I am about a week into the Code Institute Diploma in Web Application Development…and I love it. As much as I used to love tinkering with Flash. As much as I loved writing BASIC on our BBC Micro when I was a kid. And as much as I loved Apple’s HyperCard. All pretty much obsolete now, but even these minor incursions into tech land have prepared me (a bit) for what’s coming up.
I remember my first IT class. I was around 15 I suppose. For some reason I was sent to the computer lab instead of my Business Studies class, where the Naughty Kids (they have a fab name for them in Wales but I can’t repeat it, it’s very un-PC) were playing on some early version of Windows. I had used a GUI before, but Windows was pretty different to Apple (I’m being polite). One of the kids on the back row sent my PC (in the front row – swot) a message saying ‘ABORT. This machine will self-destruct in 10 seconds’. The dialogue box then began a countdown. I panicked and began to get up to get the teacher. The NKs panicked and dragged me back, explaining the what and how.
It was around then I realised that the NKs had a better deal than I did. I was doing Keyboard Skills (the easiest GCSE ever – type a couple of letters and you pass) and Business Studies on WP machines. They were doing cool stuff. And this, my IBM dad said, was the future.
So I took an IT AS level, and hobbied around tech for ages. I can set up a website, or a simple database, or hack the password on an old Mac, but never seriously embarked on Tech. So here goes…!
