Apple Computer 12/2010-present

Mac desktop application developer

I currently maintain two applications available through the iTunes store. These applications are described in more detail in my publications page.

J.B. Hunt Transportation, 09/2007-12/2010

Over The Road Driver

I drove Over The Road (OTR) in all lower 48 states carrying some hazmat and high-value loads.

Swift Transportation, Richmond VA, 09/2004-09/2007

Driver

I began driving Over The Road (OTR) in all lower 48 states carrying some hazmat and high-value loads. To be home weekends, I then transferred to a dedicated Stanley Door Systems (Winchester, VA) account delivering doors and windows to northeast Home Depot stores. Swift lost the Stanley Door account due to the housing recession.

Self employed, 10/2000-09/2004

Rice Audio

I started a business designing piezo-film pick-up systems and professional audio adapters for musicians. Although marginally successful, I abandoned this business after the Chinese entered the market with lower cost devices. However, many of my adapters are still in use due to the higher quality. For more infomation visit my website at RiceAudio.

National Archives and Records Administration, College Park MD, 12/1993-10/2000

Programmer / Consultant

Reported to the NARA Trust Fund Board to maintain the "Sales Order System" public store accounting system. Although running on an obsolete Prime 5370, I was able to expand the systems capabilities as necessary using an IBM PC running Linux. The PC added storage capacity, formatted reports for Postscript printers, and added an HTML web interface. I would have eventually migrated the entire system off of the Prime. However, NARA started a multi-million dollar project to replace the system with a Microsoft Great Planes Dynamics accounting system.

As a contractor and not a government employee, I also reported to a series of five intermediary contractor companies:

     ACS Government Solutions Group, Inc., Rockville MD, 07/2000-10/2000

     Intellisource Information Systems, Beltsville MD, 09/1997-07/2000

     RMS Information Systems, Inc., Vienna, VA, 07/1997-09/1997

     Synetics Corporation, Vienna VA, 07/1994-07/1997

     Management Technology, Inc., Clinton, MD, 12/1993-06/1994

Reference: Hyomi Park, NARA Computer Consultant, 301-713-6405

Aeronautical Radio, Inc., Annapolis MD, 01/1990-09/1993

Principal Engineer

Hired to assist ARINC to adapt Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) protocol standards for use in the Aeronautical Telecommunications Network (ATN) especially for air/ground communications. Authored an ASN.1 encoding rule standard named Minimum Bit Encoding Rules (MBER) and promoted the standard through AEEC, RTCA, ICAO, ANSI and ISO standards committees. MBER was required to compact OSI messages for transport through limited bandwidth Air/Ground communications links. I also worked with AEEC on air-ground message formats particularly for the Automatic Dependent Surveillance Function (ADSF).

Reference: Gerald Ford, ARINC Advanced Systems Project Manager, 410-266-4000

BT Gold / ITT Dialcom. Inc. / Dialcom. Inc, Silver Spring MD, 02/1983-10/1988

Senior Systems Analyst / Consultant

Dialcom pioneered international electronic mail. I joined Dialcom's systems group to expand PrimeOS and to support applications developers as an in-house consultant. I developed software products for billing and fault tolerance. My "Mirrored Disk System" was purchased by Prime computer. I developed wrote "Access Units" to support British Telecom's upgrade to OSI compliant X.400 Message Handling Systems (MHS).

Reference: Craig Laub, Dialcom Project Manager, 301-983-4977

GTE Business Communications Systems / GTE Telenet, Vienna VA, 09/1979-02/1981

Member of Technical Staff

GTE Telenet operated an international connection-oriented network service based on the CCITT X.25 and X.75 networking protocols. GTE designed custom hardware that used multiple 6502 micro-processors. Code was developed and cross-compiled from a VAX VMS or Sun Solaris host computer. The connection-oriented network service was more secure than connectionless internet network service but lacked the ability to automatically adapt to the network topology.

GTE Telenet became financially stressed when the government granted free public access to the internet and formed GTE Business Communications Systems to develop the OMNI-SX integrated voice and data Private Automatic Branch Exchange (PABX) system. The project strove to combine features of connection-oriented and connectionless network services and to upgrade analog PABX systems to digital coder/decoder (CODEC). The OMNI-SX was terminated after the chosen object-oriented Intel IAPX-432 micro-controller had performance and reliability issues.

I was hired to debug the X.25 switch logic and then add features including "Fast Select" to compete with connectionless datagram service. I also added drivers for several modem types. I then transferred to the OMNI-SX project.

Reference: Tom Helmke, Winthrop Systems Owner, 703-327-7259

Tal-Star Computer Systems, Princeton Junction NJ, 03/1978-09/1979

Systems Programmer

Tal-Star developed software and hardware solutions for the printing industry using General Automation computers. I was hired to develop a wire service collection system (modem) using the new GA 110/220 single board computer interfaced with a SPC 16 host via a hardware bus interface. I designed the software and debugged the wire-wrap interface board. I also set up a high speed (56Kbs) modem network between office and publishing sites for the Cincinnati Enquirer. Note: the modems were eventually replaced by higher speed line-of-sight microware links.

Reference: Maurice C. Rochman, Project Leader

TV Guide Magazine, Radnor PA, 03/1974-03/1978

Programmer

Started as a COBOL programmer for master file update and reports. Improved performance by upgrading to Univac's multi-tasking ASC COBOL with 1108/1110 assembly extensions to integrate Univac's Relational Data Base Management System (RDBMS).

I developed a data entry system to replace IBM Selectric typewriters and optical scanners with Sanders 810 programmable display systems. Due to performance issues with the systems, TV Guide allowed me to rewrite the Sanders 810 operating system. The faster OS added demand paging and concurrent bi-sync host communication. TV Guide sold my OS back to Sanders Data Systems.

Reference: Tom Gormley, TV Guide Magazine Project Leader, 610-293-8500

Summer Jobs

Weyerhauser Paper, Conshohocken PA

Shaftman

I unloaded paper rolls from mills via overhead crane replacing with empty cores. Also mixed recycled paper with virgin pulp.

The Legal Intelligencer, Philadelphia PA

Courier

I delivered linotype fonts and page layouts between publishing house and printing presses. I also helped to set up an early offset printing machine.

Joseph F. Horne Co., Monroeville PA

Porter

Opened and closed new Monroeville Mall store. Work included cleaning, maintenance and restocking.

U.S. Steel Corporation, Clairton PA

Maintenance Helper

As Pipe Fitting Maintenance Helper, I helped to install new piping and pipe insulation sometimes using climbing equipment and a bosun chair. As Tin Finishing Maintenance Helper, I kept presses and hydraulic equipment lubricated and replaced worn rollers and hydraulic cylinders.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh PA

Paperboy

I delivered newspapers in the Monroeville area.

The Gateway Union High School, Monroeville PA

Electrinics Assembler

I assembled HeathKit test equipment for the school.

Experience