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Your eureka moment

Discussion in 'General Discussions' started by wildfire, 2009/04/14.

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  1. 2009/04/14
    wildfire

    wildfire Getting Old Thread Starter

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    Mine was around 20 years ago when I was told by my employer to instruct a couple of secretaries the basics of Lotus 1-2-3.

    I arrived on site well prepared (or so I thought), spreadsheets to me weren't a problem and although at the time I had limited knowledge of lotus 123 itself I didn't think it would be a problem, I'd spent a few hours aquainting myself with the software and afterall it was only a basic lesson.

    Errr wrong,

    Turns out two directors were wanting taught as well and forget 1-2-3 it was symphony (word processor, spreadsheet & database) oh **** I thought. A call to the office and the boss explained the situation, More people and more applications would cost a lot more money, they agreed :eek:.

    The boss to be fair understood the situation I was in but told me to try my best... Talk about Fly by wire I was instructing these people to select menus and praying for the correct option to appear (I didn't know the software) and at the end of an 8 hour lesson I think I only used the phrase "although you'd think that would be correct as you can see it's wrong" once.

    Anyway, that was the biggest high I have ever had, walking out that building instructing people about software that I had limited knowledge of and they were happy.

    What thanks did I get, yep you guessed it "thanks" from the boss.

    Note: For the youngsters ;) this was pre 95 days, windows 3.x was only starting to appear and there wasn't any standard menus (File..Edit..Help etc) with applications.

    Anyway, if you've read all that what eureka moment have you had with computers?
     
    wildfire,
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  2. 2009/04/14
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    Some is in my bio at the MVP site.
    But here goes:

    The first thing I ever downloaded was Flash 4. I was interested in "doing" something with the new computer. I wanted to be able to create something on a comp that opthers could interact with. I was able to make a few animations that I am ashamed to show to anyone!

    Later, I bought a program called Slim Show. This program used Events, Actions, transitions, etc and you create slideshows or small interactive entertainment and it then compiles it into an exe that's portable. (similar to Flash but a lot easier) During all that, one day it all hit me at once, I understood all the concepts and pounded out several small fun entertaining exe's consisting of pics of my kids, animations, fart sounds, etc. Still have 'em on disk somewhere.

    Those "euraka moments" continued as I then learned html, scripting, lamp server stuff and more.

    But somewhere around the time of "it all coming togehter" I realized that I CAN make money using a computer and that this lump of electronic stuff on the desk really is just another tool to play with.
     
    TonyT,
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  4. 2009/04/15
    jpChris

    jpChris Inactive

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    My "moment" happened about two weeks after dirt was invented when I wrote a successful Blackjack game, in Basic, for a homework assignment.

    Does that count? :rolleyes:
     
    jpChris,
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  5. 2009/04/15
    wildfire

    wildfire Getting Old Thread Starter

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    :D Nope, I wrote monopoly on the BBC months before it was released. If only I had a license agreement:(

    Good try though ;)

    EDIT:

    Actually Black Jack or Pontoon as we call it was the second program I wrote ever, a clock was the first and this was using a TI 57 calculator ;)
     
    Last edited: 2009/04/15
    wildfire,
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  6. 2009/04/15
    jpChris

    jpChris Inactive

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    Whadda ya mean it don't count!?! I was using an Atari membrane keyboard, my monitor was a 14 "er and my "hard drive" was a GE cassette recorder! It took me about 20 hours of:
    10 print "Welcome to Blackjack
    20 print "Press Enter to play "
    30 X=INT (RND GEN) [etc]
    40 Y=INT (RND GEN) [etc]
    50 IF 30= [etc] GOTO
    60 IF 40= [etc] GOTO

    Besides, I'd just gotten off of a hellacious week of Fortran! (geez, I'm going cross eyed just thinking about it)

    And it don't count. Sheesh, there's just no pleasing some people. :D
    (p.s. Not to nitpick, but you spelled "program" wrong: It should be "programme" since you're from the UK) :p
     
    Last edited: 2009/04/15
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  7. 2009/04/16
    wildfire

    wildfire Getting Old Thread Starter

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    Well don't nitpick then, programme in the UK is what you watch on TV or read at a football game. Program in the UK is a piece of computer software :p

    But yep do have a point, my apologies it counts ;)
     
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  8. 2009/04/16
    Davezilla

    Davezilla Well-Known Member

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    To be honest, the UK has variant spellings that are not always recognised/recognized in the US.

