Beer, Trains and Programming Skills
Ever since I was introduced to a motorolla cellphone during the early 1990's, I was hoping that soon, I would be able to carry with me, next to my portable PC, a portable phone, which would work everywhere. I had no big dreams or wishes, but my criteria have changed over the years. Little did i know that my requirements or dreams would change soo much in 15 years. But lets go back in time some more, and look at how I got interested in Technology.
I got introduced to Computers around 1980, via my cousin Jean, who had purchased a Tandy Radio Shack TRS80 model 1. Next to being intrigued by the "miniature" microprocessor boards which were located under the Keyboard. Although still in Middle School, I was hooked on the technology. I had borrowed some magazines from my Cousin, +Jean Debels , and one by one, I was devouring their contents and analyzing the Games and Programs in "L'ordinateur Individuel", a french speaking amateuristic computer enthousiast magazine.
So even still in High-School, I got bitten by the Computer Bug. I went on a cruisade to get a computer of my own. I took a vacation Job at the Belgian "De Post", the Belgian Postal Office, With the sole intent of earning enough money to afford me a TRS80 of my own.
How I attained my taste for beer.
Being able to get a job at the Belgian Post was a conquest on its own, luckily, my sisters husband Johan could refer me to the postal sort facility. - It was at the Belgian Post Cafetaria that, at age 18, I learned the taste for Beer, more in particular, the darker beer. Back in Belgium in those years, there was no real Drinking limit, or at least not enforced. I was 17 when I started working at the Post Office.
This taste for beer is still present, and I follow closely what happens with Belgian Beers, via my blog "BelgianBeerBlog".
I have fond memories of my Belgian Beer excursions. Although started during my Vacation job, Drinking Beer was Generally accepted at age 18 and higher in Belgium. I remember the time that some of my Class mates at the VHTI would skip monday morning classes and only come to those classes were real attendance was required, Drunk, and with a disgusting wave of odor over them. Most of the students were Day students or had a "kot" in Kortrijk. They would usually get to Kortrijk By Train, and thus, the Train Station and surrounding area had many Cafe's, on the way to the somewhat remotely located Faculty of the VHTI.
Drinking is a very social activity in Belgium and it was common for People back then to Drink alcohol, even during Lunchtime with Collegues, or Socialize after work, at "last Friday Drink" events organized by Work.
Although there was a commonly acceptable taboo on drinking during work, I strongly remember my first boss, Having at least one glass of wine during his morning "warmup" , while smoking his daily Cigar. Every Monday, he would bring his supply of wine and store it in the metal cabinet behind him.
I still have contacts with some of my ex Coopers and Lybrand collegues, +Peter Crombecq , who is now CEO of Digipolis , +Peter Vanbuel , +Guy Lefever as well as +Luc Van Braekel With whom I would go for a drink on friday evenings.
Big Brother isWatching Hearing you ....
During the 80's there were heavy terrorist activities in Belgium. During that time, Many Schools and Businesses, were receiving false bomb threats. This was no exception at the VHTI at the KATHO in Kortrijk in the period around '82. One of the Students decided to play a hoax, and called the equivalent of the 911, reporting a Bomb threat. Unfortunately for him, the Alarm Central had recently moved to a new location, a few hundred yards away from the VHTI, and even more unfortunate, one of his fellow students was doing an internship at the same emergency Central, Working on his thesis for automating certain activities of the Facility. The fellow student was Surprised when he listened to the incoming call of the bomb threat, and immediately found the voice of the caller very familiar... In fact, it was one of his fellow students that had prank called. Needless to say that it did not take long before the local authorities got hold of the Culprit. .
How a Weekly Magazine almost got me Killed.
I was fixed on getting my first computer, even if it meant hauling truckloads of Postal bags with "Knack Magazines" from the Postal Sort Facility at Kortrijk X to the trains in the Train station of Kortrijk. It almost costed me my life.
One day, I had to pull a truckload of postal bags full of Magzines to a train. To get to the train, I had to cross a non-guarded path across the rails within the Station of Kortrijk. I was pushing the 3 ton weighing hand cart, when in the short distance, I see a big diesel engine entering the station, right on the track that I was trying to cross... Right at that moment, the bags with magazines began to shift on the card. As a result, the balanced cart got unbalanced and tilted over, I was holding on to the handles, and suddenly felt like a Donkey hanging over the crossbars of an overloaded Cart in the Streets of an asian suburb. My feet were dangling in the air, and even with my already heavy Bodyweight, I was unable to bring the cart back in balance, let alone, bring me and the cart into safety. Lucky for me, several collegue postal workers heard the train horn, and were rushing to my help. I am still carrying this incident close to heart.
