What's it all about, Alfie?

Well... June 25^th, 2001 to March 3^rd, 2009 - that's 2811 days - 7 years, 8 months and 9 days. That's a long time. There's been a lot of things that have happened in that time. The kids were a lot younger... I was a lot younger... and in the years a lot of things have changed... and a lot of things haven't.

I remember first coding the MarketMash client in Java on JBuilder on Windows. There was a lot to learn about the infrastructure I was going to be using, and then there was the "Server". This giant mysterious box that (set of boxes, actually) that were the "other end" of the calculations. I can remember there being a lot of problems in the beginning - still really building the way that the code needed to be built. But it was important to minimize the downtime and get the most features out to the client as quickly as possible.

There were a lot of interesting projects - the CacheStation... the MarketData Server... lots of projects that rose out of the ashes of other people's mistakes or poorly written systems to become some of the best code I've ever written. Stable, solid, reliable... just like a toaster.

There have been a lot of characters over the years as well. I'm proud to say that I count the traders as some of my biggest fans. They appreciated the productivity, and understood that "all politics are local" (great quote to me from a trader). They liked what I could do for them, and I did too. There have been exceptions... one trader accusing me of being racist... another refusing to let me eat lunch until I explained some of the workings of a project to him... not all great memories, but all very valuable ones.

I've had the joy to work with some of the finest people I know. I've also had the pleasure of working with some of the worst, and yes, I mean pleasure. If it hadn't been for these people, I'd have never known how really horrible some people can be to others, and duplicitous to boot. It's a lesson that I need to constantly remember in this business where you need to make sure you understand who your friends really are.

I'm winding down... packing things up... having a last burrito for the road. It's going to be a mixed-bag, I'm sure. Some people scrambling to get a little more knowledge from me, and that's going to be stressful for them - and me. But in the end, when I walk out the door for the last time, it's just that - the last time.

Lots to remember... and never forget.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 at 8:55 am and is filed under Cube Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.