My name is Sal Young and I’m a database administrator for a financial company based in Dallas.
I use this site to write about solutions to problems I encounter while doing my job. I have used technology to fund my bank account for the past 14 years. Although the digits to the left of the decimal have not always been in the quantity or the order I would prefer, the ride has been memorable.
In the beginning, there was “Computer Shopper”, a tree killer size publication which couldn’t be missed at the newsstands due to its size, it was massive. My first PC was a 386SX from Northgate computers and I must have taken it apart and put it back together a thousand times before I upgraded to a 486. I ran a bulletin board out of my garage using one of those white US Robotics modems.
I was first exposed to the database world by my dad’s old friend who was a DBase virtuoso. This guy had a publication for multiple US horse race tracks and would monitor 4 to 6 TVs as the races were in progress. He ran numbers and created his version of the Racing Form but with his own predictions and favorites. His publication got him banned from all race tracks in South Florida -he was very accurate and helped me win some races.
Oh, back to me and how I got to my current gig. Many years went by and I finally got my breakthrough moment in 1998. My first paying job as a developer was using JavaScript, ASP and SQL 7.0. Being Young (always), eager to learn and plenty of idle time, I was able to absorb all the technology stuff that came my way. Since then, I developed the habit of constant learning by doing, reading and research. After several years of more web development at different places, I landed a really good job with a financial company in Dallas.