such a hard time Quote
Flash Posted August 2, 2018 Posted August 2, 2018 (edited) can't be bothered Edited August 2, 2018 by Flash Quote
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