My Years in the Information Technology Trenches, From Data Processing to Information Technology: The Reminisces of a CRUDmudgeon

Showing intimate involvement in the world of computers since 1956, this work sets down experiences, observations, and adventures of one participant from these almost 60 years of information technology development. It shows the importance of a knack for and insight into computer operation including technical distance and computer system flexibility. Because the value of understanding technology is all too often not made clear to today's students and managers at all levels they tend to lack the ambition and interest in technical subjects to become qualified to make decisions regarding technology. One of the goals of My Years is to help overcome this phenomena by showing the importance of technology and related subjects and to show that they can be fun, exciting, interesting, while occasionally being terrifying. Subjects include: Ingenuity/insight into computer software and hardware operation, being a curmudgeon as well as a CRUDmudgeon (showing the importance of the data cycle: Create, Read, Update, and Delete), the process of obtaining a PhD in order to be able to teach technology, as well as technical distance, and (in)flexible systems.