I’m a Canadian, boomer, living (again) where I grew up, in Ontario.
At various times I’ve lived other places, most notably, 2 years in Germany in the late ’80s, just before the Berlin wall came down. It was a fascinating time. I’m glad I got to spend the time there, but it also felt good to be home. I guess I am a Canadian boy after all.
I’ve been involved with computers since junior high school, when I built a part of a computer as a science fair project, and had to give the teacher a book to explain what I had done. I wrote the second program for a friend who built a complete 8008 computer from scratch in high school. Years later I met the guy who wrote the first program and we worked together for 12 years.
I formally studied these new-fangled things called computers in high school as part of the math curriculum. By university, the study was gentrified and so I studied Computer Science. After 3 years, I accepted a job at the university computer center, where I worked for about 14 years.
I took a break and moved to Germany to work for 2 years for the German Civil Service on a new thing called electronic mail. At the time, no one knew what that was.
I came back and consulted in engineering and scientific computing for a few years. My biggest client was a mechanical engineering firm, which I eventually joined and ended up running. I sold it in 2007 and worked throughout 2008 on transition issues.