- TECHNOLOGY AND ME -

My professional career has already been quite a journey. I certainly did not expect to get involved with technology; I'm not even sure if that word existed then.
Since I was 16 I worked in the labor industry as a lumberman and roofer, and on different crews working with blacktop lay and patching, framing and demolition (*woohoo*) of houses.
Yes, there was school, but what can I tell ya, working was way more fun than being bored to death in a chair. I stuck with Roofing the longest and even became a Foreman running my own crew and job sites. Becoming a 'technologist' was certainly not on the agenda, or even a word in my vocabulary.

In the late 80's, my Aunt had bought a computer and hooked into the Prodigy network. I can't remember what type it was at the moment, but we had a list of local numbers to free and subscription-based Bulletin Board Systems through simple POTS and X.25 networking. I committed a lot of time connecting to many bulletin board systems for games, general information, browsing ASCII Art or post chatting. The electronic message boards were fascinating and just a ton of information, and new games, and other new ways to communicate was being thrown onto them.

Between roofing and tree removal, I unintentionally bulked up a little. But I was into lifting weights or anything else that would give a good workout so I guess I'm not innocent. But unless my career path was going to involved alcholism and/or drug addition, I had to find something to do with my time. So, I spent my time either work or lifting weights, or go "hang at the mall" out of extreme boredom. But given the options, I guess I'm glad things turned out the way they did.

I eventually qualified for the "work-a-holic" awards. I coped the attitude of "Work is Fun!" and I was on the job whistling before sunrise and after sundown. A few always yelled at me for coming in so happy, especially on Monday morning. Though you didn't have to work on Saturdays or Sundays, and many didn't because of Friday night, I would always show up. My uncle bestowed a guideline that turned into a religious rule -- no matter what, always show up. So that's what I did. This also helped to develop the 150% drive that I commit to whatever it is that I'm doing. That drive would become the primary force fueling urges to learn more.

Not too long after roofing, I bought my own IBM 386 8080 with MS-DOS 3.2 and I learned my way around it pretty well. I made a decision right away that I was not going to be paying hundreds of dollars an hour for some ying-yang to come in and fix the computer when it breaks down for whatever reason. If I had to find one spot in my life that was responsible for who I am today, I would have to point here. The Intel x86 processors were the leading technology and they were coming out with the IBM/PC 32bit microprocessor. The decision to know and understand my own computer was responsible for the rest of my life.

So as I said, I am one of those "Do It Your Self" types, so when I got the PC, I learned all about screwing up hardware settings; board jumbers, IRQs, direct memory access channels, conventional and extended memory, buses, threads, and a partridge in a pear tree. Oh yeah, I forgot to add how to properly corrupt your data and/or re-formatting the hard-drive that I accidently screwed up the volume, partition or boot sectors to. I must have reinstalled and reconfigured the operating system about 15 times before I finally got the sound-card to work.

But even having so much fun learning how to properly destroy a computer system, I still maintained a roofing career. I never really thought about doing something in computers as a career until I did a job on a guy's roof who was in the telecommunications business. We spoke at length about using the PC at home and we hit it off pretty well. It all happened by accident when I took a part-time job to help this fella "fill-in" a position over the Winter. I was put in front of an Apple computer: the Macintosh IIsi (or, MacII). With the added ability to type a whopping 20-30 words per minute with like a 50% accuracy, I felt almost like a pro! (Hey, don't laugh! That was a big deal for me!)

During those three months I had access to a lot of hardware and software with different operating systems running on a few different network protocols. By the end of those three months I knew 10x's what I knew when I started, so, my friend asked me to stay on board and make a career out of it. Unfortunately, I really have a deep sense of honor, loyalty, commitment and dedication and I maintained an obligation to my roofing employer. But, the seed was planted and thus began the transition in my mind from the physical universe to the electronical metaverse.

Eventually, I did hang up my hammer and tool belt and acquired a whole new set of tools - 14.4bps modem and a kick-arse 512k Trident video card (whoohoo!). Since then I've worked for marketing firms, ISPs, different types of communication services, yada yada. I taught myself everything I could and used all the resources at my disposal, and I ended up in places that had a lot of resources. Like a techno-sponge -- I sucked it all in. I had received the opportunity to play just about every role there was, and as a result, learned the ins-and-outs of what I consider 'everything'.

