Who Me?

My first day at The Lozenge Corporation was involved with signing in and getting interviewed for a government security clearance. While I waited for my government security clearance, the company wanted me to work at an assignment just above swabbing out the toilets.
I asked the idiot who signed me in, if there was any non government security clearance computer programming work that I could do.
Idiot boy smirked at me and said, "Not unless you have experience writing device drivers."
My experience writing device drivers was clearly listed in my resume, but maybe idiot boy couldn't read. I tell idiot boy, "I have experience writing device drivers, for pay,"
(There are teenagers who have lots of computer experience, but no for pay experience.)
I get escorted to a computer lab. I get furnished a programmer's manual, for the computer that I'm to write a device driver for. I also get an operating system manual for the operating system that the computer runs under.
(Neither of the manuals has much useful information as to how to write a device driver. The lack of information is not surprising. At least most of the people writing such manuals have no experience actually programming the computers that they are writing about and no experience at all with an operating system program. Why do they hire such people to write computer manuals? Well, the writers shined at school poetry and they work cheap.)
The Teletype dates from around 1930 and was used in many, many applications. So, when console devices were needed for computers, the new console devices were Teletypes, as far as a computer programmer was concerned.
The original console devices handled only the first 128 ASCII codes. Nowadays, they handle the full range of 256 ASCII codes and also can output in color, to a console display.
Modern console devices are controlled by a command word. I program my device driver code to input all the printable ASCII codes and to output all 256 ASCII codes. The console device that I use also allows output to the console screen, in a limited palette of colors.
I have done device drivers before and I build in some checking. My device driver will not,for instance, allow black characters to print on a black background.
As I finish up my first device driver, I get visited by the Chief Scientist. At request, I do a demo for the Chief Scientist.
The Chief Scientist is impressed by the driver features that I have built in. He says, "No text and background in identical colors, that's good."
I say, "Support for junior programmers only, of course experienced guys, like us would never make that mistake." The Chief Scientist and I then share a laugh.
The Chief Scientist then says, "You obviously have some experience."
I say, "Of course, temp work only, prior to college graduation."
The Chief Scientist then says, "Talk to me, after you get your government security clearance."
I say, "Will do!"

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