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This is an overview along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, September 2003. The "scenic" view is the other direction, but I wanted to capture a
really scary image, what with Halloween being only a month away. The original image was 2560 x 1920 pixels, captured with a Olympus C50-Zoom. By the time anybody reads this, that will probably seem like poor technology. Digital cameras are still evolving quite rapidly. The image was scaled down to 512 x 384 pixels, one fifth original size. The JPEG quality factor was set to 50% in an effort to further reduce the image size, for shorter internet download time. |
So that's me, caught in a moment of self-indulgent leisure high atop the mountains of North Carolina. When I'm not working, I enjoy relaxing in almost any natural habitat. When I am working, I enjoy relaxing among all manner of high-tech gadgets and accouterments. Technology is fun! If you would look inside the vehicle, you'd find a full complement of said paraphernalia readily visible.
Newsflash: April 30, 2005
New toy!! Today I traded in the beauty above for the beauty below. It may not seem like a beauty to everybody, but it really is a very impressive piece of engineering. Of course, it still is only a car, and not anything of true importance when compared to something like being a good person. It's another Acura, this time a 2005 TL. Compared to the CL, it is a little roomier and is more comfortable to drive and to ride in. Despite having more horsepower, it is not quite as peppy as the CL type-S was, but still has plenty of muscle. The best of it is on the inside. Among the new features is a 6 channel surround DVD Audio player, which makes listening to your favorite music a whole new experience. It's awesome!! Many people have commented to me that they hear things they never knew were in the music. You really have to hear it to appreciate it.
| This is my first exposure to DVD Audio, and it is no disappointment. Acura provides a "demo" DVD with it, mixed by Elliot Scheiner (one of the most talented audio engineers in the music industry). You have to hear it to believe it. The vehicle is equipped with voice command recognition, and the GPS navigation system has a beautiful 8 inch display. You can control it by voice command, or if you prefer you can use the convenient touch-screen. Describing the vehicle is not the intention of this page, so if you want to know more (or want to see a very impressive multimedia demo), then click here to see the Acura TL presentation page. |
Note that the intended visual effects are not supported with all browsers. If your browser supports the effects, you will observe the scene change between day and night, with and without lights. Note also that you may observe "white noise" during image transitions, due to the excessive compression used on each of the images. The compression results in image quality degradation, but provides a much smaller image file, so folks with a slow internet connection will not suffer excessive download delays.
During my younger years I was a musician for a living. Then, when married with child on they way, I decided to give up all that personal freedom, and took a job doing hard labor construction while teaching myself electronics at night. I landed a job as a repair technician about a year later, and was moved into the engineering department (still as a tech) after a few months. It was there that I decided I wanted to become a Test Engineer. When I first started in that position I was faced with a seemingly infinite variety of circuits and related information, the vast majority of which I knew little or nothing about. As is often the case for today's youth entering the field, I was ill-prepared for all the facets of technology needed to become an "expert" in my chosen area. However, armed with an insatiable curiosity and an overpowering desire to be good at my job, I forged ahead on the road to flame and misfortune. Even so, I never let that slow me down, honestly. From early in my youth, I recognized that everything is related to everything else in some way or another, and I made a conscious effort to recognize these relationships as I learned the trade. Fortunately, I had some excellent mentors, without whom I would have had a much more difficult time indeed. They offered free advice and guidance constantly; you know, like "...you idiot! That's not how to do it!..." and other similar pearls of wisdom. But I never took it personally, and instead tried to listen and learn.
Eventually, I started learning software, and have since moved into software development. I've been doing that for about 20 years now, and have had the good fortune to work on many fascinating projects, including embedded systems for process control in manufacturing environments, navigation systems, mapping for geospatial and geointelligence applications, robotic weapons systems, and computer-controlled security systems. The past few years I've been involved with various aspects of Traffic Stream Processor software, used in network communications equipment. This work has been challenging and extremely interesting, and again I have been fortunate in being able to work with a group of excellent engineers.
Much of my software development is done in my home office, where I have fairly adequate resources, including 19 computers running an assortment of Linux, Solaris or Windows, all networked, and all tied into a comprehensive security system that I designed. Each system has a UPS to protect it from power surges and outages. There are eight live cameras connected as part of my security system, four of which are wireless. Full motion actuated recording is enabled, and there are two target acquisition and tracking systems capable of image recognition. The systems "know" me by visual inspection. Two of the cameras are "night vision" capable, providing quality image resolution even in conditions of near-total darkness. Security includes cellular and other wireless communications. There's approximately 5 terabytes of networked storage capacity, and I have an automated backup system in place that archives my data both on and off site. There are 3 networked printers, as well as an assortment of other computer-related equipment. My office library is extensive, but only complements my subscriptions to numerous online "professional" resources.
Employment History:
When time permits...
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If you like this site, then please let me know what to do to improve it . . . 
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