SLEEP? WITH DSPS - WHO NEEDS IT?

You know, it might be a spot of destiny that I wound up where I am today. It frequently comes up in conversation between non-techie people - "those computer people work in dark corners all night and sleep during the day". It's True! I mostly worked the 2nd or 3rd shift. I was very happy about this because, a little known fact is that I suffer from DSPS (Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome). I've had it since I was a little kid, at least as far back as I can remember. It means that I have a problem sleeping on a normal schedule unlike. For some reason, my brain becomes extremely active and productive during the evening hours until like 5:00am. This didn't happen when I was doing labor work because it was labor... I worked the hardest each day for 10 hours - even the weekends. Unless I start humping full server racks back and forth all day, I would need to find a way to manage it.

However, most of the work I did was during the evening hours. In fact, most of the jobs I've had in technology, including the one I have now, allowed me this convenience.

I don't really tell people about the details of DSPS if I don't have to. Most people just think that "I'm not a morning person..." I've been scrutinized by some people who think its just a personal preference. "How can someone not be able to sleep?" They won't understand and can't relate to these things.

Even doctors didn't get it right at first. They thought it was Insomnia for a long time. They even told my mother than she might not have rocked me back and forth enough when I was a baby. But Insomnia goes away...eventually, DSPS doesn't.
I don't know how long ago they realized the difference, but I understand that in order to change to a normal schedule, people with DSPS have to take different forms of narcotics. While I know that some narcotics make you feel good, I'm a naturalist and I think it feels much better to just keep working in the dark corners of my basement. I'll stick with that!

Staying in the Dark Corner

Enter the world of the "C0mput3r H@ck3r". I dove head-first into this field. I couldn't help it -- it was a huge word, the idea was intriguing and gave a large sense of mystery; cloak and dagger-like. I began to learn the "how-to". Surprisingly, there is not much to learn once you have aqcuired some general programming skills. The hardest part is "Time", taking the time to test ideas and finding the right order of execution. In fact, its very dry and boring to non-techies. But, like the magician, if you know the secrets of a cool magic act, the whole thing becomes sensible; no big deal, and you'll ask yourself "Why didn't i think of that?!". But to the audience, its a huge, magical feat that is untouchable by common man.

I chatted and hung-out a lot with some of the now 'not so famous' hackers such as: HyperViper, Silcon Toad -- they owned the site www.hackers.com which at one time was the icon, the representing site of the computer hacker. No, it's not there any longer. One of the founders was killed in a car accident and the crew lost their momentum. But, we spent a lot of time on the IRC networks hosting webinars covering everything IT - programming, networking, protocols, various "how-to's"; generally spreading the knowledge of technology and teaching anyone who was willing to learn. I didn't hang out, but frequently talked with the famous, Kevin Mitnick. He became the poster boy for the name "Hacker".

Here is where I learned the core of everything that's on the Internet. I became extremely skilled at just about everything there was; you had to in order to perform some of the feats they did. I knew how everything communicated right down to the electron that passes through the wire to your computer, and I knew how to modify it at will.

The original term "hacker" is nothing like how the word is used today. It has (or had) nothing to do with breaking into another computer or a phone network.
Have you ever heard someone say "I'm going to hack this thing up" or "I"m going to hack this thing back together again"
Being a hacker is an innovative person who thinks in an unorthodox manner when creating solutions and solving problems. Usually doing so with a limited amount of resources which were not built or intended to be used in such a way. In another or perhaps an 'easier to visualize' example -- it is the processes of a being a virtual "MacGuyver". You had to have watched the Tv show, MacGuyver. He was the cool guy who taught us how to make bomb using a stick of gum, an unopened coke can, and a short piece of copper wire.

Well anyway, I certainly learned a lot about this field. I developed a rare level of respect for these exceptional engineers.

moving along...

Over the past two decades I have been a part of many different projects; specialized projects and unique projects. Here are the few main ones that I wish to highlight in the order in which I experienced them (I think).

Saving Children

On one very unique project, I was privileged enough to work with agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and equivalent personnel from Canada, Germany, Russia, and Brazil in an effort to collect evidence on groups and individuals loring, trading, selling, and some making money engaging in child crimes on the Internet.

