Retired techies, are you still engaged in tech?

[MRG]

Back in the 70s, when I took programming classes in college, included in the grading criteria of many of the classes was lines of code and program memory usage. Even if your program worked you might get a C or D on the assignment if it did not make efficient use of storage and memory resources. Of course, that was at a time when memory and storage was limited and expensive.

I was an assembly programmer for the first decade of my career. Not only did we compete for less instructions, memory but also less machine cycles. It lead to unique solutions that sometimes made for indescribably difficult to understand code.

I remember taking over a bunch of low level I/O routines from a guy who had a big ego. Good developer, he didn't necessarily play nice with others. The only comment in the code was "This was a b*tch to write it's going to be a b*tch to maintain". I spent a week commenting the code so someone might have an idea what was going on.

 

[jollystomper]

The web is a cesspool of horrible coding. Some developers know zero about how computers work. They just design their apps on some IDE where all they know how to do is drag and drop. If something doesn't work, they have no clue why, or how to fix it.

The only IDE I have gotten very used to is Eclipse. I use it for most of my java programming. I find it very convenient for simple apps that just use HTML, servlets, javascript, and JSPs.

I started playing with PYCharm about a year go, for python, but really just use it to check my code syntax. Most of my python (and other languages) programming is still via a good multipurpose editor (like Notepad++ or Atom) and command line execution testing.

 

[mountainsoft]

That's true everywhere in software as well hardware. The code is so inefficient that it makes me mad. But this is the reason we need ever more powerful and bigger SoCs.

PS: In college, I used to compete with friends as to who can write the smallest possible code to perform the task at hand. Good old days.

I learned to program on a small computer that only had 16K of RAM and programs were saved on a cassette tape. I used assembly language to keep the programs as small and efficient as possible to make the best use of the limited hardware (not that I accomplished a whole lot, but it was efficient). Despite ever increasing memory, storage, and graphics capabilities, I still have a hard time letting go of old habits to utilize them. I try to keep my code as fast and compact as possible. Unfortunately, this old dog can't seem to learn new tricks, so I haven't kept up with new resource intensive applications. These days most users seem to care more about style than substance anyway. That's Okay, I'll retire in a few years and let the young whipper snappers change the world.

 

[mountainsoft]

I have no desire to do any type of Web development. Look at the source code for almost any HTML page and it is a mess!

I can't say any of my web pages are things of beauty, but I still hand code all of the HTML and PHP on my web sites (I use HTML Validator to ensure they're coded correctly). I'm far from proficient at it and am often told my web sites look so "80's". I know just enough to be dangerous.

 

[JoeWras]

My very first job was the best I ever had. I wrote the real microcode for a processor. This was custom lower-than-low-level code that actually made the CPU instructions work. I wrote the code that actually created the "ADD" assembly instruction.

Everything was about speed, size and timing. The instruction pipeline designed by our hardware guys always committed 3 instructions ahead. So, if you had a branch occur, the next two instructions would happen no matter what. This took brains, man. You had to use those instructions which would be a potential waste to the best of your ability if you took the branch. If you failed the branch, you'd execute them too. No-ops were possible, but a waste.

Oh, memories. Once I finished that job in the late 80s, I knew I'd never get the chance again. That discipline is so small now, relegated to a few people at Intel, AMD and a few other smaller places.

When I had a few years of that behind my belt, I could add and multiply in hexadecimal in my head. I'd go to a sandwich shop and see $1.16 up on the board, but in my head it was 0x74.

Gee, all this talk has me thinking maybe I do need to try programming again sometime. Nah, not yet.

 

[twaddle]

At the Farm - Three sets of solar panels, three little 1-2kw wind mills, solar golf cart with lift kit and mud tires, Polaris EV with solar panel/Lithium batteries - hobby level nothing serious. Have 50 more solar panels to put up this spring.

As a software guy, I'm discovering that every project I work on also requires me to be an expert on power supplies, batteries, and chargers.

I built a couple e-bikes a while back. With one of them, I managed to produce flames from the BMS. Thankfully the cells didn't ignite. But I was *this* close to becoming a rocket scientist.

 

[braumeister]

Lots of great stuff in this thread!

Having spent a number of years as a freelance tech writer for a number of companies, I have plenty of stories as well. But I'll spare you.

 

[austin944]

Access to a Tech career has been closed off to many people due to the frequent requirement of having an expensive college degree.

It is my dream to change this situation by starting some kind of STEM learning center where people of all ages can come and learn about Tech for free in their spare time, and perhaps start their own businesses, much in the manner that Steve Jobs and Bill Gates got their start
without having a college degree.

It could be staffed by retired volunteers, paid employees, and college student interns. It could get support from corporations or the community or with some help from the businesses started by the participants.

