I am a computer professional with over 20 years of IT and programming experience.

I started my computer skills typing in programs on a VIC 20 with no storage and eventually upgraded to a cassette storage and modifying utility programs like the tape storage retrieval system.

I then moved on to an X86 with an 8088 processor with an amber monitor running at a blazing 4Mhz with a turbo switch to double its speed.

I originally studied programming and started off working on HP mini computers programming in COBOL and PowerHouse.  I learned the basic office applications at this time and started doing some database and spreadsheet work on the pcs.

Given my knowledge with pcs and their applications I then transitioned into an IT role doing computer, application and network support.  I spent the next 5 years doing this, learning servers, server OSes and networking before transitioning back into the programming world.

As a side line for a couple of years I spent most of my time working as a Java developer for a start-up company ... a little late as I (and they) missed the booming IPO era.  Once they could no longer pay my salary I then moved back into IT doing pc and Macintosh and networking.

From there I moved into enterprise level application support working for a large company then on to a contractor role doing  application support / system engineering in support of a software development environment for a government agency.