February 7, 2026
Press F to Reset
Stories from 25 Years of Software Development
From first “HELLO” to hitting reset, the comments go wild
TLDR: A seasoned developer’s 25-year story sparked a comment-party of nostalgia, corporate chaos, and Python setup pain. Readers joked about aging out of “wow” moments, cheered a meeting mic-drop, and argued whether modern tools truly fix old software headaches—proof that shared war stories still unite techies.
A veteran coder drops 25 years of stories—from typing his first web “HELLO” to making an old-school computer instantly reboot—and the crowd absolutely steals the show. One reader, zahlman, lands the punchline of the week: the reset story didn’t just reboot the machine, it rebooted egos. For non-tech folks: he typed a command on a vintage chip, and boom, the computer restarted. Simple stunt, epic vibes.
The corporate saga had its own mic-drop: a meeting where a telecom rep told a set‑top box rep to “just shut up,” which commenters like arcfour called hilariously surreal. The age-and-experience thread hit hard too—1123581321 joked it’s a blessing and curse to stop dazzling people in middle age, hoping to be impressive again in grandpa mode. Then came the spicy, collective groan: “Nothing ever changes”—with jacquesm venting about installers that break and Python projects that depend on weird library versions. Cue a lively split: some argued modern tools finally fix this mess, others insisted it’s the same old pain, just with fancier logos. Overall, the post promised no “lessons,” but the comments delivered them anyway—equal parts nostalgia, workplace drama, and cathartic rants, with a side of susam.com origin-story charm.
Key Points
- •The author reflects on 20+ years in software development, beginning serious programming at university ~25 years ago.
- •A 2001 lab session introduced the author to web development by viewing HTML source in Internet Explorer and writing a simple page in Notepad.
- •This brief HTML lesson demystified the web and motivated the author to build personal websites; the author later acquired a .net domain.
- •On an MS-DOS machine with an Intel 8086, the author used DEBUG.EXE to jump to FFFF:0000, demonstrating the reset vector and causing an immediate reboot.
- •Deliberate practice with made-up problems (e.g., a lift control program in assembly) was part of the author’s university learning approach.