36+ years :: Software Engineer

This is by no means a complete accounting of all 36+ years – additional details may be added at a later time.

When you are self-taught there is NOTHING you cannot teach yourself and NOTHING you cannot do.  Trust me, I know !!!

I taught myself every single computer language and technology found below.    From time to time I also taught others.

1974

There are no IBM PC’s at-all, anywhere !!!

There are hand-held programmable calculators from Texas Instruments and other companies.

There is NO Internet !!!

There are computer magazines like Byte and others.

Taught myself top-down structured programming by reading about it in various computer magazines and other sources however I still had to understand what top-down meant and trust me I did know and still do !!!

1978

Joined the USAF as a grunt. (1978-1983, Honorable Disacharge)

Worked as a Logistics Clerk in the USAF on Guam.

1979

Bought a Radio Shack TRS-80 from a magazine ad and had it shipped to Andersen AFB, Guam.

Learned Z80 Assembly Language.

Learned BASIC – actually I already knew BASIC from my years in High School when I was reading all about this language by reading other people’s code; this is why I can read other people’s code so easily – because I began by reading other people’s code.

1980

Relocated to Edwards AFB in California.

Modified TRS-80 to run CP/M-80 with the flick of a switch.

Learned CBASIC – already knew BASIC which means CBASIC was not a problem for me.

Wrote a Z80 Single-Stepping Debugger for CP/M-80 in Z80 Assembly Language; my debugger was able to step through RAM and ROM with equal ease.

1980-1982

Attended Chapman College at night, worked as a Computer Operator by day – tutored other students whenever I was in a CompSCI class. Used computers to help me with my Calculus studies because doing this was easier for me than anything else; when you know how to write code to get things done you write code to get things done.

1981

Wrote a 3 part magazine article for 80 Microcomputing that was published for which I was paid  – this launched my professional career as a software engineer.  This 3 part article had something to do with Floating Point Arithmetic for the TRS-80, as I recall.  Let me know if you can find a copy of this article in your archives.

Directed traffic for the Air Force at one of the VIP Parking Lots at EdwardsAFB for one of the early Shuttle Flights that landed at Edwards during 1981, probably for STS-1 or STS-2.

1982

Learned FORTRAN.

Learned PL/I and was allowed to spend time on USAF Mainframes [IBM 360/2075J and 370/3033N] during the weekend hours – was assigned to a Computer Operations Detachment. This was quite fun although I had to buck the system to make this happen.

1983

Exited the USAF, honorable discharge after 5 years of service at Lowry AFB (Lowry AFB was closed in September 1994).

Began working as a professional consultant for a company called CACI at Lowry AFB in Denver CO – Lowry AFB no longer exists as an active Air Force Base.  Served as a Systems Analyst as an Air Force Civilian Consultant.

1983-1989

Began working with MS-DOS in 1983 while working for the USAF via CACI.

Was given an annual budget of $10k to spend on whatever software tools I wanted to buy at work.

C programmer – Wizard C Compiler which later became the Borland Turbo C Compiler and Microsoft C which was Lattice C.  Wrote a whole lot of C during this period of time.

Salivated over working with APL but could never quite convince anyone I should be given the opportunity or the tools to take this on.

Got introduced to Golden Common LISP but was never allowed to use it on the job for any projects.

Began working with non-relational databases like B-Tree databases and others; there were no desktop relational databases at this time – heck there really weren’t any Desktops other than DeskView since MS-DOS ruled the business world at this time.

1986-1988

Began working with Unix in the form of System V and Berkeley aka. Xenix; learned it was very easy to deal with Unix as an Administrator.

1989-1991

C Programmer – Wizard C Compiler and Microsoft Quick C in Los Angeles, CA under contract with a local software development house. Wrote a whole lot more C Code during this period of time.

1990

Founded Hierarchical Applications Limited, Inc. primarily as a think tank.

Produced C-Armor Toolkit – featured some rather advanced multiprocessing support for the C language under MS-DOS, coded this from scratch in parallel with another project at work I was not able to be assigned to – my product was better by design.  Featured overlapping windows with a process tied to a window or a number of windows – windows could be animated over/under other windows while being updated in the background.  Obviously wrote a whole lot of C Code during this period.

Began working with MS Windows 3.0.

Began working with Win16 – there was no Win32 API at this time.

1992-1996

Smalltalk Programmer – Digitalk Smalltalk and Parc Place Smalltalk

Continued working with C during this period.

Began working with OS/2.

Began working with Windows 3.1.

1993-2011

Began working with Visual Basic with version 3.

1995-2011

Began programming Python

Digitalk Smalltalk and Parc Place Smalltalk  languages died as a commercially viable languages by 1999.  Parc Place and Digitalk merged in 1995 but failed to respond to the Java threat.

