Blogging… in some cases, blogs seem pretty self-indulgent. Narcissistic, even. Do you spend time reading blogs? I usually don’t, unless the blog tells me something interesting. So that’s going to be our guideline here.

My forum name, Big Iron, pays tribute to my background as a mainframe programmer. In the old days, we had titles of programmer, systems analyst, and project manager. We didn’t call ourselves “developers”, far less “software engineers”. I wrote my first program in IBM Autocoder on a 1401. Using coding sheets and a pencil. Seriously. And it even worked!

Over the years, there was a lot of FORTRAN, COBOL, PL/I, SAS and SPSS and RPG. Then came the transition to client-server computing, mostly on Sun and Data General, and then the PC platforms. And now, I help people rebuild those old systems using new technology, for a new lease on life.

I may say things here that are controversial. Sometimes, I may take a position to promote discussion and argument. Hopefully, whatever you read here will be thought-provoking, and will contain something of value that you can use in your regular work.