At the time, I was the Director of Research & Development for this non-profit organization and my team was responsible for the development of reporting applications used to search, flag and analyze content to provide to the authorities. In fact, I hear that our group was responsible for providing the lead evidence resulting in the down-fall of the "second largest" international ring that stretched across several countries. The event made the news internationally. Actually, I was very surprised that while it was all over the news, that the story was not picked up by anyone. It's like people just shrugged their shoulders and went on to the next topic.

No Fame, No Fortune. Unfortunately, as our FBI contact said, we were "X-Files" and any information received from us would be marked from an "anonymous source". I understood. They did not want to know how the information was retreived and if we were on record, we would have to describe everything that we did which could have ruined the entire point - The Kids. At the time we didn't care, the mission was much more important than the recognition and we felt that being in the "X-Files" was really cool. But, it would have been really nice to have our organization recognized for its tireless commitment, especially the founder who was a victim of this type of child abused too.

The problem I faced with this type of work was there was no real solution. We helped investigators close the gap on the criminals, but after all that work, within 6 months a new ring took its place. The entire process started over again. I realized then that while we possibly saved hundreds of children, it was not the real solution to the problem. The kids that would not be saved are filtered to the next ring and the world does not run out of kids so this problem is an actual big business.
What's worse is that I can't name one thing or assume what the solution would be. As a problem-solver, I believe everything has a solution. But this problem is different. I searched and researched the source of this problem and it is something that is coded inside the personality of humans and it is deeply rooted. Everyone is merged into two groups -- either you are with them or against them. There is no inbetween on this subject. So, it was time for me to depart from this environment and move on to new experiences. I am proud of what I contributed here and I was able to leave without any negative regard.

If you're wondering what the name of the organization was or the details of that "international sting" -- I won't give them out. I will not shine any light on the groups or individuals involved, that is to say, we really didn't "know" each other either. Like the perverbial Truck Driver, we all had radio handles (nicknames) and didn't know much about the "person" behind the name - only the talents and skill sets. But, I'm not interested in substantiating (or proving) the experience; the story is an important memory for me and less important than the Internet at large. I only touched on it because it was something I did with technology, it was unique and tons of fun, and most importantly, it fills in space on this page. Who knows, maybe it will give you a better understanding of my personality... or maybe not.

America's Army: The Official U.S. Army Game

To mention another unique project, I am an IT Consultant and provide all kinds of technical services to the United States Army on one of the most historic campaigns they have ever conducted titled: The Army Game Project: "America's Army". America's Army is a communication initiative to connect with the youth of today through video game technology.

I started here as a Community Manager with the intention of succeeding the Webmaster who was moving to game development. I helped build the second-half of a Community Management team, then helped build a Web Applications Team and get them situated and now I've moved completely into the world Systems Administration. To you other Sys Admins out there -- yes, my hair is falling out.

Oh yea, there has been a lot of media and hype surrounding this project. As it is military backed and supported with a foundation in the recruitment sector, it has been labeled by some as a recruiting tool, others as a brain-washing technique.

In short - it is neither a recruiting tool nor a brain-washing application - Period. The measure of success for this project is how many people experienced the game. From this view, it makes it a communication tool - how many people it communicated with. If it were a recruiting tool, the measure of success would be how many recruits it brings in. While of course statistics are realized at the recruiting level with this project. When people volunteer for service, they could be asked questions about America's Army - if they heard of it or played it and did it help them to decide whether or not to volunteer. The game teaches a little bit of medical training and there have been a few examples of where young men and women used that education to save a life. When asked how they knew what to do, they said they learned it from playing America's Army.

It may be surprising to some people, but there are a high-number of discharges of people who did not understand exactly what was expected of them or who did not understand what it was all about. The Army needed something to mimic the Basic Training system so people could experience it prior to making their decision of joining the service. But the hard part of this concept is how to design it without being so boring that no one would read or watch it. There is no better application than the First Person Shooter game. There are hundreds of games that mock the U.S. Army but do not represent it factually. The Army can change this perception by entering into the field and creating one of its own. Since the popularity of FPS games is at its highest, it only makes sense to use it. As an added bonus, those who play FPS games usually have certain mental qualities that are looked for by Army leadership.

All-in-all, it was one of the better ideas the Army had come out with.

To read more details about this subject, click here.

Zen Toolworks, LLC.

Nothing spells American like a successful start-up company!

