Back in my college days, Gabe and I were pretty good buddies. DeathNET was going strong, and we were having fun running it. You heard the legend of his downloading of 1.3TB of data, which got his internet disconnected in his dorm room.
As a result of this, Gabe decided he was out to get the DCC, our computing department, which is portrayed as the Evil Department of Computing Syndicate in the following short I helped film:
As you can see, I have a couple minor roles (playing cards and the exciting finale scene). Good times. Around that time we also constructed a 802.11b antenna from a dish Gabe bought from FAB-Corp, a bunch of packing tape, and my musical horse, Alpo:
He then dropped out and started his own business, called OvernightPC (I still have one of the CDs they passed out at a LAN party). They would come to your dorm room or home or business and fix your machines. The business did alright for a while, but eventually failed. Gabe moved to Portland, OR.
I went to OSCON in the summer of 2006, and stayed with Gabe. He had started running a web proxy service under various different names, like VTunnel. Wanting to expand his business (he was already pulling 6 figures in advertising revenue at that time), he flew a kid from England to Oregon to work on a new idea: Pay VPN service for anonymity. I’m not sure how this ended up working out.
I left after the conference, and the next thing I heard about him was that he moved to Florida and was loving it. Now, he’s at the center of the entire Sarah Palin Email Account Scandal. His service was apparently used to do the email password hacking deed. I’ll have to give him a call and see what he thinks about all this.
Update
I talked to Gabe on the phone today, and he told me he had done a video interview with Fox. It sounds like he’s doing well.
I found that after paying off medical school loans and paying malpractice insurance, and factoring in that most doctors don’t get vacation and work more hours per week than I do, it might not be worth the added years of schooling and the added stress unless you really love what you’re doing. Here are some calculations:
The Programmer
Assumptions
The average programmer makes around $70,000 mean salary while in the work force
They get a 2-week vacation
They work 40 hours per week for the remaining 50 weeks
They start working at 22 and retire at 59. (37 years of earnings)
? (70000 * 37)/(37*50*40.)
= 35.00
$35 per hour
This is assuming the programmer goes to a state school and has little or no debt. Ivy-leaguers might have some more issues.
So, after all that hard work, all those stressful hours, all that worrying about job security (especially for anesthesiologists), in this case they would make about $3 more per hour. Now, I do realize that being a doctor isn’t all about money. This is just a warning for those who are misled by the high salaries. If you believe you would enjoy being a doctor, go for it! But, if you don’t think it’s right for you, you may consider other things that in the end pay just as well.
I'm a computer programmer from Ellicott City, MD.
I go to OSCON often, write random code, and blag about it here.
I enjoy cooking,
reviewing beer, hiking, kayaking, and watching movies and television shows. I am a licensed HAM Radio operator (KB3RXM), and am on my way to becoming a licensed private pilot.
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