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Contact Details

Personal Details

Skills

Networking: Developing and maintaining LANs and VPNs distributed over multiple international sites using Cisco and Linksys equipment (LAN/WAN/VPN/VoIP).

Systems Administration: Building and maintaining multiple Linux servers, as well as Linux and Windows workstations. Experience with shell scripting (sh/bash), Red Hat, Mandrake, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 platforms.

Website Design: Design and maintenance of in-house and client websites. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Perl, CGI programming etc. Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Internet Protocols: TCP/IP, HTTP, SSL, DNS, XML etc.

PBX / VoIP: Configure and maintain the company's Asterisk PBX and all the SIP and IAXy devices etc.

Hardware Design: Digital and analog circuit design. Design of microprocessor based systems. PCB design.

Software Development: C++, C, JavaScript, Perl, Assembler, Pascal, Basic etc., including embedded and multithreaded systems. Extensive API experience (both Windows APIs and Linux APIs).

I have written hundreds of thousands of lines of C++ code for:

Linux Servers: e-business and e-commerce applications (customer data management, online order and payment processing, automated billing, invoices, receipts, credits etc.)

Downloadable software, and pay per download services.

Generation of dynamic web content.

DoS mitigation (detection of malicious activity and automatic firewalling of the source IPs).

Systems administration tasks, such as automatic detection of equipment failure, and automated backups and data replication off-site.

Windows Workstations: Windows application programs, development of consumer software products etc.

Aircraft navigation and 3D Digital Terrain Modelling.

Graphic displays and animation. Audio and video players.

Expert programmer in Legacy Systems including: Assembler (8086 ASM, Z80 ASM etc.), standard C (pre C++/OOD/OOP), application development for DOS (MS-DOS, PC-DOS etc.), CP/M.

Currently developing skills in: C#, .NET, Java, J2EE, jQuery, Python, VB, VBscript, AJAX, PHP 5, Ruby on Rails, Eclipse, CVS, Subversion, and SQL database programming.

Object Oriented frameworks (MFC, MVC, Qcodo, Rails, CakePHP, Hibernate, Zend).

LAMP stack (Linux/Apache/PHP/MySQL), Apache Tomcat, ASP, ASP.NET, DHTML and XHTML.

Content Management Systems (Joomla/Drupal/Wordpress).

OpenGL, Adobe Flex/AIR, Flash, ActionScript 3, Photoshop.

CentOS, Embedded Linux, VMware, cloud computing, Mac OS X and iPhone development.

Qualifications

• New Zealand Certificate in Science NZCS - Physics Option, 1985
  Equivalent to a US Bachelors Degree BS - Computer Science.
  (Official Qualifications Equivalency Assessment available on request).

• University Entrance, 1981

• Sixth Form Certificate, 1981

• School Certificate, 1980

Employment History

President, Digital Design Inc.

Responsible for all technical and administrative functions, as well as software development, systems administration, and IT management.

Maintained and evolved the websites for my software products (see below).

Maintained and evolved the supporting Linux servers, and VPNs in both the United States and New Zealand.

Built an Asterisk PBX running on a Linux platform, using SIP and IAX devices on the VPN, and interfaced to my business phone numbers via Broadvoice.

Evolved the supporting software for my software products into a fully modular e-Business tool suite, built in C++ and running on Linux servers. The system automatically performs all business functions; sales, online payment processing, and generation of invoices / receipts / credits, managing customer accounts, periodic rebilling for subscriptions, right through to generating the daily import files for QuickBooks.

Developed software for internet download websites. C++ running on Linux/Apache. The system is fully automated, with the customers being able to make single purchases, or charge multiple downloads to their credit cards.

Developed PC based entertainment / marketing software under the name of Musical Vision. This combines animated sequences of images, set to music, that companies could give to clients on a USB Flash Drive, or download from their websites. C++ under Windows, developed under Microsoft Visual Studio (MVS).

For software testing purposes I built two 'Schiz' machines, able to be rapidly switched to any given OS and any given service pack level. They currently support everything from MS-DOS 2.11 through to Vista and Windows 7, and all modern Linux distributions. They also allow me to test websites under all browser types and versions.

President, Digital Design Ltd.