Began working with Windows 95.

Began working with Windows NT 3.1.

1996-2011

Java Programmer – Java Servlets mainly

ColdFusion Programmer – ColdFusion 3 through ColdFusion 9

Began working with Windows NT 4.0.

1995

Bought a copy of the Futuresplash Animator which later became Macromedia Flash.

1996-1999

Built and operated a successful Web Hosting/eCommerce Service via Hierarchical Applications Limited, Inc. with 250 customers for almost 3 years.  Work was based on ColdFusion and other languages like ColdFusion.  You have to know something about programming and I.T. Infrastructure to get a successful operation online – each server I had during this period cost me something like $20k and I had something like 7 servers online at a Colocation Facility in Dallas TX.  I also coded 100% of the software I used for my part of the business that included eCommerce support for all my customers.

Taught myself how to leverage the power of the TCP/IP Stack without ever having to know how the TCP/IP Stack works other than to watch what happens when multiple NICs are plugged into the same computer – let’s just say I was able to leverage TCP/IP in what was a creative use for me – working with more than one network at the same time was fun.

1996-2011

JavaScript programmer.

HTML/CSS programmer.

1999-2011

Began programming Flash and Flash related technologies.

Began coding REST Web Services using Flash in 1999 however the term REST was not defined until 2000.  Coded a large number of Flash Applets that were connected to back-end databases, quite the trick at this time, all things considered.

Began working with Oracle 8i Database.

Began working with Sybase SQLAnywhere.

Began working with SQL Server 6.5.

2000-2001

Began working with Windows 2000.

Began working with SQL Server 7.0.

Began working with C++ and crafted a kick-ass Mod for Tribes 1.0 that featured some really cool weapons and other game elements that were not generally available in that game in other mods; no other Tribes 1.0 mod had a heat-seeking missile made from the disc weapon but mine did for several years.

2001-2003

Began working with Windows XP.

Began working with Visual Studio .Net 2003.

Continued programming VB.Net via Visual Studio .Net 2003.

Began working with SQL Server 2000.

Began working with Oracle 9i.

Began programming C# because it is just another name for Java and Java is just too easy to program since 1996 for me.

2003

Began working with Oracle 10g.

2003-2009

Began working with Windows Server 2003.

Began working on the EzAJAX Framework in 2003 this was a full 12 months before GMail was released.

2004-2007

Perfected EzAJAX and the underlying techniques that have not been reproduced by any other AJAX Frameworks since.

2004-2005

Coded a complete Content Management System for SBC based on ColdFusion MX 7 and JavaScript/HTML/CSS that featured visual inline content editing and a complete Source Code Control System  – coding took no more than 4.5 months.

Began working with Flex 1.5 which was then embedded in ColdFusion MX 7.

2005

Began working with SQL Server 2005.

2006-2011

Began working with Flex Builder 3.

2008

Founded Vyper Logix Corp.

Began working with SQL Server 2008.

2008-2009

Began working with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

2005-2011

Python Programmer, Stackless Python – began in 2005 in earnest when I was told the Python Language was considered to be “difficult” but of course there is nothing difficult about Python.

PHP Programmer.

Ruby Programmer

Perl Programmer

Erlang Programmer

MySQL 5.x, 5.1 and 5.5

2007-2008

Successfully integrated Python into Adobe AIR Apps 2 full years ahead of Adobe AIR 2.x that also supports this sort of thing.

Began working with Oracle 11g.

2008-2011

Perfected methods for the optimization of Ruby on Rails servers that use the Mongrel Web Server to achieve 250% better concurrency than can be achieved out of the box.

Perfected the first Content Management System known as VyperCMS using Python 2.5 and Ubuntu Linux and Windows used MySQL 5.x; the ORM used by the core of this product would allow virtually any relational database to be used in-place of MySQL should the need arise.

Programmed a method for Python Django Apps to be plug-n-played in VyperDjango; this opens the door for Django Hosting Operations that feature the ability for Django Developers to simply upload their apps without having to be concerned about FastCGI issues or the like.

Began working with Google App Engine with Python, Ruby and Java.

2009-2011

Began working with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

2009 – 2011

Began working with Flex Builder 4 also known as Flash Builder 4.

Began working with SQL Server 2008 R2.

Rolled a complete product for AmazingFacts.Org as an individual contributor in 15 short weeks; the prototype was completed during the initla 30 hours of work – this product has gone into production.

Perfected a common API for Mac based Adobe AIR 2.x apps to consume Windows based files without regard to case and naming issues.  This means Adobe AIR 2.x Apps work the same for Windows and Macs in relation to file naming conventions.