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I was once a temp worker hired to transfer a bunch of records from an old, terminal-based mainframe into a newer Windows-based app for an insurance company. I s
by devilbunny 5y ago
I was once a temp worker hired to transfer a bunch of records from an old, terminal-based mainframe into a newer Windows-based app for an insurance company. I spent about an hour doing so and then went and asked the supervisor if their IT department had an old copy of Windows 3.11 lying around (this was Win 98). 3.x had the "macro recorder" that would capture everything - including mouse movement. They did.
I practiced highlighting all the fields, switching apps, and pasting the data. You could only play back at maybe 3x original speed. Then I started my macro running. I had estimated that I could have done it manually in about three days; the macro would do it in about 30 hours and not screw up any of the data along the way. Told the supervisor what I'd done and asked to be paid for two. She said yes and offered me a job on the spot; too bad I was starting med school in a month.
- tomhallett 5y agoIn highschool math, we were learning LRAM, RRAM, and MRAM - where you estimate the "area under a curve" by making rectangles and then summing their area. A very interesting technique but very manual to calculate. I wrote a program from scratch on my TI-82 to calculate the answers and my math teacher said "You wrote the program yourself, so you can use it during the exams. You still have to show your work manually, but it sounds great to check your work." This was a pivotal moment in my path to becoming a software engineer. :)