Hacker Perspective: Diana K

Some may think that a person becomes a hacker by learning how to become a hacker.  For me, it was about solving problems as it was for my dad.  I actually became a hacker at age seven when my dad taught me how to use a GE-635 mainframe using a Teletype ASR-33 with a paper tape reader and punch to load BASIC and FORTRAN programs.  He also taught me how an IBM 404 plug programming board worked.

In 1989, I was starting my first position as a medical researcher in charge of a FACS lab.  When I went to the bank to open a checking account, the clerk thought I was manager of a bunch of fax machines.  In actuality, FACS is an acronym for Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting and my lab had a BD FACStar Plus with an HP 9000 and IBM PC computer.  I watched Real Genius that year and was surprised the same equipment was used in the movie.  The purpose of "the machine" (or "space shuttle" as it was called) was to collect data from blood samples.  The machine was like a water microscope where cells pass through a column and were sampled via a laser beam with five parameters collected then.  Now it is about 22.  Then, the data would be put on the HP 9000.  The issue that existed was that the HP 9000 used specialized 3.5 inch disks and the disks were not easily translatable to an IBM PC format.  Also, the HP 9000 was the only computer for processing and analysis.

Around 1990, we moved out to Wauwatosa near the medical college of Wisconsin to expand and become closer with "the flock" as one county director referred to us in the groundbreaking talk.  Then, the problem was that to send 3.5 inch HP disks to various departments, it usually meant I had to drive from the Milwaukee County Research Park back to the downtown site by taking a route I could drive in my sleep: Watertown Plank Road to Highway 100, then east on Wisconsin Avenue with a detour on State Street passing by Miller Brewing (as the Wisconsin Avenue Bridge was under construction), and to downtown Milwaukee at the western edge of Marquette University campus and the original research building.

I was getting frustrated with having to drive the disk over to the research site and thought maybe I could hook up the HP 9000 to the IBM PC which was linked to the IBM mainframe network used downtown to save time.

I saw in the lab a GPIB-488 box connected to the IBM PC; the HP 9000 had the corresponding connector for the GPIB-488.  The only issue was programming it.  In doing this, I had to watch my back as two IT guys who were nicknamed "the Bobbsey Twins" would try to see what I was doing and they didn't want any changes unless they approved them.  They thought they ran my lab and I reported to them when I actually reported to the Navy as it was the time of "Desert Shield" and "Desert Storm."  I was a medical contractor.

One colleague who was my right hand, L, would watch and inform when the "the Bobbsey Twins" were prowling about.  She was also a good friend.  L warned me "the Bobbsey Twins" had heard I was planning to interface the HP to the IBM PC and IBM network.  I was told that E, the big guy in IT, wanted to see me pronto.

The hack I performed had been working for about a week before I was discovered and many in the Wauwatosa and downtown research sites thanked me for the link; it meant that they could start analysis of data sooner and in a format that was more friendly for research publication.  The hack involved me writing a TSR (terminate-and-stay-resident) program on the IBM PC using an early edition of Turbo Pascal and a support program using HP Pascal 3.1 on the HP 9000.  The program was written with a simple text-based, command mode interface to make it easy to transfer the contents of one HP 3.5 inch disk to the network or to an IBM PC disk on the PC at my desk.

When I was writing the program, L was surprised at how fluid I was writing the code - almost like taking dictation.  Also, she was impressed that I solved a problem that everyone bitched about for three years which no one could solve with all the PhDs, MDs, and MSs present who claimed to know how to program.

I used a block size of 256 with two logical 128 blocks like CP/M did on my trusted Osborne 1 computer I still used.  Also, I added a simple handshake queue for pre-sending and a handshake transmit for storage on an IBM PC floppy or via the network.

At that time, many of us were using Kermit to transfer files from the minicomputer at my alma mater to our computers.  I used my Osborne 1, a TI-99/4A, and a new Radio Shack laptop.  At work, I migrated from the Osborne 1 to the Radio Shack "IBM PC-like" laptop.  It was 25 pounds versus 15 pounds and used DR-DOS (I hated MS-DOS and only used it if I had to).

The big showdown: E feigned welcoming me into his office.  He closed the door and then began his shark attack, which went like: you're a lone wolf, I'm going to report you to IBM and blacklist you, I'm going to ban you from using the HP, blah, blah, blah.

There was something E forgot.  When E finished having his old Milwaukee loudmouth outburst, I gave him my response which consisted of two claims: first, this lab was not under his control and second, if he wished to challenge this, he could call the admiral I was working for in the Navy.  I gave him his phone number with area code 202.

E turned from a shark to a shark who had been speared.  I said I had work to do and walked out of his office.  The people in the IT department looked like they saw something that had never happened before.

