Personal Zone
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Personal Zone |
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I was frequently asked a question "Why did you name your company, Baba
Laboratory?". I entered into the programing world much behind the times. It was about
20 years ago of my middle of 30-40 years, when i was employed by Institute of Engineering
and Technology, a small software house in Tan-machi, Yokohama. In my younger age, I
heavily worried determining my course, whether should I choice science or literature. In
the end I could not reach the conclusion and idle away my time, but the programing work
completely matched with my aptitude.
I discovered what shall I do for the first time on my 35 years and worked terribly to retrieve the delay times before. It was my daily pattern that I slept on the chairs of the company and was waked up by a woman stuff who first came to the office in the morning. About that time, it was usual to stay overnight at the actual field but I have the record of 3 overnights of the clock around. At the time I fell asleep in the electric train after the overnights and when I waked up it already came dark around. As it was about 12 o'clock in the afternoon when I took the train, it comes that I went to and back between Oomiya and Sakuragi-cho of Keihin-Tohoku-line for several hours.
The name of Baba Laboratory comes after the name of Babbage of England who invented computer. (Age Baba, an author has no book, is my pen-name). Though Babbage's computer called Analysis Engine is a completely mechanic apparatus of gear type, it contains all of the principal constituent element of our currently using computer. After all Babbage could not complete this equipment and his pupil came to complete it after the death of the man, but in what I sympathize with Babbage is that he also began his work in the very late term of his lifetime.
It was in his 50-60 years when Babbage(1792-1871) began his work. In Japan, Tadataka Ino is the case. He left home to Edo(Tokyo at present) when he passed his 50 years, entered Syo-hei school(Tokyo University at present) and learned over again the surveying from the basis together with younger students. The works of Descartes who passed the days of his youth in a kind of wander, also was started late. I suppose that there is some deep concernment between the characteristics of his work and the fact that he is a man of late learning. That is, I consider that there might be a kind of problem that can be resolved only with "experience".
(on mid-autumnfestive. 1999 M.N.)