What did you do before porn?

[DeanCapture]

I once was a pharmaceutical generic-drug salesman for a large very successful drug company. Suit and tie man...every day! Did it for seven years and hated every minute of it

Discuss*

[Tat2Jr]

Tattoo Artist. Always been on the fringe.

[CybermedAndy]

Bouncer/Dorrman for 6 years

Fun at the time I guess

[Bro Media - BANNED FOR LIFE]

high school kid working part time as a cook thinking seriously about going to college for culinary arts...

[SmutGiant]

Used to own a non-adult website... most of my income to date has come from the internet. Got into it at a pretty young age

edit: still do own non-adult sites as well though...

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

What did I do before porn? Mostly just watched cartoons I think. Same difference.

ADG Webmaster

[edgeprod]

I was the Vice President of Business Development for the company that released Python 2.0. It lives here now:

http://www.python.org

Before that, I was the VP of Marketing and Sales for a large manufacturer of jewelry. My clients were Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Roses, Service Merchandise, QVC, HSN, etc, etc.

Fun times.

[spasmo]

Originally Posted by edgeprod

I was the Vice President of Business Development for the company that released Python 2.0. It lives here now:

http://www.python.org

Very scary, but we have likely crossed paths either in person or via open source mailing lists at a minimum.

Ex Silicon Valley network/sys admin guy here that ran in many of those circles.

[edgeprod]

Originally Posted by spasmo

Very scary, but we have likely crossed paths either in person or via open source mailing lists at a minimum.

Ex Silicon Valley network/sys admin guy here that ran in many of those circles.

Awesome. At the time, I was living in Silicon Valley -- San Jose, Santa Clara, Palo Alto, and Fremont were the places I lived there, as far as I can remember.

Did you deal with our company directly? The major clients I dealt with (and other users I know of) were:

Google: Google was originally built in Python, and they use it extensively to this day for many tasks, including web-based services. I am fairly sure Google Groups is one of those. "Python has been an important part of Google since the beginning, and remains so as the system grows and evolves. Today dozens of Google engineers use Python, and we're looking for more people with skills in this language." said Peter Norvig, director of search quality at Google, Inc.

Yahoo: Yahoo Mail was built in Python, and I believe it still is Python. They also use it for many other services.

Red Hat: Extensive Python use, including for "Anaconda," their installer, and all of their administrative interfaces.

NASA: Python user.

IBM: Extensive Python use.

HP: Extensive Python use.

Disney: Scripting in video games and movies.

Industrial Light & Magic (ILM): "Python plays a key role in our production pipeline. Without it a project the size of Star Wars: Episode II would have been very difficult to pull off. From crowd rendering to batch processing to compositing, Python binds all things together," said Tommy Burnette, Senior Technical Director, Industrial Light & Magic. "Python is everywhere at ILM. It's used to extend the capabilities of our applications, as well as providing the glue between them. Every CG image we create has involved Python somewhere in the process," said Philip Peterson, Principal Engineer, Research & Development, Industrial Light & Magic.

EVE Online (the MMORPG): Extensive Python use.

Firaxis Games (Civilization): "Like XML, scripting was extremely useful as both a mod tool and an internal development tool. If you don't have any need to expose code and algorithms in a simple and safe way to others, you can argue that providing a scripting language is not worth the effort. However, if you do have that need, as we did, scripting is a no brainer, and it makes complete sense to use a powerful, documented, cross-platform standard such as Python." "Python, like many good technologies, soon spreads virally throughout your development team and finds its way into all sorts of applications and tools. In other words, Python begins to feel like a big hammer and coding tasks look like nails." -- Mustafa Thamer of Firaxis Games, talking about Civilization IV. Quoted on page 18 of the August 2005 Game Developer Magazine. "We chose to use python because we wanted a well-supported scripting language that could extend our core code. Indeed, we wrote much more code in python than we were expecting, including all in-game screens and the main interface. It was a huge win for the project because writing code in a language with garbage collection simply goes faster than writing code in C++. The fact that users will be able to easily mod the interface is a nice plus as well. The downside of python was that it significantly increased our build times, mostly from linking with Boost." -- Soren Johnson, lead designer, Civilization IV. Quoted in a Slashdot interview.

