My final blog, ever!
I’ve taken the
title of this blog from the fourth book of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
trilogy (which actually has six books) written by Douglas Adams. It originally
came from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where dolphins used the
phrase as they left Earth just before it was destroyed. People use it as a way
of saying goodbye and acknowledging that their previous experience had been
positive.
I am retiring
at the end of this month, and this is my final blog. And, I have rather enjoyed
myself.
I started my
working life as a science and maths teacher, and I was instrumental in
introducing IT into the secondary school that I taught in. My head of
department and myself did a training course on how to teach IT to the young
people at school. While we were training, I was offered the chance to go into
industry to see what it was like in order to tell the youngsters about it. I
spent three weeks at an IT bureau called Scicon. They offered me a job!
Scicon had an
association with BP. It had Univac computers originally, and I was working as
an operator. I was paid more than I had been as a teacher, and I didn’t spend
every evening marking books, and every holiday planning for next term. The
arrival of an IBM mainframe caused quite a stir. It didn’t work in the same way
as the Univac machines. I learned how to use it and to write JCL. And I became
the one-man support desk for the IBM machines (they soon got a newer second
one). The downside was that I was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Combining my
teaching experience with my mainframe experience seemed an obvious next step. I
got a job as a lecturer with a company called Protocol, which offered operator
training for MVS, VM, and VSE sites. It involved travelling all over the UK and
abroad (Europe and the Middle East). I was soon a senior lecturer and writing
the training courses that I was delivering. I had young children by that time,
and coming home at a sensible time in the evening seemed preferable, so I left
and joined Xephon.
Xephon was a
much more professional organization, with much higher standards. It offered
seminars and publications. I found myself editing their new idea of Update
journals, containing code written by mainframers for mainframers. It was the
days before the Internet and it was a great way to share information. I also
produced some surveys, such as The Help Desk in Action, and I
chaired some of the webinars. Over time, I edited most of the Update
journals for at least part of their lifespan. I also wrote three books, two on
VM and one about automated systems operations.
Xephon was
sold, and I set up iTech-Ed Ltd in 2004. I continued producing and editing the Update
journals, which were then published by US-based Software Diversified Services
(SDS). I also did some other work. At the end of 2007, the Update
journals were stopped. By then, people were sharing code on the Internet and so
sales, which has peaked in the 1990s, were much diminished. I started working
on the Arcati Mainframe Yearbook, and I also launched the Virtual IMS
user group at the end of that year. By the time I sold those assets to Planet
Mainframe, there was also a Virtual CICS user group and a Virtual Db2 user
group. I became an IBM Champion in 2009, and I am still a champion in 2025.
After attending the Guide Share Europe (GSE) UK regional conference for many
years, I started speaking at it in 2021. Last year, I spoke about How to create
Artificial Generalized Intelligence.
In 2008 I
started training as a solution-focused hypnotherapist, and I’ve helped people
using hypnotherapy since 2009. I also trained as a hypnotherapy supervisor in
2012. At the start of 2012 I joined the executive of the AfSFH (association for
solution-focused hypnotherapy). I completed a number of other relevant training
courses. I also gave a number of CPDs (continuous professional development) training
courses. In 2022 I became a Fellow of the AfSFH, one of the first four people
to receive that distinction. I wrote 12 books, and any number of articles and
blogs. In 2021, I started the Solutions podcasts with Cathy Eland, and a
book containing four years’ worth of scripts is now available.
Worryingly, the
school I taught at closed not long after I left. Scicon closed after I left.
Protocol grew hugely in terms of staff numbers after I left and then collapsed.
Xephon closed while I was still there. And now, my company, iTech-Ed
Ltd is closing.
I have written
well over a thousand blogs and articles over the years – not all of them
published here. I’ve written for Planet Mainframe and TechChannel, and other
sites. And I’ve written articles that have been published under other people’s
names too.
In terms of
legacy, the Arcati Mainframe Yearbook (now called the Arcati
Mainframe Navigator) and the three user groups are still going under the Planet
Mainframe banner. Some
of the CPDs I created are now owned by other organizations and can continue
being delivered. My books are available for people to buy. And the people I helped
with solution-focused hypnotherapy are hopefully still benefitting from it.
Thank you to
everyone who has helped and supported me through the different stages of my
working life.
I do have plans
for my retirement, although a lot of my time will be spent with grandchildren –
which is great.
