About

Old version, just a placeholder until I get this re-written.

This is not my resumé. If you’re an employer looking for that, please send me an email and I’ll be happy to supply one.
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My Background, an ongoing story

  • Professional
  • Am I a networking, web & software guy with project managment experience or a project manager who knows something about the net? I prefer the former. My current managers expect the latter.
  • But first, the history…
  • After graduating from Centennial High School, I headed west to Lacrosse, WI and Viterbo College. Viterbo had just launched it’s Computer Information Systems program, so after two fine years I had taken all the courses they had prepared and it was time for me to move on. Back home in Maryland, I turned to the University of Maryland’s Baltimore County (UMBC) campus and I earned a B.S. in Information Systems in 1986.
  • Throughout my college years I worked in computer labs, helping students and faculty with both microcomputers (Apple II series, Macs and PCs) and the university’s minicomputers (VAX systems running VMS and Ultrix). While I was at Viterbo, the Macintosh was introduced, and I was even invited to a presentation - I’m not sure how Apple found us in little ol’ Lacrosse WI but I remember it being very exciting. I also worked with an Apple II (][+ or \//e, if I remember correctly) at my father’s house. We had a CPM card in it and it was there that I did my first serious scripting within the dBase II environment. I bought myself a Columbia PC, and used mostly dBase, WordStar (and later WordPerfect), Turbo Pascal and Turbo C .
  • After graduation I worked in the Administration offices of Wyman Park Medical Center, helping the president’s staff with their computing needs. Here’s a scary story: when I got there, they had four different database packages on their systems… yet were keeping all their data in Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets. I automated many of their tasks, bringing information from the IBM mainframes into PC-based databases (dBase III and Paradox) from which I could create all the custom reports.
  • I went from there to Westinghouse’s defense and electronics center, helping accountants this time. Once again, everything was being done in 1-2-3, even memo-writing. Again, it was back to data transformation, this time running punch-card jobs on an IBM to write data to tape, running it through an HP3000 and finally into a usable format. I used dBase III+ to automate the billing of contractor companies and was given a Software Development award for that project.
  • Apple Support Coordinator badgeI then moved to the engineering arm of the then-renamed Westinghouse Electronic System Group, running Macintosh, PC, DEC (Digital Equipmnet Corporation) VMS and Ultrix (DEC’s flavor of Unix at that time) networks for the guys who were writing code for our nation’s F-16, B-1B and other systems. In a way you could say that I also worked for Apple as a member of their Support Coordinator program. At Westinghouse, we used DEC’s PCSA (Personal Computing System Architecture) networking software to connect our PCs to the VMS systems, mostly using the DECnet networking protocol. I helped DEC field test the first version of their new PATHWORKS (briefely, LANWORKS) for Macintosh products. On the PC, I was also using Borland’s Turbo Pascal and Turbo C for most of my programming, which included a set of front-end menus for our network and DOS-based applications.
  • During this time I also did some teaching, mostly evening courses for Columbia area companies who wanted their employees to be more proficient with dBase or Paradox.
  • After working with Westinghouse’s networks for a few years, I was invited to support the DEC products that made them possible. During the interview, we talked about DOS, Windows (3.x at the time) and Macintosh systems and how to network them with VMS and Unix using DECnet, TCP/IP, and AppleTalk as well as the various applications that shipped with the products. All went well, and I made the move to DEC’s support center in Alpharetta, Georgia (just north of Atlanta). I spent about eight years in support, helping our customers with their complex, multi-vendor network issues.
  • I had originally thought I was interviewing for a spot on one of the PC teams, but much to my surprise when I showed up for the first day I was put on the Macintosh support team. The PATHWORKS team was doing a good bit of hiring but there were few of us applicants who were familiar with Macs. I quickly mastered the PATHWORKS for Macintosh product set and started widining my scope to help the other support teams as well. A group of us also formed a team to support the various X11 Display Server products which were popular for a short time. We had one each for DOS, Windows and the Macintosh.
  • Windows 3.x logoAs Microsoft’s networking became more prevalent I earned my MCSE (one of the first MS-certified folks in DEC’s partnership with Microsoft). My networking experience delved ever more deeply into Microsoft’s LAN Manager and AppleTalk as well as DECnet and TCP/IP. Trust me, as important as it is to understand networking protocols when working with Windows and NT systems, it’s even more important when working with a myriad of systems from vendors who just might read the protocol specs in different ways (grin). Mix networking software on DOS, Windows, VMS, Macintosh and Unix systems together on the same net and get them all talking - that’s what I was doing for our biggest enterprise customers. I also attended and spoke at various DECUS symposia, presenting sessions on PC networking in general and the PATHWORKS family in particular.
