Now you've seen all the ones and zeros that is always representative of "computers" (like in the movie "The Matrix") and you hear folks talk about them, but here is what it boils down to... This is what the teacher explained to the whole class that first day: "Computers have to think in binary because electricity can only be one of two things, on or off." This is why computers do everything in binary. Just for clarification, the above chart is also representative of hexadecimal, but that's the next level class.

Half of the two hour session for the first six weeks was spent in a classroom full of IBM Selectra typewriters learning how to type. No upper and lower case. No Shifting was necessary because everything on the computer was in uppercase. No paragraphs, just learn to type. A-S-D-F ... J-K-L-; (semi-colon). The standard typing tutorial. At that time only girls took shorthand and typing to become secretaries (now, due to political correctness, Administrative Assistant).

Learning the basics, including typing, then on to keypunching, verifying, and leading up to what to do with those (5081) keypunch cards; like feeding them into an 82 sorter, wiring panels for a 401 Tabulating machine, or a 548 interpreter, etc. kept Gary on his toes. This was cool stuff! He was a sponge absorbing every piece of information he could get his hands on. The last six weeks of the class was spent setting up a "company", with Salespersons, Accounts Payable clerks, Accounts Receivable clerks, Inventory Control personnel, and, of course, a Payroll Department. The "company" sold merchandise to vendors, billed them, collected, applied payments to the accounts, then paid the employees their salaries after turning in their timecards. This not only taught Data Processing, but also business flow to all the students. Gary and several others did well. Some didn't understand. But it laid the foundation for Gary to enter the business world with an understanding a lot of people don't find out until they actually go to work after graduating from college.

As a PC Programmer, Gary has designed, developed, documented, written, tested, and implemented BASIC, QBASIC, dBASE III, PFS File, Symantec's Q&A database, Visual dBASE, and multiple releases of Visual Basic, using Access and SQL databases to complete network ready desktop applications. This all started when his brother bought an Apple //c (pronounced 2-C) computer. Using Appleworks, an integrated database, word processor & spreadsheet software package, Gary began designing accounting and invoicing systems for his brother. His brother was so impressed, for Christmas that year, he bought Gary an Apple //c also. When they rolled in an IBM PC at his workplace, Gary began to write programs to do small things and interact with the mainframe. As PCs and their software grew, so did Gary's knowledge of them. After attending several database and language courses for the PC, Gary is able to develop network ready desktop applications as easily as he has done for the mainframe. This, in turn has helped many small businesses in the Birmingham and surrounding areas.