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I agree, webdev is the modern equivalent of a fresh new playground. I started with computers in 3rd grade, logo. It was enthralling. I was enamoured with compu

I agree, webdev is the modern equivalent of a fresh new playground. I started with computers in 3rd grade, logo. It was enthralling. I was enamoured with computers right away. I learned you could stop some Apple games and view the code. I learned you could even print it, (I had reams of printed code I didn't know what 99% of it did, what is a gosub? lol) most of this learning was by accident, as I didn't have a single book to teach me anything, and only 1 other real nerd friend who showed me how to program lowres graphics. (One friend got bootleg copies of games from his older brother though, lol. Anyone remember punching holes on the side of a floppy disk to make it store more data?) I tried over and over to create games, and made dozens of odd text adventures and stupid space invaders games that crashed after a couple minutes of play. In highschool I found (by watching the older kids) about hacking system resources on Macs, and we'd mess with the menus, lol. Pascal was interesting, but I never learned to make anything cool with it. Finally when I got into college, I got some real coding experience, and found out you can mix art (I was a flip-book animating nut as a kid, made hundreds of them) with programming. Eventually the web took over, and I found out you didn't have to "install" anything on someone else's machine ever again, I was hooked. As bad as the web is in so many ways, I never want to go back to supporting other peoples computers ever, ever, ever again. I will take JS hell over that garbage. (Imagine helping a client debug an install issue on a computer over the phone, and he's 2,000 miles away on a Carribean island living it up and blaming your for him clicking the wrong button because he simply refuses to follow your instructions "explicitly" and can't ever be wrong... ugh)

icebraining 9y ago
Imagine helping a client debug an install issue on a computer over the phone (...) Instead, that client is using IE6, doesn't know how to tell you that, and IT restrictions prevent them from upgrading or using another browser. Or they have Chrome and a shitty addon that breaks your site in a way that you can't even imagine. Or they are behind a workplace firewall that blocks some specific domain used by the site. I've done support for a webapp, and I've had to use remote desktop sharing quite a few times.
- RobertRoberts 9y ago
  >Instead, that client is using IE6, doesn't know how to tell you that, and IT restrictions prevent them from upgrading or using another browser. At least _I_ personally can do something about it, instead of grasping at straws and begging someone else to do something right on their end. If they want to use IE, fine, but they only get IE supported features and everything cost 10x as much, win-win. >Or they have Chrome and a shitty addon that breaks your site in a way that you can't even imagine. Dealt with this repeatedly,"sir, try Firefox, it works there? Great, use that instead, or remove the Chrome plugins." I had a client that was in the Beta channel of chrome and had some obscure bug causing her issues, but no one else. I figured that out just fine. Just last week a client had the stupid Grammarly plugin wreck something online, fixed in minutes. >Or they are behind a workplace firewall that blocks some specific domain used by the site. Say, "Call your tech support guys, I am unable to fix that." I can't say that to a guy that is holding only a CD that got mailed to him, because I am the only support then. >I've done support for a webapp, and I've had to use remote desktop sharing quite a few times. Yep, and in the near future this will work in the browser, we are close now. And the beauty of the internet is that if they don't have access, we don't have to debug until they do. (their ISPs/intranet problem) But in the old days, it didn't matter what the issue was, and if the computer was not online, then the only data I could get to debug from was irate staff.

icebraining 9y ago

Imagine helping a client debug an install issue on a computer over the phone (...) Instead, that client is using IE6, doesn't know how to tell you that, and IT restrictions prevent them from upgrading or using another browser. Or they have Chrome and a shitty addon that breaks your site in a way that you can't even imagine. Or they are behind a workplace firewall that blocks some specific domain used by the site. I've done support for a webapp, and I've had to use remote desktop sharing quite a few times.

RobertRoberts 9y ago
>Instead, that client is using IE6, doesn't know how to tell you that, and IT restrictions prevent them from upgrading or using another browser. At least _I_ personally can do something about it, instead of grasping at straws and begging someone else to do something right on their end. If they want to use IE, fine, but they only get IE supported features and everything cost 10x as much, win-win. >Or they have Chrome and a shitty addon that breaks your site in a way that you can't even imagine. Dealt with this repeatedly,"sir, try Firefox, it works there? Great, use that instead, or remove the Chrome plugins." I had a client that was in the Beta channel of chrome and had some obscure bug causing her issues, but no one else. I figured that out just fine. Just last week a client had the stupid Grammarly plugin wreck something online, fixed in minutes. >Or they are behind a workplace firewall that blocks some specific domain used by the site. Say, "Call your tech support guys, I am unable to fix that." I can't say that to a guy that is holding only a CD that got mailed to him, because I am the only support then. >I've done support for a webapp, and I've had to use remote desktop sharing quite a few times. Yep, and in the near future this will work in the browser, we are close now. And the beauty of the internet is that if they don't have access, we don't have to debug until they do. (their ISPs/intranet problem) But in the old days, it didn't matter what the issue was, and if the computer was not online, then the only data I could get to debug from was irate staff.