Post #109,153
7/11/03 12:22:37 AM
7/11/03 12:37:46 AM
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Not buying it...
But even researchers need to be able to write a decent program once in a while.
While I was at Texas A&M as a BBA Undergrad, I:
1. Wrote a Lotus 1-2-3 "chain" of spreadsheets which allowed the Dean of Liberal Arts College to keep track of expenses for each department, then summarize them into a College Spreadsheet. It was so good, the education department wanted the same, but I didn't have time to do it and pass school.
2. Wrote a Turbo Pascal program to allow for data entry on an IBM-PC, which interacted with the user and asked polling questions. As the questions were asked, the answers were validated against the possible answers, AND it wrote punch card image records, so the data could be uploaded to a mainframe. It even validated the data, by allowing a 2nd person to re-enter the data and it would compare 1st data entry to second. The polls were originally entered from forms (paper), but later they ditched the forms and used the program itself as the polling. The results were so accurate, they didn't feel they needed the 2nd pass of data entry. They used the program for 5 years after I graduated (6 years total) and quit using it when they needed a large record size than the fixed record size that was originally written into the program. Sadly, I had long moved into the working world, and all that was needed was to change a constant in the top of the program and rebuild it.
3. Worked on a mondo SAS program which maintained the profiles of heroin addicts and their recidivism rate. The data was depressing, but it was the largest SAS program I ever worked with. It was HUGE!
4. Fixed a sociology professor's Pascal program on VAX, which was overwritting results with the same file name. I created a version of the program which created unique files for each "instance" of the program (when multiple people were running the program at the same time) and then the grad student could merge the files to do his research.
5. Finally, I started (but never finished) a program to read a Lotus 1-2-3 data file, and then print out data to a standard pre-printed form. By the time I was close to having it working, someone finally purchased a product for about $500.
I would say, all in all, I had the most FUN working on these in college. Much more fun than schoolwork. My experience at UT Southwestern in 1997/1998 as an employee was much the same. I enjoyed the collegiate environment, and the opportunity to work with "new" technology, and the atmosphere. But neither job paid well!
Now, I like my job much LESS, but I get paid much MORE.
I dream of being able to return to an environment like that, maybe someday when money matters a lot less. Right now, with 3 kids, the money matters, and jobs aren't so much fun.
Glen Austin
Edited by gdaustin
July 11, 2003, 12:33:49 AM EDT
Not buying it...
But even researchers need to be able to write a decent program once in a while.
While I was at Texas A&M as a BBA Undergrad, I:
1. Wrote a Lotus 1-2-3 "chain" of spreadsheets which allowed the Dean of Liberal Arts College to keep track of expenses for each department, then summarize them into a College Spreadsheet. It was so good, the education department wanted the same, but I didn't have time to do it and pass school.
2. Wrote a Turbo Pascal program to allow for data entry on an IBM-PC, which interacted with the user and asked polling questions. As the questions were asked, the answers were validated against the possible answers, AND it wrote punch card image records, so the data could be uploaded to a mainframe. It even validated the data, by allowing a 2nd person to re-enter the data and it would compare 1st data entry to second. The polls were originally entered from forms (paper), but later they ditched the forms and used the program itself as the polling. The results were so accurate, they didn't feel they needed the 2nd pass of data entry. They used the program for 5 years after I graduated (6 years total) and quit using it when they needed a large record size than the fixed record size that was originally written into the program. Sadly, I had long moved into the working world, and all that was needed was to change a constant in the top of the program and rebuild it.
3. Worked on a mondo SAS program which maintained the profiles of heroin addicts and their recidivism rate. The data was depressing, but it was the largest SAS program I ever worked with. It was HUGE!
4. Fixed a sociology professor's Pascal program on SAS, which was overwritting results with the same file name. I created a version of the program which created unique files for each "instance" of the program (when multiple people were running the program at the same time) and then the grad student could merge the files to do his research.
5. Finally, I started (but never finished) a program to read a Lotus 1-2-3 data file, and then print out data to a standard form. By the time I was close to having it working, someone finally purchased a product for about $500.
I would say, all in all, I had the most FUN working on these in college. Much more fun than schoolwork. My experience at UT Southwestern in 1997/1998 as an employee was much the same. I enjoyed the collegiate environment, and the opportunity to work with "new" technology, and the atmosphere. But neither job paid well!
Now, I like my job much LESS, but I get paid much MORE.
I dream of being able to return to an environment like that, maybe someday when money matters a lot less. Right now, with 3 kids, the money matters, and jobs aren't so much fun.
Glen Austin
Edited by gdaustin
July 11, 2003, 12:37:46 AM EDT
Not buying it...
But even researchers need to be able to write a decent program once in a while.
While I was at Texas A&M as a BBA Undergrad, I:
1. Wrote a Lotus 1-2-3 "chain" of spreadsheets which allowed the Dean of Liberal Arts College to keep track of expenses for each department, then summarize them into a College Spreadsheet. It was so good, the education department wanted the same, but I didn't have time to do it and pass school.
2. Wrote a Turbo Pascal program to allow for data entry on an IBM-PC, which interacted with the user and asked polling questions. As the questions were asked, the answers were validated against the possible answers, AND it wrote punch card image records, so the data could be uploaded to a mainframe. It even validated the data, by allowing a 2nd person to re-enter the data and it would compare 1st data entry to second. The polls were originally entered from forms (paper), but later they ditched the forms and used the program itself as the polling. The results were so accurate, they didn't feel they needed the 2nd pass of data entry. They used the program for 5 years after I graduated (6 years total) and quit using it when they needed a large record size than the fixed record size that was originally written into the program. Sadly, I had long moved into the working world, and all that was needed was to change a constant in the top of the program and rebuild it.
3. Worked on a mondo SAS program which maintained the profiles of heroin addicts and their recidivism rate. The data was depressing, but it was the largest SAS program I ever worked with. It was HUGE!
4. Fixed a sociology professor's Pascal program on VAX, which was overwritting results with the same file name. I created a version of the program which created unique files for each "instance" of the program (when multiple people were running the program at the same time) and then the grad student could merge the files to do his research.
5. Finally, I started (but never finished) a program to read a Lotus 1-2-3 data file, and then print out data to a standard form. By the time I was close to having it working, someone finally purchased a product for about $500.
I would say, all in all, I had the most FUN working on these in college. Much more fun than schoolwork. My experience at UT Southwestern in 1997/1998 as an employee was much the same. I enjoyed the collegiate environment, and the opportunity to work with "new" technology, and the atmosphere. But neither job paid well!
Now, I like my job much LESS, but I get paid much MORE.
I dream of being able to return to an environment like that, maybe someday when money matters a lot less. Right now, with 3 kids, the money matters, and jobs aren't so much fun.
Glen Austin
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