In 1986 our school started a computer science section
for the higher secondary grade and bought a computer and kept it in the
computer room. I peeped into the room from outside, dared not going in. Not
even remember how the computer looked.
In Anna University, Ramanujam Computer Centre was
thrown open to all the students. All of us took student passes and started
visiting the centre in the evening, night hours. Dabbed around with ls,
mkdir commands of a unix system. Remember working in the dumb terminals.
Wanted to do so much, like compiling all the leather chemicals in a computer
database. Nothing came to fruition.
Fast forward to working life in Dewas. During the
first year of working in production, one of my seniors found that
the PC in the R&D department is accessible after working hours, by being
in good terms with the lab assitant. What I enjoyed doing here is the game
of Chess someone gave me. I enjoyed hours playing chess (without having
to find a partner :-)
Now in Marketing department. Computers are a way
of life here. Orders and official documents are processed in a unix server
located in the EDP department, with which we interacted through a terminal.
There were usernames, passwords and data entry operations. I was thrilled
!!!. Letters are written using Word Star in PCs located in the department
itself. Number crunching is done in Lotus123. After sometime Windows-3.11
was installed in one of the PCs, and I had to use MS Word to prepare documents
for ISO 9001 certification. That work was a drag, the machine is of insufficient
specs for the bloatware I guess. I used to spend hours to type simple documents.
When I got some real money in hand in Shanghai,
the first thing I wanted was a computer. A Pentium 166 Mhz machine with
8 MB RAM having a 2 GB Hard disk, 2x CDROM running Windows 95 was delivered
to the office. That opened up the world of World Wide Web to me. I never
looked back. That old computer is still humming along as one of Linux desktops
with a new Hard Disk inside a newer cabinet (same Mother Board, Processor
and RAM that is)
Got a Sony VAIO Laptop when I joined BLC Leather
Technology Centre (UK) in Shanghai. Loved the cute little thing. The bad
experience with Windows 98 randomly crashing and failing to start up/shut
down was the only problem. Manhandled heavily, it died a horrible death a
few months back.
As I came through home pages
of many people, I also wanted to have my own page. There was one site www.homepages.com.
I got an account and put a few lines about myself using their html editor.
sivakumar.homepages.com was a ugly beast. I knew it. Wanted to improve it.
While killing time in Hong
Kong airport on my way back from Taiwan to Shanghai, I picked up Learn HTML
in 24 hours (Sams). That led me to produce Leather Info Pages. When
I wanted to extend its capabilities I was told that I need to know Java
Script and more programming. Wanted to give it a try. and was told that
Java Srcipt is for those who know a bit of C programming. Got a book on C++
programming. Trying to compile and run C++ programs in my Win95 machines
was a big head ache. , stumbled across GNU/Linux and open source. One thing
led to another. Now all our computer run Linux and we develop our product
using opensoure tool sets.
Our business brings Information
Technology to Leather Industry at BSG LeatherLink.