[NickPapageorgio]

Commercial concrete superintendent for almost 10 years.

[tony286]

set up affiliates for a mainstream dot com

[spasmo]

Originally Posted by edgeprod

Awesome. At the time, I was living in Silicon Valley -- San Jose, Santa Clara, Palo Alto, and Fremont were the places I lived there, as far as I can remember.

Did you deal with our company directly? The major clients I dealt with (and other users I know of) were:

<snip>

Unintentional thread jack. Sorry, Dean.

I am pretty much in the middle of all four of those.

I didn't deal with the company directly, but supported some hardcore engineers who did. Anaconda was a life saver once things started to scale. From Anaconda came Kickstart, etc.

As for Yahoo and Google, they wouldn't hire me as they (obviously) knew what I've been up to since the mid 90s. A business partner of mine worked for IBM for some time.

Funny who you meet on GFY. Thanks for the flashback.

[edgeprod]

Originally Posted by spasmo

Unintentional thread jack. Sorry, Dean.

I am pretty much in the middle of all four of those.

I didn't deal with the company directly, but supported some hardcore engineers who did. Anaconda was a life saver once things started to scale. From Anaconda came Kickstart, etc.

As for Yahoo and Google, they wouldn't hire me as they (obviously) knew what I've been up to since the mid 90s. A business partner of mine worked for IBM for some time.

Funny who you meet on GFY. Thanks for the flashback.

Also sorry for the hijack.

That's pretty awesome that we were two or so degrees away during that time. I loved the Anaconda project, etc, it was really some slick stuff. We employed the creators of the Python language (lock, stock, and barrel), so it was great meeting them and working side by side at the time.

The other cool thing was, during the course of business, I met the heads of many of the "biggie" companies using the language, as well as other luminaries like Richard Stallman (who spit split ends at me as we talked, then signed a T-Shirt -- something he RARELY does). Made some awesome VC contacts, and made good friends with our CEO, who helped develop the X Window system at Project Athena, and has authored tools himself that are used by many. The CEO is a top-notch guy, and I'm continually impressed with his abilities. He ended up being one of my references to Yale, and we've maintained a relationship since leaving the company.

During the course, also, we owned GNULinux.com, Python.org and Python.com (later illegally hijacked by a guy in Dallas and it went to the current owners -- we never DID get it back, sigh), PythonLabs.com, LinuxDEV.net ... lots of really cool stuff. I wouldn't trade the experience.

[fallenmuffin]

Freelance web and desktop application developer. Mostly PHP / MySQL towards the end. Did that for almost 5 years until Indians started underbiding me by 120% lol.. Went broke, spent a year in London, came back launched some porn sites.

[spasmo]

Originally Posted by edgeprod

Also sorry for the hijack.

That's pretty awesome that we were two or so degrees away during that time.

<snip>

I agree. Email me at gfyfilter at spasmodium dot com some time when you're bored.

(Just stopping the thread jack before we start getting yelled at)

[L-Pink]

Developed, owned, operated, then sold to major retailer some tire and auto repair stores. Commercial real estate investor.

[L-Pink]

Originally Posted by DeanCapture

I once was a pharmaceutical generic-drug salesman for a large very successful drug company. Suit and tie man...every day! Did it for seven years and hated every minute of it

Discuss*

Drugs and porn ..... you forgot gambling and loan sharking ...


.

[Horny Dude]

Work every shitty job from fast food to bill collector. Went to school for Graphic Design worked at WebVan.com till it went under along with the whole internet hype. Got into porn and never looked back.

[jscott]

i picked up the golf balls on the golf range : (no joke)

[edgeprod]

Originally Posted by jscott

i picked up the golf balls on the golf range : (no joke)

Your note says "ex undercover pimp" -- was this your "cover" for the operation?

