About
I started programming in 1982 after deciding that D&D could be improved through computer automation to eliminate all of those tables and books. This started my journey in programming and hacking. My first computer was a TSR Color computer and over my early years I added a 300 baud modem so I could go on BBSs around the country. I also upgraded the computer with a 10MB hard disk and 64k of ram. Those were the days.
My first job in high school was programming an Altair in basic for the accounting department of John E. Cain Company (they made dressing and mayonaise.) I later moved into their IT department and made spreadsheets in Visicalc and Multiplan.
Later I would work for a small Apple var and got to play with the first Lisa, Macintosh, and Apple IIc. I also worked for an ex Digital employee that was an engineer who built his own media conversion business, he converted everything from paper tape, punch cards, and would save it on floppies for the clients.
While I was going to school at Long Beach City College I worked for Dilday Mottle's Mortuary, which was wierd. I was just a receptionist and they allowed me to work on my college homework while I was there.
My firt computer programs were written in assembly language and hand compiled for a HeathKit breadboard computer. After hand encoding them we had to punch them in on a hexadecimal keypad. 
Over the years I have experimented, implemented hundreds of programs in various programming languages. My primary languages currently would be Python, PHP, C#, Rust, Javascript, and TSQL. I have done a good deal with psql, PHP, and mysql as well. I have also worked with Azure, and AWS, and linux VMs, Heroku, Node.js and other technologies enough to be able to bounce around.
The last year I have started working for an e-commerce company and have started learning Netsuite, Salsify, StockIQ, Snowflake, PowerBI. For the previous 25 years I was doing Membership/AR Systems and PCI for a the Las Vegas Athletic Clubs. At the Athletic clubs I architected, built, and maintained many systems: predictive dialers, checkin system, reservation systems, payrol systems, ar accounting system, PCI compliance, HR systems, payment systems, audited photo badge system.
I have a lot of interest in automating OSs (Linux, Windows, OSX) and Network Management (routers, firewalls, and switches) with scripting (powershell, sh, python). For fun currently I am mostly learning Rust, Linux Administration, Scripting on various platforms for fun. For work I am studying Laravel, TimeSeries DB, Snowflake, PowerBi and some other third-party products.
I participate from time to time in some local meetups and usergroups, such as the Las Vegas Python Group.
Have a happy new year! Paul
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