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Back in September 2003, I was very new to ASP.Net, having been using VB6 or VBScript/ASP before that. I'd done a couple of very basic "Hello world, how are you today?" (i.e. a bit more than Hello World) websites but had a genuine (personal) need to write something meatier. I needed a tool that would read an email inbox, extract messages, parse out, resize and save image attachments, extract the email HTML content, insert formatted details about the sender and the subject, put it all in a WYSIWYG editor and allow me to send the combined thing to a database-hosted mailing list. So quite a few discrete areas, plus some client-side trickiness. I managed it in about 3 weeks, not having used C# before. I've been using the tool since then, initially daily but for the past 5 years just weekly, with virtually zero changes and no significant bugs.
However it irked me that the quality of the code was simply appalling. So last night I sat down and rewrote it from scratch, in three hours. It works better, faster, without barfing over jpg vs. jpeg file extensions, or complaining about BASE64 encoding quirks, and without messing up tabs, em-dashes and other characters in the email texts. I've used some 3rd party components, but back in 2003 I wouldn't have known where to even start looking for them, let alone how to integrate them into my own code.
OK, one would hope I'd sped up a bit from a rookie coder, but it really underlines to me the value that experience brings (plus, it must be said, the evolution from VisualStudio2000 to VS2019).
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Yep. I started c# in 2004, with a password storage app I still use and keep threatening to replace with a much better one - but it works, and I haven't had to touch it for well over a decade.
I know the code is cr@p though - and it irks me every time I use it ... 
One day, one day ...
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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There's this story on the internet, my Google-fu is failing me right now, but I remember it, mostly.
Some guy has an issue with his computer and nothing works, so he takes his computer to an expert to have a look at it.
The expert clicks a single button and the issue is resolved.
"That's €100", the expert says.
"What!?" says the man, outraged, "All you did was click a single button!"
"Yeah", says the expert "clicking the button costs you €0,05, knowing where to click is the other €99,95." 
Not sure where I was going with this, but congrats 
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I think the original of the story involved a fridge and a kick. Same punchline.
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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Here's the original story...
Charles Proteus Steinmetz, the Wizard of Schenectady |History | Smithsonian Magazine[^]
Quote: Ford, whose electrical engineers couldn’t solve some problems they were having with a gigantic generator, called Steinmetz in to the plant. Upon arriving, Steinmetz rejected all assistance and asked only for a notebook, pencil and cot. According to Scott, Steinmetz listened to the generator and scribbled computations on the notepad for two straight days and nights. On the second night, he asked for a ladder, climbed up the generator and made a chalk mark on its side. Then he told Ford’s skeptical engineers to remove a plate at the mark and replace sixteen windings from the field coil. They did, and the generator performed to perfection.
Henry Ford was thrilled until he got an invoice from General Electric in the amount of $10,000. Ford acknowledged Steinmetz’s success but balked at the figure. He asked for an itemized bill.
Steinmetz, Scott wrote, responded personally to Ford’s request with the following:
Making chalk mark on generator $1.
Knowing where to make mark $9,999.
Ford paid the bill.
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Nope, I'm pretty sure my story involved some IT guy clicking a button, but it's a variation on a theme
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I have a DAL that I inherited from another dev written in VB5 using Access, converted to VB6 and SQL Server, then to c# then added Postgre, then added Oracle, then threw out Postgre and added MySQL, then chucked the entire thing out and started again because the code was such a kludge it was barely useable. When I retired I was still not happy with it.
If anyone runs across DBops please do NOT contact me.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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i looked in the mirror, and, it shattered;
shards of flying glass cut my wrists; the
blood became a message on the tiled floor:
unrecoverable error: face can not be null
by the time i found my face, and paid the
ransomware, i'd lost almost all my beauty:
vigilantes were out, hunting for shoppers
trying to purchase mirrors after midnight
there was half a happy meal in the fridge:
i microwaved it so long my cat didn't try
to steal it; my telephone kept on ringing;
i said no to offers of supernatural power
these trifling speed-bumps on the road to
eternity aside, it was a near perfect day remember: [^]
copyright assigned to CodeProject under the terms of the CPOPL license (CodeProject Open Poetic License)
«One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.» Salvador Dali
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Is that the lyrics? They are insane! 
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For days I have been looking for my passport and car papers, turned the whole house upside down, emptied the garbage bins, called colleagues at work if they found something etc.
Today we did search everything again and surprise, the papers were still in my laptop bag.
I had put them in a different compartiment than usual ...
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I have the same problem: I can find anything I put down, provided it hasn't been moved ... and provided I haven't "Put it somewhere safe so I won't lose it" ... 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I chalk all of this and more up to getting older and the gradual decline of mental cognition and memory. If you add stress to this as well, it makes it much worse.
I write notes to remind myself to do things, only to forget where I put my notes, or to forget that I wrote a note to remind myself to do something. 
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This is why Google Calendar knows so much about me ... 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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On the positive side: I only need one movie.
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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Here's hoping it's a good one!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Alas, I don't remember.
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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Did you find my driving licence in there by any chance?
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If you think about it, things are always in the last place you look. Maybe you should have looked there first.
I am very fortunate that my head is permanently attached.
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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Well we looked about 10 times in the laptop bag but just overlooked it.
Good idea about attaching the head!
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All I can say is: ![Rose | [Rose]](https://codeproject.freetls.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/rose.gif)
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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I once spent half an hour looking for my glasses. Finally found them when I had an itch on my nose. 
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Lost my credit card ... for a year ... in a shirt pocket.
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
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A comment by an American commentator got me thinking about this. Basically, he said that there is a tacit understanding between the Russian government and the Russian hackers that so long as Russians aren't affected, they will not be targeted. Now it seems to me that the way that a hacker virus would avoid a Russian computer is to look to see if the Russian keyboard is installed (it doesn't actually have to be used, just installed). Ergo, all American companies & individuals would have to do is to have the Russian keyboard installed, since the virus will first look in the Registry to see that it is there before proceeding with its payload.
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Nah, those viruses check the DNA of the computer user through the keyboard, it is well known that the ENTER key is longer because it includes the wireless DNA test probes and devices.
You are doomed if your DNA doesn't show you eat blinis at least one a week.
Of course, having a picture of Vladimir Putin in bikini riding a bear in the web cam vision range has been also proved to avoid any cyber attack. This method is much better as it avoids the problem of not liking eating blinis.
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