 

[doneat54]

Retired Electrical Engineer, but was never too "Techy" in my career. Mostly did pre production/development support planning and training. So, def not doing any of that anymore. Always been a tinkerer though, still am. 3 antique cars and a hobby/business supporting them keeps me busy. NEVER bored.

 

[Dalmore]

I was more in the network end of tech, but I did my share of coding and building systems. Since retiring 7 months ago, I haven't done anything with a switch or router (hard to come up with things to do around that house that I haven't already done). But I have done a couple of small programs. The bulk of my creative/troubleshooting passion is going into 3D printing and designing. I spend a lot of time making stuff and volunteering (virtually) with my local libraries Maker Space.

 

[Mykle57]

Longtime software engineer. Somehow I thought in retirement I'd find myself volunteer coding for some open source package.

Tried it for a bit and found I've absolutely no desire to stare at a monitor hour after hour (without the incentive of a paycheck). Just today this thread finally convinced me to toss a whole bunch of old programming books in the recycle bin.

Instead I'm building houses for Habitat. Working with a really great bunch of retirees. Feels more worthwhile to me.

So, instead of keeping up with the latest technology I'm digging thru the Uniform Plumbing Code.

 

[bonvoyage]

As I catch up with this thread, I am just beginning to realize how much of an outlier I am ��

The whole point of retirement me is to be able to spend more time actually programming. While I was working, as a senior engineer, I kept getting pulled into systems design.

I have just spent the past month digging into the Swift language and the Xcode IDE so that I can start creating iOS apps. My goal is to release at least one app by the end of the year. It has been a wonderful challenge to do something so different from what I what I did for a living.

 

[JoeWras]

Instead I'm building houses for Habitat. Working with a really great bunch of retirees. Feels more worthwhile to me.

So, instead of keeping up with the latest technology I'm digging thru the Uniform Plumbing Code.

You are my long lost sibling! I could have written this myself.

 

[Animorph]

As I catch up with this thread, I am just beginning to realize how much of an outlier I am ��

The whole point of retirement me is to be able to spend more time actually programming. While I was working, as a senior engineer, I kept getting pulled into systems design.

I have just spent the past month digging into the Swift language and the Xcode IDE so that I can start creating iOS apps. My goal is to release at least one app by the end of the year. It has been a wonderful challenge to do something so different from what I what I did for a living.

While I didn't go out and pick up new skills after retirement, I did finish off an old work project that had been canceled before I got to finish my design and simulation. I hate to leave fun things unfinished. And I did work part time for a few years, which was enough to have fun but get it out of my system.

My biggest programming project in retirement was my retirement optimization program. I included all income sources (and delay choices) and account values and spending and then used an iterative gradient optimization to find the maximum yearly spending amount. All in C, updated each year, and very much specific to us. Another 10 years or so and we'll have reached a stable situation with all income in place and RMD's started and the program will have served its purpose. DW certainly won't want to run it. But I'm surprised I haven't seen more of this here, versus spreadsheets.

 

[twaddle]

... an iterative gradient optimization to find the maximum yearly spending amount.

Sounds like a cool project, but I haven't done anything similar because I didn't know it was a problem I needed to solve.

Now I'm thinking of all the financial things I could automate....

Your post also reminded me to check on the status of gummy and his collection of calculators/lessons. I was saddened to read that he passed last year.

 

[socca]

Longtime software engineer. Somehow I thought in retirement I'd find myself volunteer coding for some open source package. Tried it for a bit and found I've absolutely no desire to stare at a monitor hour after hour (without the incentive of a paycheck)...

Neither do I, so I don't . Like any other hobby, I'm in control of how much time I spend in my programming playground.

App development is popular these days, but I write software to support my mathematical investigations. Math supplies the 'what' and 'why'; programming is an important part of the 'how'.
P.S. Continuing the trip down memory lane, I've used four C language IDEs on Mac: Lightspeed C, THINK C, CodeWarrior, and Xcode (in that order). I occasionally need more computational horsepower than my late-model iMac can supply. I've investigated trying to rent space on a supercomputer, but no one seems to be offering that service AFAIK.

 

[Bullwinkle]

As I catch up with this thread, I am just beginning to realize how much of an outlier I am ��

The whole point of retirement me is to be able to spend more time actually programming. While I was working, as a senior engineer, I kept getting pulled into systems design.

I have just spent the past month digging into the Swift language and the Xcode IDE so that I can start creating iOS apps. My goal is to release at least one app by the end of the year. It has been a wonderful challenge to do something so different from what I what I did for a living.

While I wouldn't go as far as "whole point", freedom to work on my own programming projects is certainly one of the major points for me. They are free from the restriction to be the thing that megacorp most needs right now, and even more, free of the pressure to make money soon, or even make money at all.

