[metlcre8or]

I wouldn't presume to speak for everyone, but I'm sure many of the people on this forum are probably in the same boat as me. I run a small independent fab shop and these days we turn away practically no work. This doesn't leave much time (or energy) to spend on-line.

[metlcre8or]

kermdawg, sros,

Is this a trend?

I welded my first bead when I was thirteen. I learned to program a computer the same year. I'm giving away my age, but the primary languages were BASIC, PASCAL, FORTRAN, COBOL, and assembler. The Apple IIe was the most advanced small computer available. In high school, as I was getting half-decent at running a bead, I was competing at the international level for programming in BASIC, and managing the computer lab at the elementary school.

I wonder if there is a correlation between welding skills and computer skills?

Otto,

I have been involved in computers since 1968 (when computers were the size of a small house and had the power of a cheap digital watch), have 17 computer related patents, been Engineering VP, COO and CEO of several computer peripheral manufacturers. I can, and have programmed in nearly every computer language known. Today I own a small independent fab shop, enjoy welding and machining parts, and only use my computer (a Mac) for CAD, internet searches and email.

Working with metal is far more satisfying than anything done with computers.

Bill the metal creator.

[Otto Nobedder]

Bill, that sounds about right.

I've programmed an Altair with the flip switches and register key. I think it had 256 bytes of RAM.

My brother was a Marine Corps specialist in computers, and "installed" programs with punch-cards.

Thanks for the history lesson, and the reminder of my age.

Steve

[kermdawg]

I have been involved in computers since 1968 (when computers were the size of a small house and had the power of a cheap digital watch

Yep, thats goin in the sig :):)

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Just scrolled down out of curiousty and the earlier post I could find was from Oct 2009. I think theirs been a board change or two, but if thats as old as the site is, theres a real possibilty alot of people just dont know about it and the community hasnt had the time to grow yet. I mean, thats less than 2 years old.