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About the Author
Angelo Babudro
If you would like to know a bit about me - how I got into the computer field, my interests, my experience, etc. - here are some things you might find interesting.
I've been programming most of my life, and there is nothing else I've found which gives me so much satisfaction.
My father gave me a book on programming in BASIC for a Hewlett-Packard 2000 mini-computer. I was 11 years old and a fan of Star Trek. On a few occasions I went to the vo-tech where my father taught biomedical electronics and played Star Trek on his terminal, a converted IBM Selectric typewriter. I became curious about how a programme worked, asked some questions, and began modifying the Star Trek programme. Before long, I was carrying a notebook with me wherever I went to write down programming ideas.
Opportunities to use a computer were rare in the mid-1970s so for two years I read about programming, wrote programmes on paper, and spent very few hours on my father's terminal. When my dad brought home a Teleray video terminal ("VDT" or "dumb terminal," as they were variously called) and a 300 baud modem I began to spend all of my free time on the computer, and that's the way things have continued over the past 20 years (although my "video terminal" and modem have certainly improved).
My programming specialty quickly turned to data base design when, in 1976, a chiropractor my father knew became interested in using a computer to manage his office and, ultimately, to market such a software package to other chiropractors. Back in 1976 computer programmers were much more of a rare breed than they are today, so even though I was only 13 years old and had no experience in data base design (or business programming at all, for that matter), I got the job and was handed an Ohio Scientific Challenger 2 computer with a 6502 processor (same one used on the Apple II), 32k of RAM, and dual 8-inch floppy disk drives (which held 250kb each), along with a Hazeltine text-only terminal.
I was very excited about having such a powerful computer at my disposal. My first computer had only 8kb of RAM and used a cassette recorder to store programmes. I spent the next couple of years becoming better versed in BASIC and learning Assembly programming and data base design.
Since that time I have used Hewlett-Packard, CDC Cyber, Prime, and IBM mainframes, DEC PDP/8, PDP/11, and VAX mini-computers, and more micro-computers than I could begin to list. As a teenager I soaked up new languages and operating systems until my resume looked like someone who had been in computers for longer than I'd been alive. When I was 18 a potential employer assumed I was nearing 30 years of age because of my level of experience.
Today my primary programming languages are Microsoft PDS (Professional Development System), HTML, various data base languages, C, and Perl.
(NB: the information on this page has not been updated since 1997 or 1998. Please see IXO.ca for an up-to-date CV.)
