Petrolia programmer hard at work



Author: Gladys Burritt

Date: March, 1988

Keywords: humboldt county phillip howard interview profile local

Text:
     Separated by mountain ridges and redwood forests from the hustle
and bustle of urban centers, SMUG member Philip Howard works in his
home in Petrolia, writing software for a municipal bond broker, for a
book store, and for a bus company.   
     He says his freelance "cottage industry" is really a result of
suggestions he makes to people he meets (on airplanes, for example) who
share with him their business situations.  He says he is surprised at
how some businesses haven't become computerized, like the accountant he
met who has no spreadsheet program.
     Philip knew he wanted a Mac the first time he saw one, and has a
Mac Plus which he acquired over a year ago.  He is hoping to add a
laser printer to his set-up, and says he also looks forward to having a
Mac II some day.
     He's been using computers since the days of punch cards, when in
1974 he was a high school student taking some classes at Cal Tech. 
Later, computers were part of his work when he studied botany and
biochemistry at U.C. Davis.  He notes how comparatively easy it is now
for his daughter to use a computer to produce a school project or
paper.
     Other projects Philip does on his Mac Plus include writing poetry,
and designing what he describes as a combination of "Etch-a-Sketch" and
"Spiro-graph" pictures using a Hewlett-Packard plotter.  He's also
working on ideas for programs for commercial distribution, one having
to do with plant family identification.  He says his wife is
considering distribution of a disk-catalog of her stained glass
designs.
     So, if you walk into a bookstore in Sacramento someday and sit
down at the Mac to consult Books in Print, you may be using Philip
Howard's software.  Or, if you're riding the bus in Reno, the schedule
of the transit system may have been arranged not by yellow "Post-it"
stickers all over a huge wall, but by a Mac as programmed by Philip
Howard.

Copyright © march, 1988 by Gladys Burritt