  • I also was one of the first in our group to see the vision of the Internet, introducing my comrades to ftp, NCSA’s Mosaic and bringing Netscape’s server products to our support teams. As I moved between different support teams (PC Networking, X11 Windows Systems, Unix, NT and more), I was always creating websites and encouraging their use not only for sharing static information (team phone lists and the like) but also exploring ways to use the net to allow those “on the front lines” to share their knowledge as it was being learned.
  • I moved to the Unix support team for a time while they were shorthanded, helping out where I could and using Perl to buildi them a web-based front end for their knowledgebase.
  • Then it was back to the multi-vendor networking group, which had also picked up support for Microsoft Office, Visual Basic and other applications & developer tools. As part of this support I was also building tools (internal mostly) using a combination of Access and VB. Another restructuring of the groups moved me into our “gold” support as a dedicated Technical Account Manager (TAM), responsible for the NT systems and networks for six of our larger customers.
  • As we approached 2000, I moved off the phones and into our newly-created “eServices” group, a part of operations that would concentrate on using networks to bring our support engineers closer to each other and to the customers. My official title is Project Manager, and have a certificate from Boston University, but I do my best keep myself on the technical side of the job. My main two projects for a couple years were two sides of the same knowledge-sharing coin.
  • Knowledge Centered Support is our vision of knowledge management - a dynamic knowledgebase created and maintained by the support engineers themselves while they’re working on problems. We believe that we hire the best troubleshooters and debuggers and we want them to be able to share their experiences and build on each other’s work. We also maintain that this needs to be more than just another “drive-by tooling.” Though we are often asked to just give a group a 30-minute overview and access to the knowledgebase, we resist. Our implementations include coaches; team members specially trained in helping others through the changes in culture, as well as extremely long ramp-up schedules.
  • For a while, work on the back-end of our online library (called Cybrary) keeps the technical side of my brain stimulated. Others took take care of the project plans; I got to work on implementation details. This is a mostly-static website that’s built nightly (or even more often, in some cases) by a large set of Perl scripts. For those of you working with Radio UserLand and understanding the way it renders websites based on templates and macros, this will sound familiar. I inherited this giant “application” and fixed problems as they popped up while simultaneously working with the project lead on ways that we could improve the overall design.
  • I also spend a lot of time outside of work, probably more than I aught, keeping up with new technology, tools and goodies. If I didn’t then this weblog probably wouldn’t exist.
  • Update These days I’m more than ready than ever to get back toward the technical side of life. I’m now working an entirely different set of projects, none of which has anything to do with networking or programming at all. I’ve re-upped my MCSE, with Windows 2000 this time ’round, and would get a similar certification for OS X if I could find one. I’d like to either move into a real Leadership and Teamwork Management or go back to the make the jump to Apple or Microsoft as a technical consultant, or find a good slot to use my skills with xhtml/css, scripting, system/network management etc..
  • Personal
    • On the personal side, I’m a husband and a father. Hilary and I are blessed with two wonderful boys, James and Robert. We are very much involved with scouting; James is an Eagle Scout, and Robert is fast on his heels.
    • I’m an Assistant Scoutmaster for Troop 69, and in 2001 was Acting Scoutmaster during our summer camp (a week-long trip for over 70 scouts). In the spring of ‘03 we took about 20 guys on an 80′ sailboat for a week. I’ve also been a Unit Commissioner for three area Cub Packs, and have also run two of our district’s yearly outdoor events (each involving over 30 Troops, Packs and Venture Crews). I’m on the district training team, helping other adults deliver the BSA program in a safe, quality way and this spring for the second year in a row was Course Director for the Scoutmaster & Assistant Scoutmaster Specific Leadership Training (we call it SALT) courses. Last fall I was also the quartermaster/instructor of our Introduction To Outdoor Leadership Skills (ITOLS) course, and was on staff for the Spring 2005 Wood Badge course. Back in the spring of ‘03, I was given the North Fulton District Award of Merit for service to the area’s scouts. I was also the content webmaster for the new district’s website. Here’s my complete scouting history.
    • Way back when, I played the trumpet, baratone horn, baritone sax and percussion. More recently, I took about a year or so of guitar lessons, as did James. Robert’s a percussionist in his high school band and, two Christmases ago, got a drum set here at the house. It can get loud in our music room, but we’re all having a great time (and I believe that a background in music helps immensely with math, logic, and other thinqs in both school and life). I don’t play anywhere near as well as I listen, but I have fun.
    • Other interests of mine include digital photography/video & editing, sailing, reading, learning and teaching.

    more updates as they happen….