4 ms·

> As an undergrad he’d been hired at Ticketmaster to program operating systems. Ticketmaster, huh! Does anyone know anything about what they were working on?

by Gracana 12y ago

TTPrograms 12y ago
Maybe he meant operating systems for automated ticket kiosks.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- OldSchool 12y ago
  That's correct as I recall.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
mathattack 12y ago
In the early to mid-90s I saw a lot of strange systems building exercises. Large companies building their own email systems from scratch. Creating their own custom Windows widgets. Building their own databases from scratch. At the time IT was more of a white-glove environment. When the only people handling it were the tools makers themselves, a lot would get done by a couple smart people in some nook or cranny of the organization. Of course this didn't last, as state of the art enterprise software eventually over-ran them, and the experts wound up joining software firms.
OldSchool 12y ago
Ticketmaster in Phoenix, AZ - early times - here's a little anecdote about the bizarre culture I saw there circa 1989-90. I applied there, having an EE degree already and I was called in for an interview. The initial interview consisted of what was more or less a battery of IQ tests. There must've been 30 of us initially. Soon only a couple of us were left after everybody else was dismissed. Apparently having passed this somewhat offensive process, they took more of my time and scheduled me for a second interview another day. I don't recall any names or faces, but there they offered me a job and mentioned some "genius" guy I'd be mentored by. Before I had the honor of meeting this guy we started talking money. The "pay?" $8/hour... Even 25 years ago that was less than half what a freshly graduated engineer could easily get anywhere else in a corporate job. That alone was enough for me to politely decline the offer, but the management attitude and culture was also repulsive. I wouldn't be surprised if they were exploiting this guy at the time and he may very well have been their "genius."

> As an undergrad he’d been hired at Ticketmaster to program operating systems. Ticketmaster, huh! Does anyone know anything about what they were working on?

by Gracana 12y ago

> As an undergrad he’d been hired at Ticketmaster to program operating systems. Ticketmaster, huh! Does anyone know anything about what they were working on?

TTPrograms 12y ago

Maybe he meant operating systems for automated ticket kiosks.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
OldSchool 12y ago
That's correct as I recall.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

mathattack 12y ago

In the early to mid-90s I saw a lot of strange systems building exercises. Large companies building their own email systems from scratch. Creating their own custom Windows widgets. Building their own databases from scratch. At the time IT was more of a white-glove environment. When the only people handling it were the tools makers themselves, a lot would get done by a couple smart people in some nook or cranny of the organization. Of course this didn't last, as state of the art enterprise software eventually over-ran them, and the experts wound up joining software firms.

OldSchool 12y ago

Ticketmaster in Phoenix, AZ - early times - here's a little anecdote about the bizarre culture I saw there circa 1989-90. I applied there, having an EE degree already and I was called in for an interview. The initial interview consisted of what was more or less a battery of IQ tests. There must've been 30 of us initially. Soon only a couple of us were left after everybody else was dismissed. Apparently having passed this somewhat offensive process, they took more of my time and scheduled me for a second interview another day. I don't recall any names or faces, but there they offered me a job and mentioned some "genius" guy I'd be mentored by. Before I had the honor of meeting this guy we started talking money. The "pay?" $8/hour... Even 25 years ago that was less than half what a freshly graduated engineer could easily get anywhere else in a corporate job. That alone was enough for me to politely decline the offer, but the management attitude and culture was also repulsive. I wouldn't be surprised if they were exploiting this guy at the time and he may very well have been their "genius."