"My Life In the Bush of Geekery", Part 0 in a potentially reasonably long memoir:
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"My Life In the Bush of Geekery", Part 0 in a potentially reasonably long memoir:
The time I was paid $13,000 for a two-line change.
SBS -- a small vendor of satellite communication services -- hired me on a contract, fixed-price $8,000. This was in maybe '85 or so, so 8k was mad bank.
Their problem, it was in Forth, was that they had a working system where the base station could communicate with the satellite using RS-232 for the modem connection.
But, somewhat late in their game, they discovered that RS-232 had been replaced with RS-422.
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SBS -- a small vendor of satellite communication services -- hired me on a contract, fixed-price $8,000. This was in maybe '85 or so, so 8k was mad bank.
Their problem, it was in Forth, was that they had a working system where the base station could communicate with the satellite using RS-232 for the modem connection.
But, somewhat late in their game, they discovered that RS-232 had been replaced with RS-422.
@GeePawHill I am super interested in the rest of this story and hope this is not in fact the end of this story
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SBS -- a small vendor of satellite communication services -- hired me on a contract, fixed-price $8,000. This was in maybe '85 or so, so 8k was mad bank.
Their problem, it was in Forth, was that they had a working system where the base station could communicate with the satellite using RS-232 for the modem connection.
But, somewhat late in their game, they discovered that RS-232 had been replaced with RS-422.
For the unwashed masses, these are both standards for communicating between two devices, like the base station and the satellite. The only difference between the two, is that 232 is full-duplex, and 422 is half-duplex.
Mmmmmm. Full-duplex, either party can say anything at any time to the other party. Half-duplex, only one party gets to talk at a time, so they have to take turns.
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For the unwashed masses, these are both standards for communicating between two devices, like the base station and the satellite. The only difference between the two, is that 232 is full-duplex, and 422 is half-duplex.
Mmmmmm. Full-duplex, either party can say anything at any time to the other party. Half-duplex, only one party gets to talk at a time, so they have to take turns.
So I studied this code base until I fully grasped the actual protocol.
And here's the thing, the protocol was entirely "call and response". In those days, we'd say "master/slave", tho I hasten to say that I'm as happy as anyone to lose that terminology.
In other words, the protocol was in fact *always* that the base station said something, and then the satellite responded. Never the other way around.
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So I studied this code base until I fully grasped the actual protocol.
And here's the thing, the protocol was entirely "call and response". In those days, we'd say "master/slave", tho I hasten to say that I'm as happy as anyone to lose that terminology.
In other words, the protocol was in fact *always* that the base station said something, and then the satellite responded. Never the other way around.
So what this meant is that, all we had to do, were we the base station, was say something, turn the line around, and wait for the satellite to respond, then turn the line around again.
That was two lines of code, one right after a base station send, and one right after a base station receive.
Now, to be fair, this took me some time to grok. But I did grok it.
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So what this meant is that, all we had to do, were we the base station, was say something, turn the line around, and wait for the satellite to respond, then turn the line around again.
That was two lines of code, one right after a base station send, and one right after a base station receive.
Now, to be fair, this took me some time to grok. But I did grok it.
So I came in to the SBS office, about to tell them I had their answer, about 3 days before the deadline.
And the guy who was running me, he said to me, "If we hose this we lose millions. If you can deliver at the deadline, there'll be a $5,000 bonus."
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So I came in to the SBS office, about to tell them I had their answer, about 3 days before the deadline.
And the guy who was running me, he said to me, "If we hose this we lose millions. If you can deliver at the deadline, there'll be a $5,000 bonus."
So yes, I delivered before the deadline, and I was owed now not just $8k but $13k.
And there was an issue.
You see, SBS had been bought by MCI in the interim, which you elders will remember was a major player at the time.
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So yes, I delivered before the deadline, and I was owed now not just $8k but $13k.
And there was an issue.
You see, SBS had been bought by MCI in the interim, which you elders will remember was a major player at the time.
And the SBS engineering guy had offered me the bonus, but the MCI procurement guy denied it, cuz that's not how MCI did business.
To his credit, the SBS guy said, "Too bad, I made a promise, and SBS keeps its promises."
And his boss, and *his* boss, and *his* boss fought it all the way up to the c-suite.
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And the SBS engineering guy had offered me the bonus, but the MCI procurement guy denied it, cuz that's not how MCI did business.
To his credit, the SBS guy said, "Too bad, I made a promise, and SBS keeps its promises."
And his boss, and *his* boss, and *his* boss fought it all the way up to the c-suite.