My friend, who had been a fellow student since Elementary School, +Patrick Tack and I shared another hobby, which was Photography.
When we graduated from High School at Don Bosco Kortrijk, Patrick chose to go to Photography School, while myself, although very enthusiastic about photography, did not see any professional future in that direction, and I had 2 major "paths" for my professional career, either in Electronics or in Computer Programming. I eventually chose for the latter, as my enthusiasm for Physics and Electronics was not that advanced (I vaguely remember the cruciating task of upgrading my TRS80 from the original 4K RAM memory - yes thats correct, 4096 bytes of RAM memory, with a Razor Blade and Soldering Iron, with the then expensive 16Kb chip, and it seemed that it required a lot of Math, which at that time, I HATED profoundly due to some 8th grade math - and physics Teacher who coincidentally had a side-job at a major photography store, store which I avoided only for the reason of my Math Teacher working there - whom I will not mention by name My hatred for math would change later, during my college years, but only after being forced to re-learn most of my Algebra and Calculus after failing one Math exam after another. I really got bitten by the Math Bug, after I was desperate and borrowed my brother +Johan Dekyvere's math study book "Engineering Mathematics" written by K.A. Stroud. After Spending several years, re-taking Math Exams and Barely Passing each time, I started to understand Algebra. The Book saved my day (and probably my future career) and I am so thankful still today that I did not give up on Math. This book had Literally changed my life. Soo much, that my thesis work for my Programmer Analyst Degree was about Calculation and Approximation methods for Matrices using Fortran and Basic computer Language programs. During my thesis, we only had limited access to a Digital PDP 11 (Fortran V) , Bull Level 6 mainframe computer (Cobol 6) and a IBM Mainframe (IBM assembler), So I had to be creative writing and testing the Calculation programs. I had decided to write my own Logic using my TRS-80 and its Level II Basic programming Language. This Programming language, although not as powerfull as the Fortran Language, allowed me to use two dimensional Array functionality and Mathematical Functions to to write the Logic needed to perform Matrix Manipulations, and also allowed me to test my logics for the final Fortran V programs and Subroutines. During that same period, I was also interested in Creating Graphs with Computers.
I started out with a simple Biorhythm Basic Program. This was very lucrative.
Magic Biorhythms
Once, I took a sample Biorhytm printout to Class, and suddenly everyone in the class would want their own BioRhytm printout, which as you may know shows 3 periodic cycles based on one's birthday. These BioRhytms were fashionable back then, and people wanted to know what their cyclic situation was, during exams, etc... Even Teachers got interested, and ordered Biorhytms from me, which I eventually started selling on a per page basis.
So even still in High-School, I got bitten by the Computer Bug. I went on a cruisade to get a computer of my own. I took a vacation Job at the Belgian "De Post", the Belgian Postal Office, With the sole intent of earning enough money to afford me a TRS80 of my own.
Being able to get a job at the Belgian Post was conquest on its own, luckily, my sisters husband Johan could refer me to the postal sort facility. - It was at the Belgian Post Cafetaria that, at age 18, I learned the taste for Beer, more in particular, the darker beer. This taste for beer is still present, and I follow closely what happens with Belgian Beers, via my blog "BelgianBeerBlog".
I have fond memories of my Belgian Beer excursions, And I still have contacts with some of my ex-collegues, +Peter Crombecq , who is now CEO of Digipolis , +Peter Vanbuel , +Guy Lefever as well as +Luc Van Braekel With whom I would
It must have been early 1991. When I first obtained the "rented" mobile phone, so we could install our infrastructure in the new Building of Coopers & Lybrand Belgium, at the Marcel Thiry Laan 216, My requirements would look silly today. A few years before, I had just traded in my work Computer from a Compaq II ( the "sowing machine") for the Much Lighter Compaq III (the size of a Toolbox). Unfortunately, the 640 Kb memory were fastly used up with the DOS 3.1 installed, so I needed to use a Expansion Base which hooked on the back of the Portable, about the size of half a shoe box. The Box contained a memory expansion board and a Modem Card.
