A rare opportunity

A programmer rarely gets to go back and fix their earlier, just out of school code. [Link]

Years later, however, he stopped by his former client's office to visit some friends and had his memory jogged by the intermittent hum of a dot-matrix printer.

bzzzzbbt bzzzbt bzzzbt bzzt bzzt bzzzzzz shrrrrrnk
... one one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand, four one-thousand, five one--

bzzzbt bzzzzbbt bzzzzzz bzzt bzzt bzzt bzzt bzzzzzz shrrrrrnk
... one one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand, four one-thousand, five one--

bzzt bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt bzzbt bzzt shrrrrrnk
... one one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand, four one-thousand, five one--

And then it all came back to him. He went over to the department manager - whom he had a good rapport with - and begged to let him rewrite the program. He wouldn't charge a dime, and would do it all in his free time. Young just didn't want his name associated with such a beast. The manager was kind enough to let him and, a few weeks later, the dot-matrix printer was once again spilling out pages.

There is code I would love to go back and fix, but I don't think it is in use anymore.