I started working with Zen Toolworks as one of many projects I do on the side. It only required a few hours a week at the most so I can easily fit it into any schedule. As another mark of success, with proper website development and community management, I increased the companies traffic which resulted in a 700% increased of net sales. Wow, huh? I swear -- it's a fact! They were making a certain amount of money one year, and then about 6 months later, they were making 4x's that amount each month. Now, I take care of most Internet-related developments and provide an avenue for online customer-support through the forum system I stood up. This system formed a small community of Zen Toolwork's customers who spoke with each other and helped answer questions that others may have had. What a useful resource -- a support infrastructure that I did not have to build from the bottom up!

So, "how did I get involved with this"...
That's a story in and of itself. I'll try to keep it short. I've failed in one area in my life - Taxes. I got unwillingly stuck between a rock and a hard place and chose to honor a moral obligation instead of a financial one. It would cost me thousands of dollars later. So, I had to find a way to make more money to pay it off. I came up with great ideas that would make lots of money. I thought I would take one of these ideas and invest in its success, using all the income it would generate as tax payments.

I was searching for a system that could make small parts such as gears and frame supports. I needed these parts to build small prototypes of the hardware devices I was designing. I ran into an online store selling the CNC DIY kits cheaper than any other available. After a bit of research on the store, I found out that the hardware was very stable and would work perfect for what I needed it for. But, the entire cost was about $200 more than what I had available.
In an unbelievable turn of events, the business sold me everything I needed to start for roughly $150.00 less than the actual total retail cost. He said to me "Pay me later." So, I felt obligated to the business and I was so impressed with the level of customer service this guy gave me. This kind of support does not exist on the Internet so it's no wonder why he is rated 100% on Amazon and eBay listings.

I wanted to do something for the business in the spirit of Appreciation. Together, we would make Customer Service the #1 priority and the sales #2. I promote and provide this service on the Internet, but I also fill-in a few gaps with other duties too. Combined with the Internet developments, we proved what could be considered a good demonstration of how to build and maintain a successful small business!

To read more details about this subject, click here.

- My Professional Experiences -

I hate resumes! - I hope I make this point very clear. Actually, let me be clearer - I hate MY resume! I can write good documentation, design secure networks, provide redundancy and usually out-wit or out-think an opponent. But, I absolutely stink at building a resume. I even got a few of those free "resume critiques" at a few professional career websites and they just let me have it holding no punches. They might as well put at the top page: "You are NOT allowed to Touch This Again!". They said I was in present tense, past tense, speaking first-person and third-person; I had too many pages of experience because I listed details instead of categories. They said it was a waste of a reviewer's time and would most likely upset them. I read it myself -- I didn't get upset. But whatever...

This is what I call an "online resume" and I'm not going to worry or get upset about how I describe anything, or what to include in category details that span over five pages as I'm typing in a first or third-person mode from the past and present and future!

