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I really started Freelancing after leaving Dataskil in Johannesburg in 1972/73. I set myself up as a Company "Curley Computing Pte" (what a good name!!) and then found that although Freelancing/Contracting/Consulting (whatever you want to call it) was well developed/accepted in the UK - it was a new concept to South Africa. So for 6 months I found I was "selling" the idea of Freelancing, rather than selling myself.
This wasn't my proudest hour.... 6 months - and I did not one hour's worth of chargeable work!!
Decided to get back to Europe - ended up back where I'd come from (West of London), joined a couple of mates (Paul Basson and Jim Davies) at Systems 70 (Mike Waller had pulled out by this time) - a smaller version of 1900 Programming - where the industrial unrest of the Miner's Strike and the 3 day week - completely upset any growing/profit plans we had, differences occurred and I left after a year or so - in 1975.
I fell into Freelancing within a day or two of leaving Systems 70 - initially working in Oxford on a 6 month project.
I so enjoyed the "freedom" that I continued Freelancing from 1975 until 2000 - when I retired. See if we may have crossed paths...... I've added names that I remember, sorry if you're not there - blame my brain!! I'd love to hear from you though.... djmikecurley@gmail.com
Dates: June 1975 ? February 1976
Company: Pergammon Press - Oxford
Systems Testing multi-user, Multi-threading Journals Subscription system on ICL 1900's. Wendy, Bob, Jamaican lady ? Morven ?, big young guy ? David ?, Rita ? went freelancing at CITB
Dates: February 1976 ? August 1976
Company: Cannot remember their name - was it SCICON ... subsidiary of BP, big Computer Bureau operation Univac 1100 Series - Milton Keynes
Programming for Japanese client - Mitsui - who was I working with?? can picture his visog, but the name escapes me - Dave ?? (Team Leader), secretary lady..
Dates: August 1976 ? December 1976
Company: Bell & Howell - Ashford Middx
Designing eye-readable titles for COM-microfilm, in Farsi (language of Iran) ? and programming it, using DEC PDP 11 and Honeywell Level 66 hardware! Mike Waller, Dan Fenner, Penny Chilcott, Peter ??, secretary Maureen ??, secretary Lynne, Greg ??, Mike Warner
Dates: December 1976 ? September 1977
Company: British Leyland - Cowley, Oxford
Systems Design of Front/Back ends to a Linear Programming Package, which allocated products (cars) to the most profitable country/markets - they were almost always in the happy position of having more orders than they could supply! Welsh Team Leader, Jenny ??, two older gentlemen??
Dates: September 1977 ? January 1979
Company: Bell & Howell - Ashford Middx
Sales/support role - this was a full-time permanent employment position - my only dalliance!! As before...
Dates: January 1979 ? April 1979
Company: Small Software House headed by John Hayles - Windsor area
Cobol programming ? convert existing Data General Packages to Honeywell Level 6.
Dates: April 1979 ? March 1982
Company: Charles Letts Diaries - Dalkeith, Edinburgh
Initially a consultancy role, advising on which systems to automate, and selecting suitable hardware. Thereafter ? investigate, design and program Production Control, Payroll, Bonus and Purchasing systems. Liam Swords (who is now executive chairman of LCCIEB - see...), Ian Nelson, Craig Dewar, Derek ??, Ena, Brian, Hugh, Maureen Brown, Bernard Morocco (great name!!), big ?Willie? in the print, John Braithwaite, Mike Costello
Dates: April 1982 ? April 1983
Company: Aramco - Dhahran Saudi Arabia
Worked in "Advanced Office Systems" which was responsible for defining ?standard office hardware/software?, then evaluating individual departmental requests for purchase of same. Rick Chandler, Talal Mousley, Bob ??, Patrick Lamp
Dates: May 1983 ? November 1983
Company: Charles Letts Diaries - Dalkeith, Edinburgh
Continuation of earlier project
Dates: November 1983 ? May 1984
Company: Chicago Bridge & Iron - Leicester Sq, London
Automating procedures for their Treasury Department using IBM PC's and Basic, 1-2-3 & Symphony. Rodney ??, John, Chinese lady??
