I started out intending to be a chemical engineer (at the suggestion of my favorite teacher in high school in N. Virginia). My very 1st class was “Intro to Engineering” and turned out to be Fortran IV computer programming. I was very impressed that the college I went to had their own IBM 360 (in 1973)! I quickly became very interested in programming and less interested in much of the rest of my curriculum. After getting an A in my Intro class I reevaluated my school goals. It appeared to me at that time that it was very likely that computers would grow quickly to be a major part of our world (at least business and science at that time). My friend’s dad had just started the first computer programming school, which was nearby. I decided to quit college and go to this programming school. The 1st half of the school was IBM Assembler, while the last half was COBOL. Since COBOL was mostly banks and other boring businesses, I finished the Assembler portion and immediately got hired by a large European firm. They had what I have to consider the first “PC”, since it was sold to small businesses (very affordable), and was basically a large printer (used tractor-feed greenbar paper, had 16 registers, and a 256k RAM). The only thing I didn’t do was sell them. All the many different titles and functions that are now associated with software creation was all performed by me, alone! I would go to the new purchaser of this machine, and basically watch how their bookkeeper did their job, and then go program a complete AR / AP bookkeeping program that appeared as similar as possible to how they were bookkeeping already. Despite the small RAM and no screen or mouse, we effectively produced completely accurate software that would provide printouts and reports that could be selectively printed. These machine were in use for many years (PCs with similar software first became available in 1985). I moved from the east coast back to California were I grew up in the mid 1970s and worked at a number of smaller companies, all of which used mid to mainframes. I learned how to run all the computers and peripherals as well as write assembler code (and fix other programmer’s code using their logic, rather than simply rewriting the entire block of code that needed modification as was the norm). I burned out more than 3 times before 1980 (only input was punchcards and only output was printed greenbar paper, and a very strict working environment). I took a few years off from computers doing custom joinery only woodwork, until in 1985 a friend of mine showed me his new PC and asked what I thought of it. I checked it out and although it had a fairly limited Assembler instruction set (compared to IBM mainframes), it was really fun and had a monitor, its own keyboard and more! I quickly became enthusiastic again and started working for other companies as a contractor. I did work for Department of Defense, California State, and several other large corporations before 2000. After that I started taking shorter term contracts for small businesses and even individuals, which I really enjoyed. COVID changed a lot of my work parameters, and now I want to help as many as I can, while avoiding the seemingly continuing issues with COVID and other infectious things running rampant in our world. I have decided the best way to do this is by increasing the size of my team and providing many more businesses (and individuals) my skills with anything computer related, by utilizing the many platforms and sites which have developed substantially (due in a large part to COVID) in the past few years that allow me to do this remotely, without exposing any of my team or any of my clients to any contagions at all, through direct contact! Sometime technology CAN be both helpful and practical, although I still chuckle at the original PCs selling point: “Think of all the paper and filing this will eliminate!”. I look forward to providing solution(s) for you, so please go to our “CONTACT US” page and leave a brief description of your need(s) and your contact information, and we will get back to you as quickly as we can (usually within 24 hours).
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Bill Shipp CEO