    Etymology:

    French programme agenda, public notice, from Greek programma, from prographein to write before, from pro- before + graphein to write — more at carve
    Date:
    1633 ~ Websters.

    program(me). Spelling. It appears from the OED quotations that -am was the regular spelling until the 19th c., & the OED's judgement is: 'The earlier program was retained by Scott, Caryle, Hamilton, & others, & is preferable, as conforming to the usual English representation of the Greek gramma, in anagram, cryptogram, diagram, telegram, etc.' But the British preference for -amme seems to be as firmly established as the American for -am. ~ Fowler's Modern English Usage.

    Fowler's does mention later that the usage of 'program' both as a verb & a noun tends to be used predominantly with computers & computer related subjects.

    Just thought I'd say...;)
     
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  9. 2009/04/16
    wildfire

    wildfire Getting Old Thread Starter

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    Nice,

    Now shall we discuss Disk or Disc ;)
     
    wildfire,
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  10. 2009/04/16
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    Organisationally speaking, either disk or disc is ok across the pond.
     
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  11. 2009/04/16
    Steve R Jones

    Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

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    One of mine was way back when.....Our company had a resturant/bar down the street with a computer problems....It had a 30MEG hard card..(hard drive that goes into a ISA slot) ...Long story short - the IT guys downtown told be to take it out and shake it...Darn pc booted right up and stayed up long enough to do a backup.
     
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  12. 2009/04/16
    wildfire

    wildfire Getting Old Thread Starter

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    Sorry Steve.

    Thanks for getting back on topic but that doesn't count, it's the equivelant of thumping the TV on the side to get a picture. ;)
     
    wildfire,
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  13. 2009/04/16
    jpChris

    jpChris Inactive

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    @wildfire "” What? You don't consider percussive technical support (smacking something to get it to work) to be a "EUREKA!" moment; especially when it works? :D
     
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  14. 2009/04/16
    wildfire

    wildfire Getting Old Thread Starter

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    I'm going to break forum rules (sorry Admin but) PMSL. Thanks Chris.

    Paddy
     
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  15. 2009/04/17
    Steve R Jones

    Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

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    hmmmm. You clicked on a few button and said "Look at this" and got all excited:rolleyes:

    Getting a near dead HardCard in a 80386 back in the late 80's early 90's to work was a pretty significant deal when you had never seen one before:p Odds are that most people reading this thread have never seen one...
     
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  16. 2009/04/17
    wildfire

    wildfire Getting Old Thread Starter

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    Shame on you Steve.

    By using percussive technical support as Chris puts it? Two points...

    1) It's hardly rocket science.
    2) Someone told you to do it :p

    MFM or RLL? ;)
     
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  17. 2009/04/17
    Steve R Jones

    Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

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    Please list out some guideline on what you consider acceptable eureka moments. I’ll edit your original posts and add the list there. Or should people just PM their moments to you first for approval?
     
    Steve R Jones,
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  18. 2009/04/17
    wildfire

    wildfire Getting Old Thread Starter

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    :D

    Point taken. It's your moment and you have to be there. I'll shut up now :eek:
     
    wildfire,
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  19. 2009/04/17
    jpChris

    jpChris Inactive

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    ¿Does it have to be computer related?

    The reason I ask is because the biggest "eureka" moment in my life occurred several years ago when I got a jigsaw puzzle that said on the side of the box "2 to 4 years" and I did it in 3 months and 22 days!!! :p
     
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  20. 2009/04/17
    wildfire

    wildfire Getting Old Thread Starter

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    :D Thanks Just Plain, I needed that. :D
     
    wildfire,
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  21. 2009/04/17
    jpChris

    jpChris Inactive

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    @wildfire,

    Since the tone of the original poster "seemed" to imply that this thread should be computer related, I shall refrain from non-computer related "EUREKA!" moments in my life "” for now anyway. :rolleyes:

    So, a "computer related" Eureka Moment came when I took my laptop computer for a run and found I could jog it's memory. (insert "boo-hiss" smilie here)


    (p.s. Your welcome. Although we should probably get a life :p)
     
    jpChris,
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