U.S. ARMY - ARMY GAME PROJECT	2003 - 2012 (current)
Network Architecture
This environment is filled with high-volume NAS, transaction servers, Oracle; PostgreSQL; MySQL servers, web farms, high-profile forums, IRC services, Wiki sites, ... and the list goes on. Designing network schematics, management and communication protocols and software packages are only a few of the services rendered here.
System Administration
Doesn't the title say it all? For other Sys Admins, that would say it all, but for those of you who have no idea, it is essentially translated as increased anxiety, grey hair, nervous ticks and bad eating habits... oh - and loss of sleep. While network security was one area of frustration, it double or tripled when discussing each network server. But in lieu of stomach aches and a constant worry, I managed to help create and maintain data security policies; backup and restoration procedures; keep software up to date, system logging and statistical usage reports; a general assortment of your average SA tasks. Of course there was the paper-work (ick) -- yearly projection reports and cost estimates, software, hardware, quotes, "Oh, my".
Database Administration
Websites not only demand dynamic content, but shared content is a requirement as well. We stored a lot of public web data on SQL services. I have had the opportunity (or pleasure) to compare a licensed Oracle service and a MySQL service. In all fairness, both are unique and have special abilities that the other does not. I find that whether or not to use one over the other depends on how you will interface the service. Such as - what type of queries will be running or how many connections per minute do you expect. Being that MySQL community version is free for Government and Educational use, I think that I have found every possible way to leverage its potential -- even in the most complicated setups that otherwise would be slated for an Oracle service. So, using a very unique configuration, we put together a large integrated network of shared services. I have lots of fun setting up 4-node clusters with way too many MySQL front-ends and a nifty Replication process for what I hope is easy data recovery.
Project Management
I put together and managed a 7-man web applications team of multi-talented professionals who designed, developed, and maintained several websites of different (sometimes unheard of) architectures and frameworks. I also operated as a sudo Project Manager for the 5-man Community Management team. As I've say below, these teams are rare and under-rated in today's businesses. But they are slowly climbing the ladder of recognition... and I do mean slowly. A Community Manager is a position that increases the "word of mouth" marketing by being personally active in a community. This is the most powerful advertisement any business can have. For example -- I've read many ads, but when my neighbor recommends a product that he has tried and liked, I'm more apt to get it versus what I saw in the ads. Just like I did only a year or so before, the team kept the online content up to date with different articles, offered sneak-peaks into the development of the game and highlighted the events held by other community members. Keeping the Internet traffic moving, they will advertise local and virtual events related to the game. The AACM team also manages a volunteer team of 50+ people, each of them contributing a small service to the project such as user support. These guys were the absolute heart-beat of the community in every way -- it was a virtual "army" of folks who simply enjoyed helping the project.
Webmaster / Web Development
The entire project was relatively new during this time so we only had 2 websites and a whole bunch of support requests. Have you ever given thought to how many messages an email address such as "webmaster@so-n-so.com" receives? As a Webmaster I was a front-end programmer helping the AACM team manage the immense amount of data we had accumulated quickly. Everything was MySQL and PHP - your classic LAMP stack. I kept the AACM team supplied with web-tools for them to do their job easily while I continued to add more content and features to the website.
Community Manager
Coming onboard the project, I was situated in this role temporarily until I could slip into the Webmaster's position. I was to succeed the existing because he was moving to the game development team. However, I learned first-hand how to be a Community Manager. Operating as a liaison, the job was to keep the Internet Community interested and active. Every essential skill needed to be a good marketing and event planner is coupled into this position. You either had it or you didn't. We made use of creative online community games and held special events and used all of our communication points to "get the word out". With this experience under my belt, I realize that you can only benefit when having an efficient Community Management team. It is perhaps one of the most under-estimated teams in any company and one of the worst to do without.
CDA CONSULTING	2002 - 2003
Owner/Operator
Developed public and private networks and applications to a few companies to make ends meet while in transition.
CYBRTOWN INC.	2001 - 2002
Systems & Network Administrator
I worked for this dial-up and wireless ISP which serviced about 600-900 local customers at the time. I redesigned their whole network from the bottom up using the existing barebones hardware they had available. Believe it or not, we made it work well. To keep it short, the keywords here are: 3Com RAS, Portmaster2, Radius, Dual Gateway BGP, Cisco routers, Rackmount servers, and all the common Internet services.
PENTELEDATA INC.	1998 - 2000
Network Engineer
I created network monitoring applications using the SNMP protocol for the core fiber optic network; managed Cisco Access Lists and BGP routing tables; upgraded firmware when necessary; provided an assortment of network services to commercial clients including Government and Law Enforcement entities
System Administrator
I also provided standard system administration duties; managed online services such as DNS, POP3, SMTP; beta tested and administrated CheckPoint firewall services; and provided training to local law enforcement on how to process reports on computer crimes and related topics
Security Task Force Engineer
I had the privilege of playing a part to co-design the new Security Task Force; drafting standard operating procedures for commercial customer reports and response; provided system, network, and data analysis for reported events.
INTERMEDIA MARKETING SOLUTIONS	1997 - 1998
Network Engineer
I provided networking services across the LAN/WAN; light systems administration work on Windows NT and Data General (DG) systems; and technician support on DOS, Windows 95 and 98 clients.
System Technician
Position Overview
WAWA INC. - RED ROOF	1996 - 1997
Windows NT Support Specialist
I provided remote technical support over a WAN on Windows NT servers located at each store location via PC-Anywhere dial-in application.
INTERMEDIA MARKETING SOLUTIONS	1994 - 1996
Computer Operator
I handled electronic data for clients such as Bell Atlantic, Sallie Mae, and other fortune 500 companies. My duties included secure data transfers; managing print queues; nightly tape backups; batch file creation, Netware user/group management and Windows NT service administrator.