I still remember the bright orange colored (Mono-color) Plasma screen, which at that time was a real technological High in portable computing. As a member of C&L IT staff, I was one of the only non-partners at the firm to have the privilege of owning one full time, while senior auditors still had to borrow the much heavier Compaq II sewing machines on their Client Assignments. Anyhow, this Portable was a Prized posession, and I would not let it out of sight. At work, we were pioneering "cloning" pc's. and this was the one and only "Master" PC. It had taken me a few months to tweak each flavour of Compaq PC's into seperate instances of the DOS 3.1, and Each Cloning effort would take about half a day with the use of our Magic Laplink Cable and our own proprietary "dos boot disk. (The Compag II and III still used the Floppy Disks, so doing the work of IT was as intense as a very experienced disc jockey...)
So even still in High-School, I got bitten by the Computer Bug. I went on a cruisade to get a computer of my own. I took a vacation Job at the Belgian "De Post", the Belgian Postal Office, With the sole intent of earning enough money to afford me a TRS80 of my own.
How I attained my taste for beer.
Being able to get a job at the Belgian Post was a conquest on its own, luckily, my sisters husband Johan could refer me to the postal sort facility. - It was at the Belgian Post Cafetaria that, at age 18, I learned the taste for Beer, more in particular, the darker beer. Back in Belgium in those years, there was no real Drinking limit, or at least not enforced. I was 17 when I started working at the Post Office.
This taste for beer is still present, and I follow closely what happens with Belgian Beers, via my blog "BelgianBeerBlog".
I have fond memories of my Belgian Beer excursions. Although started during my Vacation job, Drinking Beer was Generally accepted at age 18 and higher in Belgium. I remember the time that some of my Class mates at the VHTI would skip monday morning classes and only come to those classes were real attendance was required, Drunk, and with a disgusting wave of odor over them. Most of the students were Day students or had a "kot" in Kortrijk. They would usually get to Kortrijk By Train, and thus, the Train Station and surrounding area had many Cafe's, on the way to the somewhat remotely located Faculty of the VHTI.
Drinking is a very social activity in Belgium and it was common for People back then to Drink alcohol, even during Lunchtime with Collegues, or Socialize after work, at "last Friday Drink" events organized by Work.
Although there was a commonly acceptable taboo on drinking during work, I strongly remember my first boss, Having at least one glass of wine during his morning "warmup" , while smoking his daily Cigar. Every Monday, he would bring his supply of wine and store it in the metal cabinet behind him.
I still have contacts with some of my ex Coopers and Lybrand collegues, +Peter Crombecq , who is now CEO of Digipolis , +Peter Vanbuel , +Guy Lefever as well as +Luc Van Braekel With whom I would go for a drink on friday evenings.
Big Brother is
During the 80's there were heavy terrorist activities in Belgium. During that time, Many Schools and Businesses, were receiving false bomb threats. This was no exception at the VHTI at the KATHO in Kortrijk in the period around '82. One of the Students decided to play a hoax, and called the equivalent of the 911, reporting a Bomb threat. Unfortunately for him, the Alarm Central had recently moved to a new location, a few hundred yards away from the VHTI, and even more unfortunate, one of his fellow students was doing an internship at the same emergency Central, Working on his thesis for automating certain activities of the Facility. The fellow student was Surprised when he listened to the incoming call of the bomb threat, and immediately found the voice of the caller very familiar... In fact, it was one of his fellow students that had prank called. Needless to say that it did not take long before the local authorities got hold of the Culprit. .
How a Weekly Magazine almost got me Killed.
I was fixed on getting my first computer, even if it meant hauling truckloads of Postal bags with "Knack Magazines" from the Postal Sort Facility at Kortrijk X to the trains in the Train station of Kortrijk. It almost costed me my life.
One day, I had to pull a truckload of postal bags full of Magzines to a train. To get to the train, I had to cross a non-guarded path across the rails within the Station of Kortrijk. I was pushing the 3 ton weighing hand cart, when in the short distance, I see a big diesel engine entering the station, right on the track that I was trying to cross... Right at that moment, the bags with magazines began to shift on the card. As a result, the balanced cart got unbalanced and tilted over, I was holding on to the handles, and suddenly felt like a Donkey hanging over the crossbars of an overloaded Cart in the Streets of an asian suburb. My feet were dangling in the air, and even with my already heavy Bodyweight, I was unable to bring the cart back in balance, let alone, bring me and the cart into safety. Lucky for me, several collegue postal workers heard the train horn, and were rushing to my help. I am still carrying this incident close to heart.
 |
| Imagine this picture, with Me hanging in the air, (instead of the donkey), and getting stuck in the middle of a railway crossing, while a Locomotive train is quickly approaching on the same track only a few hundred yards away... |
My friend, who had been a fellow student since Elementary School, +Patrick Tack and I shared another hobby, which was Photography.
