For over forty years I’ve been involved with various aspects of software, but mainly focused on proigramming databases.

After a brief but inspiring introduction to computers as a seconday school teacher at North Border Comprehensive on the BBC Micro, I switched careers in 1984 and became a programmer at British Airways. I started as a Pl/1 programmer on their IMS (hierarchical) database systems and was soon helping to teach it new new recruits.

I left BA to join Metier Management Systems to work on their pioneering Project Management software, Artemis. This kind of software is effectively a specialised database with specific, project related, reporting tools such as the Gantt Chart. In 1987 I left Metier to join one of their rivals, Cheltonian International. Their project managament software was very similar to Artemis but it differed greatly in that it was based upon the market leading Relational Database Management System, Oracle. I was soon immersed in the world of tables, SQL and triggers but there was an older recruit who joined the same day as me that really opened my eyes to a new era of software. Colin Hook was an early adopter of the PC and had soon persuaded me to buy my own and to get into the world of PC databases through Ashton-Tate’s dBase III.

I had a real stroke of luck toward the end of 1998 in Wokingham. I was waiting to be interviewed for a career agency as I was looking for another change as Cheltonian, based in Richmond, was a terrible journey to do every day. Whilst waiting, I leafed through the latest edition of PC Magazine and in it I found an article that I latched onto and absorbed in minutes. It was all about this new product SQL Server and how Microsoft, Ashton Tate and Sybase, jointly, were about to launch it on the PC platform. I think I’d just put the magazine down when I was called in to my inetrview.

“So, is there anything in particular that you’re interested in” was pretty much the first thing the attractive young career advisor asked me. Of course, I told her about my new interest in PCs and dBase and SQL Server. She couldn’t believe her luck that she’d found the perfect candidate for a new position at Ashton Tate to lead up SQL Server training. I couldn’t believe my luck either when, a few days later, I was interviewed by Pat MacGregor in Maidenhead and got the job. They were heady days, being at the leading edge of PC database technology. I soon learned SQL Server, dBase IV and Framework, Ashton Tate’s spreadsheet program. A few months later, I got to know all their products, MultiMate, word processor, Draw Applause, a presentation package, Byline an early Desk Top Publishing program and RapidFile a cut down database.

As 1990 drew closer we learned that Ashton Tate were thinking of cutting their training department down to size and Margaret Swinyard and myself decided to pre-empt the decision and leave, removing their need to pay us compensation. In return, we’d be guarranteed the same amount of training work we’d been used to, for about nine months, which would give us time to build up our own customer base. Margie and I never worked together but I think we both did pretty well.

I started “Customised Training Solutions”, the goal of which was to deliver bespoke, customised training courses. It was great fun for a few years and I had some more lucky breaks, notably being asked to write and then deliver the first training materials on Microsoft Access, Microsoft’s new database. At one point I was giving dBase II, dBase IV, Paradox, Superbase, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase SQL Server training. I has a handful of freelance trainers who we used to deliver courses on our behalf when I didn’t have time and it was a close call to decide to invest in this business and really try to make it grow.

In the end I decided against it and scaled it back a little, concentrating on Microsoft products anddoing more and more database development work with Access, often with a SQL Server back end.

In 1995 the home birth of our fourth child with the aid of abirthing tub inspired me to become obsessed with the so-called “aquatic ape hypothesis” and I returned to academia to try to find out why it was not taken more seriously. My single year’s Master’s degree at University College London really made me want to change careers and, to cut a long story short we ended up emigrating to Perth, Western Australia soI could carry on my studied and do a PhD.

Whilst living in WA, I have continued my IT work, part-time. I’ve done a lot of VBA programming in Microsoft Access and quite a lot of Microsoft Project and Miscrosoft Excel training but as I’ve got older I’ve found it increasing frustrating trying tokeep up with it all. I’ll continue to teach the programs I know but the only database development work I do these days is for my own research.

Algis Kuliukas

Perth, May 2025