downtube42

I went from a tiny company where we worked like madmen, to a big company where everything was slow. I was still in madman mode. When I had new code to burn, I'd start the compile, put a floppy in the drive, run (literally) to the lab, put a chip under the UV light, flip it on, launch the burner program, run back to my desk, hex edit the fresh hex file and update the version number (more on this later), copy it to the floppy, run back to the lab, put the floppy in the burner, put the chip in the burner, and burn. Then I'd grab the test unit and remove the old chip. While waiting for the burner to finish, I'd take a pen out of my pocket and write the new version on a sticky circle, avoid temptation to stick it on the chip that's burning, and wait. The waiting killed me.

My colleagues would come out of their offices to watch me; they thought I was insane.

* For some reason, they insisted the version in source was always 0.0, and we hex-edited the .hex file after compile. Seemed silly. Eventually I wrote some code to do that post-compile.

Good times. Now I go to frickin' meetings all day.