When we graduated from High School at Don Bosco Kortrijk, Patrick chose to go to Photography School, while myself, although very enthusiastic about photography, did not see any professional future in that direction, and I had 2 major "paths" for my professional career, either in Electronics or in Computer Programming. I eventually chose for the latter, as my enthusiasm for Physics and Electronics was not that advanced (I vaguely remember the cruciating task of upgrading my TRS80 from the original 4K RAM memory - yes thats correct, 4096 bytes of RAM memory, with a Razor Blade and Soldering Iron, with the then expensive 16Kb chip, and it seemed that it required a lot of Math, which at that time, I HATED profoundly due to some 8th grade math - and physics Teacher who coincidentally had a side-job at a major photography store, store which I avoided only for the reason of my Math Teacher working there - whom I will not mention by name My hatred for math would change later, during my college years, but only after being forced to re-learn most of my Algebra and Calculus after failing one Math exam after another. I really got bitten by the Math Bug, after I was desperate and borrowed my brother +Johan Dekyvere's math study book "Engineering Mathematics" written by K.A. Stroud. After Spending several years, re-taking Math Exams and Barely Passing each time, I started to understand Algebra. The Book saved my day (and probably my future career) and I am so thankful still today that I did not give up on Math. This book had Literally changed my life. Soo much, that my thesis work for my Programmer Analyst Degree was about Calculation and Approximation methods for Matrices using Fortran and Basic computer Language programs. During my thesis, we only had limited access to a Digital PDP 11 (Fortran V) , Bull Level 6 mainframe computer (Cobol 6) and a IBM Mainframe (IBM assembler), So I had to be creative writing and testing the Calculation programs. I had decided to write my own Logic using my TRS-80 and its Level II Basic programming Language. This Programming language, although not as powerfull as the Fortran Language, allowed me to use two dimensional Array functionality and Mathematical Functions to to write the Logic needed to perform Matrix Manipulations, and also allowed me to test my logics for the final Fortran V programs and Subroutines. During that same period, I was also interested in Creating Graphs with Computers.
I started out with a simple Biorhythm Basic Program. This was very lucrative.
Magic Biorhythms
 |
| Screen Capture of the Actual TRS 80 Biorhythm Program |
So even still in High-School, I got bitten by the Computer Bug. I went on a cruisade to get a computer of my own. I took a vacation Job at the Belgian "De Post", the Belgian Postal Office, With the sole intent of earning enough money to afford me a TRS80 of my own.
Being able to get a job at the Belgian Post was conquest on its own, luckily, my sisters husband Johan could refer me to the postal sort facility. - It was at the Belgian Post Cafetaria that, at age 18, I learned the taste for Beer, more in particular, the darker beer. This taste for beer is still present, and I follow closely what happens with Belgian Beers, via my blog "BelgianBeerBlog".
I have fond memories of my Belgian Beer excursions, And I still have contacts with some of my ex-collegues, +Peter Crombecq , who is now CEO of Digipolis , +Peter Vanbuel , +Guy Lefever as well as +Luc Van Braekel With whom I would
It must have been early 1991. When I first obtained the "rented" mobile phone, so we could install our infrastructure in the new Building of Coopers & Lybrand Belgium, at the Marcel Thiry Laan 216, My requirements would look silly today. A few years before, I had just traded in my work Computer from a Compaq II ( the "sowing machine") for the Much Lighter Compaq III (the size of a Toolbox). Unfortunately, the 640 Kb memory were fastly used up with the DOS 3.1 installed, so I needed to use a Expansion Base which hooked on the back of the Portable, about the size of half a shoe box. The Box contained a memory expansion board and a Modem Card.
I still remember the bright orange colored (Mono-color) Plasma screen, which at that time was a real technological High in portable computing. As a member of C&L IT staff, I was one of the only non-partners at the firm to have the privilege of owning one full time, while senior auditors still had to borrow the much heavier Compaq II sewing machines on their Client Assignments. Anyhow, this Portable was a Prized posession, and I would not let it out of sight. At work, we were pioneering "cloning" pc's. and this was the one and only "Master" PC. It had taken me a few months to tweak each flavour of Compaq PC's into seperate instances of the DOS 3.1, and Each Cloning effort would take about half a day with the use of our Magic Laplink Cable and our own proprietary "dos boot disk. (The Compag II and III still used the Floppy Disks, so doing the work of IT was as intense as a very experienced disc jockey...)
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