My first professional bug
A tale of lost innocence
Path to a job
I’m a college dropout (*).
In 1981, I was studying Engineering at the University of Western Australia. As a massive Science Fiction fan, I was overjoyed to hear there was a club for us — UniSFA (40+ years later they probably still have some of my donated books).
When I went up to visit them, in the student-smelly carpeted Guild building, I found a buzzing, even sweatier room full of peers next door. The University Computer Club was about to become my new home, where I spent more time than in lectures (cough) and met my first programming language: BASIC.
I also met Peter Hill, a fellow engineering student, also living at the “residential college” Currie Hall and who introduced me to my first employer.
By mid-1982 I was spending my holidays working on accounting software, instead of doing engineering homework, hence the dropout bit. I had a horrifying realisation in August that I had approximately 15 assignments due, with just a weekend to go. So I quit study and went to work full-time.
The tiny company RC&A MicroSystems (I think — it’s been a lot of years since I worked there) had a dealership for the Durango range of desktop computers (see brochure) and source code rights to customise…
