Frivolous Friday, 08.05.2011: Computer Camp

Don't ask me why, but last night I realized that thirty years ago, Mom sent me off to computer camp, offered by the local University. A magical place of wonder and discovery in the camaradarie of fellow fledgling geeks. Where, even with all the excitement and exercise of the day, there was still plenty of energy left for a good sing-along by the light of our laptops' monitors. No doubt anyone who remembers computer camp remembers standard fare like:

On top of the LAMP stack,
And hosted domain,
I wrote my first web app,
But deployed it in vain.

I thought that my code had
Refused to compile--
I'd forgotten to roll my
own .ini file . . . (1)

No? Hmmm...maybe that one was just a regional variation. What about:

Once a web designer camped in a coffee-shop
Surfing the Eight-oh-two-eleven-g,
And he raised a round of funding and chatted the barista up:
You'll come and found the next Twitter with me! . . . (2)

Still no? Well, then, perhaps your crowd was musically talented enough for rounds like:

Linux kernel (Linux kernel)
Beta-trial! (Beta trial!)
Check it out from GitHub: (Check it out from GitHub:)
make-compile! (make-compile!) (3)

Or, maybe it was your first time at computer camp and you didn't know any of the songs. And it didn't matter so much, because somehow you found yourself sitting so to the dreamy-eyed guy whose hand had brushed yours as you both reached for the same cafetaria tray at lunch and then blushed. Then, IM-ing under the cover of the music, you learned that you shared the same preference for strongly-typed languages and ANSI-style indentation. And, suddenly, the concept of "pair programming" didn't seem like such a bad idea to a lone coder...

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Lovely memories. Certainly more charming than the reality of computer camp circa 1981, what with the "terminals" being large, noisy typewriters with greenbar paper feed--i.e. no such thing as a monitor except for the one immediately commandeered by the fastest kid through the door. It's just as well that Mom doesn't know I blog, or I would sorely disappoint her now with the knowledge that, after awhile, I grew bored and sneaked off to the University Library instead. Thus dropping into more of a Liberal Arts vortex and setting back my programming career by about, oh, a dozen or so years.

But, although life comes equipped with a rear-view mirror (which should be used), it alas does not have a gear for "reverse." Yet--to extend the metaphor--making so much as a lane change might have meant never knowing some of the dearest people I know now. Something I wouldn't trade for all the money in Silicon Valley.

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(1) Sung to the tune of "On Top of Old Smokey"
(2) Sung to the tune of "Waltzing Matilda"
(3) Sung to the tune of "Frere Jacques"