So now we have me, the VP of engineering, the VP of procurement, and the CEO up there where the conference table is made of mahogany. (I was just 25 years old.)
And the CEO made the call.
He told the engineer "you must never do this again". He told the procurement guy "we made a promise, pay the kid".
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So now we have me, the VP of engineering, the VP of procurement, and the CEO up there where the conference table is made of mahogany. (I was just 25 years old.)
And the CEO made the call.
He told the engineer "you must never do this again". He told the procurement guy "we made a promise, pay the kid".
They made me go to the procurement guy's office to get my check. He had an envelope, and he extended it towards me, but then he yanked it back.
"If you take this check, you'll never work for MCI again," he said.
He, apparently, didn't realize what kind of smartass he was dealing with.
I said, "Oh, thank God. Give me the check."
I never did work for MCI again.
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So now we have me, the VP of engineering, the VP of procurement, and the CEO up there where the conference table is made of mahogany. (I was just 25 years old.)
And the CEO made the call.
He told the engineer "you must never do this again". He told the procurement guy "we made a promise, pay the kid".
@GeePawHill what did you do with the money
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@GeePawHill I am super interested in the rest of this story and hope this is not in fact the end of this story
@darkuncle There you have it. Hope it pleases.
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@GeePawHill what did you do with the money
@mayintoronto A decade ago, some dude won this multi-million dollar lotto, and then, two years later, he was broke.
A reporter asked him, what did you spend the money on?
He said, "Fast cars, liquor, and women, mostly. And I guess I just *wasted* the rest of it."
I prolly spent most of it on dinner out with me and my friends, or on books at Reiter's book store, which was the best technical bookstore in DC.
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They made me go to the procurement guy's office to get my check. He had an envelope, and he extended it towards me, but then he yanked it back.
"If you take this check, you'll never work for MCI again," he said.
He, apparently, didn't realize what kind of smartass he was dealing with.
I said, "Oh, thank God. Give me the check."
I never did work for MCI again.
@GeePawHill hahahahaha well done
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@mayintoronto A decade ago, some dude won this multi-million dollar lotto, and then, two years later, he was broke.
A reporter asked him, what did you spend the money on?
He said, "Fast cars, liquor, and women, mostly. And I guess I just *wasted* the rest of it."
I prolly spent most of it on dinner out with me and my friends, or on books at Reiter's book store, which was the best technical bookstore in DC.
@GeePawHill @mayintoronto Ha! That lottery winner bought my cousin’s house after he won.
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SBS -- a small vendor of satellite communication services -- hired me on a contract, fixed-price $8,000. This was in maybe '85 or so, so 8k was mad bank.
Their problem, it was in Forth, was that they had a working system where the base station could communicate with the satellite using RS-232 for the modem connection.
But, somewhat late in their game, they discovered that RS-232 had been replaced with RS-422.
@GeePawHill I am, by happenstance, just beginning a project involving both RS-422 and Forth. Been daydreaming about it for years and it's now actually in motion.
These technologies might be obscure, but they still work - and they're really cool stuff! Love that you got paid heavily for working with them. -
@GeePawHill I am, by happenstance, just beginning a project involving both RS-422 and Forth. Been daydreaming about it for years and it's now actually in motion.
These technologies might be obscure, but they still work - and they're really cool stuff! Love that you got paid heavily for working with them.@aaron Forth was my first grown-up language, and for decades I've been saying that when I retire I want to go back to Forth.
I'm retired now. But no, I haven't done it yet.
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@aaron Forth was my first grown-up language, and for decades I've been saying that when I retire I want to go back to Forth.
I'm retired now. But no, I haven't done it yet.
@GeePawHill I've never done much with Forth - but after dealing with OpenFirmware on Sun boxen, I got really interested. Been wanting to bootstrap my own Forth for maybe twenty years now.
The project I mentioned won't be that; I intend to use FlashForth as a development platform, operating system, and in the end communication protocol running on Atmega microcontrollers with FlashForth as a "firmware".
I can't wait to see what problems I find from not understanding the parts - and that's not sarcasm -
@GeePawHill I've never done much with Forth - but after dealing with OpenFirmware on Sun boxen, I got really interested. Been wanting to bootstrap my own Forth for maybe twenty years now.
The project I mentioned won't be that; I intend to use FlashForth as a development platform, operating system, and in the end communication protocol running on Atmega microcontrollers with FlashForth as a "firmware".
I can't wait to see what problems I find from not understanding the parts - and that's not sarcasm@aaron Sounds to me like joy.
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@aaron Sounds to me like joy.
@GeePawHill Speaking of joy:
I really enjoy your stories, that's why I followed you originally.
