"Yep. Same thing happened to me. Gave them fifty years. Started
when I was twenty, not that different from you. Yes sir, I
remember how it felt."
"How?"
"Like someone ripped my heart out and chopped a chunk off it."
For a few moments the man's gaze turned introspective as he poked
at the lime in his drink. "Sound about right?" His lively blue
eyes revealed sympathy, understanding.
This man knows, Peter thought. He managed a small smile and a
nod.
"Son, you're a bright boy. I know all about you. How old can you
be, thirty?"
"Thirty-two."
"Hell," the man said with a guffaw, "when I was that age I'd just
got going."
Crossing his arms over his chest, Peter considered the man with
curiosity and puzzlement. What had the waitress called him?
"Yes sir. That's how old I was when I invented a new system
design that went on to become our standard for the next many,
many years." He took another sip from his glass. "Still is," he
said, jutting his lower lip out proudly.
"What design was that?" Peter asked. But before the man answered,
Peter deduced that there was only one computer standard that had
been in existence that long, and that was -
"The 990."
Peter tossed his head back, and for the first time in months he
let go a huge, cleansing laugh. Of course! Byron Holmes, inventor
of ICP's 990 series, which had become, and still formed the
foundation of, the architecture upon which all of ICP's mainframe
computers were built.
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