Hong Kong Computer Society - enterpriseinnovation.net

apidly escalated and the bank upgraded
its computers to S/360 40s, then to S/370
145 units.
HSBC owned a controlling interest in
Hang Seng Bank and the computer systems
we developed were used in both
banks. A vivid memory of the 1970s was
the annual snake dinners hosted by Hang
Seng Bank at their headquarters. Senior
bank staffs were expected to attend these
dinners for their customers every night
for the better part of the month before
Lunar New Year.
CWHK: Did your bank experience ever
converge with HKCS duties?
CWHK: What was the view of education-
al institutions tution
towards IT?
Kong. Leaving aside stock market collapses,
the economy climbed ever wards and wealth creation was enor-
upmous.
Confidence was buoyant and the
resistance to new ideas and new ways of
doing business negligible. We just got
on with it and did it, care less of the risk
of failure.
A vivid memory of the 1970s was the annual
snake dinners hosted by Hang Seng Bank at their
headquarters
— John Strickland
JS: In 1972 I was elected Treasurer of
HKCS. I kept the accounts on punched
cards, but had little awareness of accounting
standards. In any event I managed
to persuade Carlye Tsui, the HKCS
Honorary Auditor that year, that everything
was in order at the end of the year.
She succeeded me as Treasurer the following
year and I moved on to be Vice
President. Carlye is now Chief Executive
of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors
and has held many public service positions
contributing to the community during
her career.
JS: The only tertiary ti institution in the
1970s that paid much attention to computer
science education was the Hong
Kong Polytechnic. I joined the Computing
Studies Advisory Committee in
1973, under the auspices of Con Conway,
husband of Carlye Tsui and one of
the grand old men of Hong Kong computing.
Vir Gulati then headed up the
department. He was later succeeded by
Graham Mead who made a significant
contribution to training the next generation
of Hong Kong’s programmers and
systems analysts.
CWHK: Can you cite the biggest differences
from working in IT in the 70s and
80s versus today?
JS: The 1970s were a hugely exciting
time to be in the IT profession in Hong
Of course there have been significant
changes—in the 80s and 90s IT was
seen as a very attractive career path
whereas now it is not. The times were
so different, we were nose-deep in the
technology, we understood in detail the
machinery we were using, whereas today
you sit down in front of a PC and
there are so many layers between you
and the computer—it’s much more
complex today.
Today if there is a problem to solve,
you reach for the software package
whereas we’d start pulling cables and
opening up boxes. 3
www.cw.com.hk
Nov 2009 Computerworld Hong Kong 21