I developed HeliNav, a new navigation system for helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft such as the Bell/Boeing V-22 and Bell/Augusta 609. The software was written in C++. It dynamically computed - in flight - the routes and all obstacle clearance requirements, using the GPS position of the aircraft, Digital Terrain Models (DTMs), and obstacle databases.

At the time it was described by the FAA as the most comprehensive and complete system that they had seen to date. It culminated in an invitation to Washington DC by the FAA, where I put on presentations to FAA, NASA, and various industrial groups in 1996.

Being a New Zealand registered company I was unable to secure funding, and the project died.

Developed a number of downloadable applications for PCs, sold over the internet. This included Time Zones for PCs^®, Remote Control for PCs, and The Metric Conversion Calculator.

Time Zones for PCs^® allowed individuals and businesses to see the CORRECT local time anywhere in the world (there are around 252 individual time zones in the world, and there are changes to the various daylight saving rules around the world almost every week - so it is not trivial if it is done properly). It also allowed people to plan ahead and coordinate times for international conference calls.

For a number of year it sold reasonably well, with customers including Boeing, MasterCard Europe, E! Entertainment Television, Raytheon, and even the US Strategic Command.

The work not only involved the products themselves, but the websites, marketing, and all the supporting internet infrastructure including 3 servers running Linux and Apache.

I also developed the entire product sale / download / registration / product update software that ran on the servers (C++ running under Linux).

Rather than being sold outright as a product, because of the frequent data Time Zones for PCs^® was sold on an annual subscription basis. It was probably one of the first of what is now known as SaaS (software as a service).

Assistant Navigation Services Specialist, Navigation Services Unit, Airways Corporation of New Zealand Ltd.

Our unit was responsible for maintaining New Zealand's system of Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) navigation routes, approaches, and departures to international ICAO PANS-OPS standards.

I designed a number of new routes, including two down to Antarctica.

I also developed software in C++ to scan multiple Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) and perform all the route calculations. This reduced around 7 days of manual work down to just a few minutes.

President, Digital Design Ltd.

Developed the hardware and software for 80X86 and Z80 based real-time embedded systems. This included:

• circuit design
• PCB design, often using STE (the small brother of VME)
• design and programming of FLPDs, and Altera EPLDs
• firmware, written in assembler and involving multithreading and multitasking techniques
• DOS application programs, C and 8086 assembler

Specific Equipment:

• data protocol converters
• print spoolers and switches
• alarm controllers and security systems

Technical Services Division, A.W.A. (New Zealand) Ltd.

A.W.A. had the New Zealand agency for companies such as Koden, Trimble Navigation, Hitachi, Oki, as well as producing products under our own name.

Our unit installed the first GPS system in New Zealand (at a cost of $60,000). This was a large fishing vessel and they recovered the cost on their first catch.

I was responsible for the repair and customization of data systems (computers, printers, and networking products), as well as working on marine equipment (radars, sonars, net monitors, weather faxes etc.), and radio equipment and avionics as required. Some work was in the workshop, some was at the customer's site, or in the case of marine, on board their ships.

I supervised three other technicians.

Physics and Engineering Laboratory, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR)

Under the DSIR's technical training program I was rotated through the following sections, until being permanently placed in the Electronics Group.

Electronic Design Section

Design of analog, digital, and microprocessor circuitry for original scientific equipment used by other branches of DSIR.

PCB design, PCB assembly, equipment construction, and environmental testing of equipment to international standards.

Specific projects: Designed and built an interface/controller card for DSIR's vibration testing rig, built equipment for DSIR's silicon wafer facility, rebuilt a eupathioscope for simulating the heat signature of the 'standard' human.

Thick Film Section (miniature electronic circuits)

Trained in the use of all techniques and equipment; screen printers, furnaces, bonders etc., and generating the rubylith masters.

At that time the plant was producing the substrates for the DSIR designed SSB emergency transceiver.

Temperature Standards Section

Specific projects: Designed and built a temperature controller PCB for a new oil bath that was being built. Assisted in a number of calibration jobs.

Remote Sensing Section (satellite image processing)

Researched and produced a study on liquid crystal shutter techniques, again for the HHR.

Photometry Section

Specific projects: Maintained the section's equipment, and did various calibration jobs including pyranometer calibration.

Drawing Office

Specific projects: Circuit diagrams, mechanical drawings of equipment produced by our various machine shops, and diagrams and charts for international publications.

Outside Interests

Ballroom, latin, and swing dancing.