Dates: May 1984 - May 1986
Company: Philipp Brothers - London
General PC support, including defining the PC policy. Investigated, designed, programmed (dBase then Clipper) and implemented 2 Position Tracking systems for Aluminium and Petro Dealers. Also worked on the Precious Metals London/New York communications link using Crosstalk. John Heliwell, Marc Levine, Roger Thrale, Colin Newbury
Something's gone wrong with my memory, because for a period on months (if not years) I can remember the following "killing" schedule, when I had 3 projects on the go at the same time - each of them got around 35 hours each week!!:
09:00 Monday morning in to Philipp Brothers in the City, until 17:30/18:00
18:00 into Chicago Bridge & Iron at Leicester Square until 23:00
Catch the last train home (23:33) from Marylebone
Pick the trusty Beetle up at High Wycombe station and drive home - into bed at 01:00AM
05:30AM - rise and shine - Beetle to station
Into Chicago Bridge & Iron for 07:15 AM
Work there until 09:15 - then off to Philipp Brothers in the City
Repeat 1. to 7. until Friday evening at 17:30/18:00 leaving Philipp Brothers
17:30/18:00 off to Heathrow - fly to Edinburgh
Straight in to Letts Diaries for around 20:30/21:00 work until 01:00AM
Saturday & Sunday - into Letts for 08:00AM until 22:00/23:00
06:00 AM Monday morning - fly to Heathrow - and go straight into Philipp Brothers.
Back to number 1.
Dates: May 1986 - May 1988
Company: Banque Paribas - London
Research Department using Basic and Clipper to produce systems that fed graphs and charts to their publications. Portfolio Evaluation was the main system, analysing Bond Yields and Prices in the EuroBond market. Doug ??, Gilman Gunn III, Preety Pancholi, Joanne Smith, Jean Louis Pezet (News, News - Update - last night on TV (18th January, 2006) on BBC Prime there was a programme called "Cash in the Attic" - scene was an Auction house in Chiswick - and there was a miserable looking, greying JLP bidding - the camera focused on him a couple of times), Harald ??, Arif Sherani, Greek lady..??Anastasia??, blonde secretary, Joanne ?? went to Paris, young guy - Gilts then into IT, Barbara ?? Chief Programmer went to Greece, Ken ?? IT Manager went to ABN-Amro
Dates: May 1988 - June 1993
Company: Union Bank of Switzerland - London
Many Clipper based projects including: Accounts Management Information System, Shareholder Analysis, Performance Risk Requirement, Marketing, Buy/Sell Opportunity Matching, Precious Metals Front and Back office, European Companies Database etc.. Wayne Stinton, Nolan Phillips, ?? Harvey, John Thompson, Roger Thrale, Kim Dinh, Les Bradley, Jeremy Hine, Helen Gaudern, Seton ??, Kevin Stirrup, Neil Guild, Simon McDowell, Richard ??, Barbara Bull, Val and Pat
Dates: June 1993 - November 1993
Company: Prudential Bache - Money Brokers - London
Wrote the Order Acknowledgement (backup) system in Basic which retrieved Orders from other Dealers via electronic mailboxes, matched the buy and sell requirements, and then acknowledged the trade. Alistair Donald, Bernie Ould
Dates: November 1993 ? December 1995
Company: DHL International - Hong Kong
Have some pictures from these recent contracts - Recent Work Colleagues...
Investigated the feasibility of replacing the world-wide Billing system with a new one - No-Go! Proposed a move to Unibol and then via gradual enhancement to a modularised Informix based system. Worked on the design, programming and implementation of one of the new Billing system's modules - Customer Master File - using the Erwin design tool and Powerbuilder, with on-line help provided via Doc-to-Help. Implemented in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur. Mike Waller, Steve Wells, Travis Pitman, Edmond Wong, Rosanna Kwan, Ian Morrison (Wombat)
Dates: January 1996 ? June 1998
Company: SG Securities - Hong Kong and Singapore
Supported a Front-Office global Dealing System. Implemented a Back-Office Settlements system. Both of these were Oracle & Visual Basic. Supported Client Information system (Lotus Notes). Helped with migration from Windows 3.11 to NT 4, and from Outlook to Lotus Notes. Nolan Phillips, Craig Sanderson, Simon Walker, Steve Cartland, Simon Matthews, Peter Fowler, Henry Lui, Joseph Tan, Chetan Garga, Another lady, Lim Poh Lan
Dates: July 1998 ? 31st March 2000
Company: Dresdner Kleinwort Benson - Hong Kong, Singapore & Tokyo
Responsible for all aspects of the Y2K Project in 7 offices throughout Asia, covering approximately 1,000 staff with a team of 10 (5 in Hong Kong, 5 in Tokyo) plus others from time to time. Activities included budgeting, hiring, planning, reporting to Head Offices in London and Frankfurt as well as Regional Head Offices and local Regulators, meeting and liaising with other Project members on a Global scale. Steve Cartland, Simon Maclean, ?? Tsaw, Richard Leung, Joseph Tan, Alice Pin, Eric Lau, Enrico Savorelli, Reiko Ito, Yu Shizuma