1996-2017 ... 20 years in the IT industry – A personal story that became Public (!)

This article is an old promise we have gave to ourselves, that someday we will make a pause in our everyday life and we will try to write down some (or all) of our experiences, since the very beginning of our involve in the Informatics Science. During some of our internal discussions in the Team, many times we were recall services and a past way of thinking. We think that it is a good idea to spread some info or knowledge to our readers. Maybe some people will find the useful, but we are sure that many people will find them funny or interesting.
 
For each member of the Mobility in Life Team, the IT journey started near the 1996. 20 years ago (!).  To be specific, the journey didn’t start simultaneously for all of us, since two of us started their Informatics studies at the University two years later, at 1998.
We are all friends since then, and although we are separated in our main job, as we are working in different sections of the IT industry (from Education, to Health or Telecommunications companies), we have kept our friendship and our passion for IT all these years. Our passion for building and developing new things, either apps, services or ideas.

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Back to 1996….

If you are older than 35 y.o. like us, please ask yourself for a minute how was the things for you back in the middle of 90’s. Probably, some of the first things you will remember is what you were doing at this stage of your life (studies, family, etc), or recall your favorite music artist (I prefer Bon Jovi to be honest…)
If you are under 30-35 y.o, take a minute to read an opinion of an older man that make a huge effort both during his studies and after. Don’t think that we are the super developers or the super IT people and you must follow our directives. You may give us any label you want. The only thing we know for sure for us, is that we tried really hard…and we are keep doing this..
Maybe it will help you in order to choose things and make decisions in your life. Nowadays, everything is completely fast and new, and it can be simple compared to the past. Well…We agree but not 100%. There are some things that didn’t change…

​Informatics (One brand new Desktop Computer – 1990 - before our studies)

I bought my first PC when I was a high-school student, nearly 1992. It was a super, beautiful and heavy one, with a huge screen full of black and white colors only. Keep in mind, that there were only black and white or green and black screens. Some years later a revolution took place: A screen with colors (!!!). Not many: 256 different color in total. If you have never heard of the above revolution is because you weren’t work for the IT.
The first disk that I have ever grab in my hands was a floppy disk or 7,25 inches. It was like I have become a young magician. Using the Operating System of the 1992 (yes, it was the DOS !!!) you could write files to the disk and after a while you could erase them. If you turned off the PC, then the data were kept inside the disk (!). Don’t laugh…It was indeed a revolution.
The next data revolution occurs when a (hard-one) floppy disk (3,5 inches diskette) came generally available, a few years later (!) Just Google-the-above and preview the images. 

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Game Industry: 

When I got my first PC, my first goal of course, was to find out how to play games (Hey, I was a student…). Soon, and after a lot of questions to the people around me (no, there were not Internet, Google or Bing at this time), I realize that there were some dedicated consoles for playing games. It was another magician technology. You just plugged the console into your TV, you placed the cassette inside, wait for the game to load (nearly 20 minutes! ) and you started to play immediately. You have to put some cassettes inside where the game was written into.
Most known game models of this period we can remember: Commodore 64, Atari and of course Amiga 500 and Amiga 1000.  Of course there were games for the PC’s also, but the console games were better. A huge disadvantage of the console games was that you couldn’t save the game or your progress during the game. Every time you opened the TV, a fresh new game was started (level 0 all the time).
What’s the similarity of Consoles and PC’s with the present?  Hmmm… I think it’s the same situation. If you are a gamer, you probably have (or plan to have) a console, like the XBOX or the Sony’s PlayStation. So, after twenty years, people tend to keep their PC mostly for work and buy a new console just for gaming (or a tablet? We will discuss it in a while). 

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​Informatics (just before our studies 1990 - 1996)

​Before we started our studies at the University, we all faced a huge problem, during a very strange period of our life: Our teen hood. At this age, we have to decide what we will study and follow for the rest of our life. Keep in mind, that at 90’s people usually study ONE thing and have only ONE (or maybe two) jobs for their rest of their life…The opposite of what’s happening now.
The first thing I remember from that period is that there was a little knowledge about IT in general. Our most common knowledge and information, was coming from the sources of this period (TV, magazines and newspapers). Many job analysts of this period argued that two of the best sections for studying were Informatics or Economics. Both the two industries were facing a huge revolution those years. But, the most promising of all was IT. And finally they were right. The next 20 years everything was re-invented.
One thing to consider from the above: Job and Market analysts are always a good advisor. They can’t predict the future, but in general, they are proven to be right. This doesn’t change during the last 20 years.