PLEASE READ: Since a lot of people are still reading this post & thinking I actually left Microsoft, I’m adding this note to clarify that this was an April Fool’s joke. Please check the post date. :)
Friday was my last day at Microsoft. It was a bitter-sweet moment for me having been there for 3 years and feeling I’ve done my best to contribute to the web initiatives at this wonderful company. After chatting with my manager Jeff Sandquist, though, I realized that I wasn’t moving in the direction that I wanted and needed a change. It had nothing to do with the company and especially not my peers. I’ve been so fortunate to work with such an amazing, passionate and intelligent group of people, by far the best I’ve ever worked with…ever. And the things I’ve experienced, the work I’ve done and the places I’ve been have all made my time at MS completely worthwhile. It was one of the best decisions of my life to work at the greatest software company in the world. But I really needed to chase my passion and Microsoft wasn’t filling that need for me.
So starting today, I’m going to do just that. It could be that I just turned 45 but I don’t want to look back and live a life of regret for not chasing that dream and working in the technology which is my passion…Clipper.
I’ve realized that this “web” thing is getting stale and people are losing interest in it. It’s all about the desktop again and I want to make sure I’m on top of this new wave. I got my start programming Clipper and remember how powerful it was for building apps and I know it’s gonna be the comeback technology of the next 5 years. Features like t-browse, .dbf files, and the dBase syntax make it so incredibly powerful and an obvious choice for the next wave of immersive and scalable experiences. And I’m stoked because it looks like I can still snag a copy of the Funky lib for Clipper! Even Class(y) is free now! Open source FTW!
Thankfully, Amazon shows 8 used copies of Programming in Clipper 5 and I scored a copy of the Clipper 3.5″ disks on eBay so I should be good to go as soon as I buy a 3.5″ floppy for my desktop. Also, it’s badass that I won’t need to worry about complex OSes like Windows, OSX or Linux anymore. I can finally pop in my MS-DOS 4.01 disks and get back to the REAL terminal, not that fake stuff in those overpriced PCs everyone’s been buying lately! The great thing is that with PCs being as powerful as they are, I no longer have to worry about configuring himem.sys or emm386.exe to get as close to 640k as possible. Booyah!
I’m still going to keep some systems using Windows 8 and OSX around since I plan on using Clipper to build both Win8 and iOS apps. I may also write a Clipper lib to interface with Google Glass. MS-DOS in eyewear; huzzah! I’m sure I can link to them via an RS-232 cable or something.
I just want to close out in thanking all of my buds like @rainypixels, @allenjs, @jeffsand and @ClintRutkas for being supportive of my decision and for @shanselman for bringing me into the fold. You guys have been awesome.
My new company name will be called “I’m Seriously Not Crazy Enough to do This, LLC.”.
Wish me luck!
My stomach sunk when I saw the link to this post – it wasn’t until I got into the first couple of sentences that I remember what today was. Nicely done, Bango ;)
Any chance you will also be doing some work in QBasic?
The lack of the GOTO statement in so called “modern” langauges is really holding back innovation, so we’ve started mapping out a plan to rewrite our site using QBasic as the backend. QBasic has had the GOTO statement for decades, so you know it’s a proven technique for building reliable, scaleable code.
Let us know if you think you’ll may have any availability to do some contracting. I know that demand is really high right now for Clipper contractors, so we certainly understand if you’re just too overwhelmed at the moment.
Rey, you’re making a big mistake. Paradox is where all the action is.
I almost went with Filemaker but Clipper just tugged at me.
I would think a better name for your new company would be called “Bango-shit Crazy, LLC.” ;-)
I almost fell until you “scored” the used discs on Ebay….I have never known you to do anything “floppy”, much less on Ebay! Nice one, Reynaldo. :D
Haha that’s awesome :D, I was thought, whaaa, ok… clipper…hmmm I suppose. then it was all desktop is the future, and I was thinking, really?.innnteresting.. then you said .dbf === awesome and I was like ohhh right its April fools day :D.
I’ve come to always expect big things from you Rey, and you never fail to see the future and pull it down to the present.
Thank you for introducing me to Clipper, I wonder through, what about taking clipper international and having Clipper#? I’ll handle the sharp part for you.
Rey, thanks for making me smile. But seriously were you aware there’s actually an open source version of Clipper? http://harbour.github.com/
Haha nope I didn’t. Good things die hard I guess. :)
Follow your passion Rey! ;-)
So sad… I actually got excited when I first scanned your post and saw the first mention of Clipper. I have the unenviable task of managing an old FoxPro 2.6 (yeah… DOS!) app and I do so by bridging it with ColdFusion and thought I’d have a partner in misery!
Knowing you pick something “outrageous” for an April Fool’s joke makes my reality even more pathetic! ;-)
LOL! Legacy systems will never go away but that doesn’t stop you from building something awesome with modern technologies…even on the side. :D
You seriously suck. I damn near picked up the phone after the first sentence, skimmed and saw clipper. You ass.
;)
I aim to please. ;)
Wow… I honestly was thinking… wow, he’s left Microsoft because he’s lost his mind… Ah well…. Good thing I clicked on the RSS Article link and discovered the joke, sure got me!
LOL. Seems a lot of folks thought it was real. My work here is complete. :)