Hey PhTech, My husband is a software engineer. (I'll ask if he'd like to respond to your post). He has programmed since the late 60s and knows 12 languages (I THINK!) He used to do main frame programming and then was a consultant for Cap Gemini America for 20 some years. I think he's a Sequel Server Visual Basic guy now. He worked as a consultant for a load of Fortune 500 companies, was part of the Y2K team who re-did all of Target's programming (I don't think the encryption part for sure). When I met him, I was working with a large group of deaf adults in an Adult Basic Education Program and had worked with younger deaf students who needed some non-auditory fun software learning games. So my little company started producing educational software in about 1992. Through all those years, Mike worked full time as a consultant and did all the programming in the evenings. We were able to hire a student to do the memory matching game online. We used to sell our software in catalogs, but one company went out of business and we're working to upgrade our software. However, there's just the two of us and only one does the programming. Right now Mike is struggling with making our software compatible with the new Windows 8. (Don't know if I'm expressing that correctly). So anyway, we have never made any money to speak of on our software, but we have a game we customized in a children's learing kiosk at the State Historical Museum in Austin. It's a simple memory matching game for the state symbols. We're able to customize this game for any website, etc. and hope to get other museums to have us design some games for them. However, the technology that keeps coming along is so amazing and comes so fast and furiously, that a small company like ours can't keep up. And that's why you'll never be bored in the field you chose. Just find the people who want to tech talk and enjoy the ride! Take a look at my profile and you can get to our company. If there's a question you want to ask someone whose been in the field for more than 40 years, just email Mike through our website email addresses or email me here on hubpages. Cheers, Billie