[jscott]

Originally Posted by edgeprod

Your note says "ex undercover pimp" -- was this your "cover" for the operation?

lol i wish it was, but no really, i did it for $4.25/hour for after highschool beer money

[Yngwie]

I was an unemployed, disabled (leg disability) loser.. now I'm just a disabled loser working in the porn industry lol

[godisdead]

I led a life of misery and pain.

[edgeprod]

Originally Posted by jscott

lol i wish it was, but no really, i did it for $4.25/hour for after highschool beer money

Hey man, even pimps need beer money from time to time.

[Rochard]

Let me see.......

I was a full time college student before the adult industry.

Before that I worked for Pacific Bell, the local phone company in California.

[en21]

I used to work as a student

[martinsc]

i had my own computer fixing/network building business

[NoWhErE]

I was the CEO of Enron...

[edgeprod]

Originally Posted by NoWhErE

I was the CEO of Enron...

Didn't you die a couple of months ago?

[Barefootsies]

Telco 8 years in acronymn city...

Ameritech/SBC/TDS

[edgeprod]

Re-bump for an interesting thread!

[BitAudioVideo]

i worked admitting for an adult psychiatric unit, really, and the commissions were great!

[squishypimp]

i was an investment banker and a doctor...........

[Gina]

Immediately prior to porn, I was working two jobs: librarian/archivist at my county paper, and also editing and proofreading for an online private school. Before that, I owned record stores for a couple of years, and I've also worked as a body piercer, a line cook, and a fry cook. I also spent many years working naked. I was a stripper and a dominatrix. One of my former bosses from the strip club days is very proud of me now because I stripped my way through college and then went on to write porn. I'm his version of a "success story."

[media]

Originally Posted by DeanCapture

Discuss*

I was a popular tattoo artist with a two week waiting list to be on my chair... I charged $100-$150 an hour, I could easliy get $150-$200 an hour these days if I went back to it.

[scotty2hotty1111]

computer repair
virus removal
software install

[vidvicious]

right before porn .. I was in television broadcasting .. Director of Photography .. mostly for Documentaries and Lifestyle shows ... I shot, directed and edited a series of PSA for big brothers .. As I did a few commercials for Proctor and gamble .. also been an assitant director on a few films .. Before that I was a technician at a video rental house (high end Pro) .. and before all this telelvision/video nonesense .. i did many many jobs .. including insurance salesman (best in my division), Investment sales, own a few clothing stores (worked in clothing store since the rip age of 15) ...
However I've always wanted to be behind the camera .. right from Hihg school I was a photography student and a Fine art student .. Followed it thru to college and university till I finally settled for television broadcasting as a major and photography as a minor (art history too) ...

Man looks like the apple didn't fall far from the tree

[tranza]

I was in high school before porn.

[Vitasoy]

Sold stuff on ebay

[RRRED]

I used to do hair. I guess that's safe to say now. I made everyone swear they wouldn't tell lens in santa monica a couple years ago for fear I'd get stuck helping the models in Eric's room with their hot rollers.. hehe

[Spunky]

I still work for the man

[monimichaels]

i went to an interior design college, and finished with a degree. i like porn better!! all i did in class was check out the girls anyways!
Moni Michaels

[Burridge]

sniffing ketamine in a new york public school cafeteria.

[scotty2hotty1111]

Originally Posted by media

I was a popular tattoo artist with a two week waiting list to be on my chair... I charged $100-$150 an hour, I could easliy get $150-$200 an hour these days if I went back to it.

good stuff you guys are in high demand aroung my area

[donross]

i was a cockfighting gambler..

[BlackCrayon]

was going to school to be a mold maker in the tool and die field. realized i didn't really like working in factories though. i never really had a job that lasted very long before the net. started doing that when i was 21.

[LadyMischief]

Worked in Mainstream marketing for companies doing marketing for things like business revitalization zones, business centres, oilfield services, etc.

I grew up riding and training horses, though. Almost made it a career, but life happens, directions change, and here I am.

[Miguel T]

Hacking.

[Lykos]

Nothing this is my first job

[Grapesoda]

factory worker, concrete finisher, truck driver, cook, heavy equipment operator, structual iron worker, grip, lighting director, director of photography, light board operator . . you know, just the usual crap