L greeted me on my return as she was the person who had previously worked in the lab who had been shocked by E's "management style."  L saw that I wasn't shocked, and that I was actually smiling.  When I returned to the lab, I received a call from a colleague at an East Coast university asking if I could share my code with the community.  I did.

So, the TSR and HP 9000 app program became my first open-source contribution.  I still contribute to open-source today (username "diana1k") with quite a few projects.

I had a second experience of being labeled a hacker and becoming a hippie at my alma mater.  It was 2015 and a friend of mine and I were both interviewing for the same position as adjunct professors of computer science in the business school in 2000.  I passed because I felt the business school approach to computer science was too limiting and instead worked with other hacker teacher communities.

As part of my effort at continuing education, I took two graduate computer science courses in computer architecture where I learned VHDL for simulations and was able to develop my own VHDL simulator (because I felt some VHDL companies wanted too much in fees).

The first day of class started for my computer architecture course and I came to class with my Dell laptop, notebook, and pen.  As I entered the class and prepared to listen to the lecture, I noticed many students busy typing on social media, so much that the clacking of typing was easily heard.

The lecture started.  I began to take notes with a paper and pen like we did when I was in graduate school at the University of Phoenix for my MBA and my doctoral studies.  I received the strangest looks even from the professor who is my age.  She was wondering - and the students were wondering - if I were someone who had fallen to Earth from the past.  The method I used in the lecture was a fusion of when I was an undergraduate in the early 1980s and from my online studies at University of Phoenix.  The method and strange looks continued on during the class.

In April it was about 70 degrees and, like I did in the past when I studied at my alma mater, I wore socks and sandals.  The new chancellor saw this (she was my age too) and said "who is that hippie!"  I heard this and chuckled.  A friend who is a professor tried to explain that in my older age I had become a hippie and a hacker compared to when I studied in pre-med and comp sci in the early 1980s - sort of like going through a middle-aged crisis moment.

What is odd though is that my friend who is a professor, the chancellor, and the course professor were wilder in the early 1980s than I was.  So, in a reversal, I had become more open in my older age and they had become more closed and more fearful in theirs.

Some may say that they have something to lose by being open like me.  I think I am better in enjoying a full life and a life without regrets; when I think of an idea, even half-baked or on a lark, I do it.

I was taking a second graduate class - a computer networking class - and that night I was not feeling well; my diabetes sometimes acts up in odd ways.  The class was scheduled for four hours and we went three hours before a break.  By that time, my body was done and I became very hypoglycemic and could not continue to take the lab for another hour.  So, I went home and rested to get my hypoglycemia under control.

I called the professor who was teaching lab for the computer networking course and said that I couldn't come in and would come to the next lab.  She said that was O.K. and wished me good heath.  That night I rested - the next lecture came a few days later.  She had set the breaks at two hours and I was able to come to the lab.  In the lab, many people had heard of my diabetic moment and also about the nicknames given to me as a hippie and a hacker.

I didn't mind the nickname hippie or hacker as my parents raised me to be open-minded and in the 1970s many older hippies and hackers I met were the nicest people: they gave computer storage and computer time to play on a PDP-11/70 using Oregon Pascal and computer time to play on an IBM System/370 to practice PL/1 and assembly as well as assembly on the PDP-11/70.

That night, just before the other students came in, the professor asked if I could discuss an aspect of the real world which would mean disclosing who I was.  To some, disclosing who you are in the current day doesn't seem like a big thing.  In the Wisconsin of 2015, it was.  I said O.K.

The professor started, "I know many of you wonder about Diana and what may seem like odd ways she does things."  She discussed how she and others who had known me since the 1980s liked the leadership I had shown  "In closing, Diana was born male and is one of others in comp sci and business who have transitioned."

After that, a few students asked questions about what it was like.  I told them it wasn't always roses and in fact your confidence is tested more in terms of who you are and your identity than would have been before.

The computer network professor told me how she liked that I was taking an active leadership role with a group of students.  The students liked how I was giving them transformational leadership to get them out of their bubble.

The point of these instances is if my dad and I had not been hackers, I would not have transitioned and I would still be an IT cog caught in a bad work environment.  By being a hacker, I am enjoying the life I want.  It helped to make the decision to come out as Male-to-Female (MTF), and have a name and gender change.

As a closing thought, many people think that if someone is MTF, they are certainly one political party or one part of the spectrum.  I am liberal socially and I am a centrist who believes in a social safety net.  I do work with legal aid organizations to help others get protection for their constitutional and human rights.

Diana K is currently a retired executive, medical researcher, and Arduino enthusiast/hobbyist.  During her retirement she works on Arduino and other projects and also does podcasting.