Of course lack of restrictions or pressure can also destroy motivation or lead to endless pottering so motivation is a tricky thing. Though endless pottering is only a problem for some, for some others it's the goal!

 

[twaddle]

Of course lack of restrictions or pressure can also destroy motivation or lead to endless pottering so motivation is a tricky thing. Though endless pottering is only a problem for some, for some others it's the goal!

Surrounding yourself with others who have similar interests can help. The work environment used to supply that, and I suppose that's why it wasn't a high priority for me after retirement.

The makerspace changed that for me. Not only have my woodworking skills improved by an order of magnitude, but it was also hugely motivating to find others who enjoy making stuff as its own reward.

The thrill of coding is rooted in problem solving and building stuff.

 

[Bullwinkle]

Surrounding yourself with others who have similar interests can help. The work environment used to supply that, and I suppose that's why it wasn't a high priority for me after retirement.

The makerspace changed that for me. Not only have my woodworking skills improved by an order of magnitude, but it was also hugely motivating to find others who enjoy making stuff as its own reward.

The thrill of coding is rooted in problem solving and building stuff.

I think that's very true, but it means if you have uncommon interests you're out of luck. Still the world is large and there must be ways to search for community, even if it has to be virtual. At the moment everyone is united by a common interest in not catching a dangerous disease, so I assume they're all virtual now.

Maybe I'm overselling the obscurity of my interests though, so if you come across some place where people are designing in music notation for expressive electronic instruments then don't hold back

 

[twaddle]

Maybe I'm overselling the obscurity of my interests though, so if you come across some place where people are designing in music notation for expressive electronic instruments then don't hold back

Can't help with that, but I can give you a venue with some techies who might be interested in seeing a Zoom talk if you'd like.

 

[Bullwinkle]

Can't help with that, but I can give you a venue with some techies who might be interested in seeing a Zoom talk if you'd like.

Sure, why not. I don't know if this forum has DM features, or otherwise maybe there's a public web address or email I could follow up with?

 

[skyking1]

My second jobs were application and server management, and I only learned enough PHP to be dangerous. I built and configured linux servers for small offices, file and application servers, security systems, phone systems. I recently fired my last client, and do very little beyond keeping a home Debian server going. I will probably always tinker with the hardware a bit.

 

[twaddle]

Sure, why not. I don't know if this forum has DM features, or otherwise maybe there's a public web address or email I could follow up with?

Cool! PM sent. I think you get there by clicking on your profile or "User CP."

 

[sengsational]

The thrill of coding is rooted in problem solving and building stuff.

I'm not a programmer by degree, so always felt like I snuck into the club, hehe! I love the puzzle solving aspect.

My coding started outside of work, and it continues now that I'm retired.

Mobile apps were something I set my sites on after retiring, and I've got an app (with 1K+ users each) on the both Android and iOS stores. Not a big user base, and takes very little effort to maintain them. Apple makes me jump through hoops that aren't very fun (a far cry from solving a programming puzzle). Not to mention making me pay $99 plus tax for the privilege of giving away my app to all who want it (Android is free).

Also, 16 years ago I "met" some guys on the AVS forum (home theater PC) and I took the "back-end" programming assignment for scheduled recording of TV programs (another guy took the UI bit). Believe it or not, that project is still ongoing after 16 years. The instigator is now trying to repackage the application to go into the Windows App store (and of course needs me to change stuff). If we get this working, my code will be concurrently downloaded by users from Android, Apple, and Microsoft stores, hehehe!

I can't say I "love every minute of it". As mentioned in an early comment in this thread, setting up the development environments are my least happy moments. But like the OP, the "fun" comes when interacting with the other guys on the project on how best to get something done. And finding that secret incantation that will do what you really thought was impossible. Even dealing with the StackOverflow know-it-alls that really just like to denigrate people has it's charm. There's a nice feeling to answering a few questions and having your juju line head upwards.

The only Raspberry Pi work I've done has been strictly "cookbook", which I don't find very satisfying. This is a Kodi instance, which gets OTA TV from my bank of tuners to play on a stand-alone TV. It's frustrating because I spend enough time to get it working, but not enough time to really understand it. Then it does something unexpected and taking the time to understand it and fix it is like fixing someone else's computer...totally NOT what I find satisfying.

But I find that fixing little things that come up with my mobile apps or my TV recording app is quite enjoyable. I engage with people, albeit virtually, but do come together to get stuff done. We like each other. Some day I might even meet them in the real world (they're all over the US).

 

[InTheSticks]

I had a 35 year career as a programmer and manager. I retired almost 5 years ago to be part owner and manager in a member based recreation area.

I keep the membership and marketing information in an Access data base. It's nice to be able to use my skills to get information out of data base. Even if it only means writing a little VBA.