<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:14pt"><div>I imagine many of us have a few secrets or stories to tell about how we sneaked around O:E strictures (or even paid off government officials) to get things done.</div><div>Thanks, Tim, for sharing one of yours.</div><div>Smiling broadly,</div><div>Marshall</div><div style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:14pt"><br><div style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> Tim Wegner <twegner@swbell.net><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Colleague Dialogue <dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Sun, September 30, 2012 10:27:40 AM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re:
[Dialogue] NASA software developer moves on ...<br></font><br>
Janice wrote:<br><br>> Abe was absolutely passionate about e-mail possibilities for <br>> connecting <br>> colleagues, because he knew what significant work was being done and the <br>> power of connection. <br><br>I remember Abe well and enjoyed working with him as a co-conspirator <br>on the early listservs.<br><br>Here's another anecdote.<br><br>Soon after I arrived in Houston in 1982 I bought an original Compaq <br>luggable computer - the first "IBM-compatible" computer, weighed in <br>at 35 lbs. It cost over $2000. I bought it with an American Express <br>card I rarely used but had as an emergency backup for international <br>travel. Now what to do to pay for it?<br><br>I saw a help wanted advertisement posted by an oil trader who wanted <br>consulting on dbase III and lotus 123. I wrote him a letter saying <br>"there is a right and a wrong way to use Lotus 123 and Dbase III <br>together, and I know the difference!". He hired me for $35
an hour (a <br>fortune in 1982), and computer was paid for in no time. That was my <br>one and only consulting job, my acceptance rate in getting consulting <br>jobs is 100% :-)<br><br>The consulting money did not go through the order/ica books. I never <br>would have gotten priorship permission to do it. But nobody tried to <br>stop me either. I put the computer in the ICA office, and it was very <br>popular with my order colleagues, floppy disks and all. (Later I <br>added a 10mb hard drive I bought for $900.)<br><br>I worked off hours for 6 months or so with the oil trader, acting as <br>his computer tutor. I wrote a dbase III program that let him keep <br>track of buying and selling oil all over the world. Little did he <br>know I was teaching him things I had in most cases learned just a few <br>days before using McDonnell Douglas's one (!) PC in my NASA job! <br>That's where I learned how to use Lotus 123 and Dbase III!<br><br>I guess I was more
in tune with freedom than obedience. I'm calmer <br>now with a more Buddhist transcendent consciousness, but I'm still in <br>touch with my freedom!<br><br>Tim<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>Dialogue mailing list<br><a ymailto="mailto:Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net" href="mailto:Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net">Dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net</a><br><span><a target="_blank" href="http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net">http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net</a></span><br></div></div><div style="position:fixed"></div>
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