My primary skill set is realtime embedded software development with C/C++ & Linux, although I have written software using several other languages and environments. I worked mostly with Windows 7 & 10 over the last decade, but I am currently primarily using MacOS for development. Click here if you wish to see my resume.
I retired from my full-time position at FlightSafety International after 6 years, in March of 2021. At the time I started there, I only intended to stay for 4 years, and retire in mid-2019. They persuaded me to stay on a bit longer.
After my “retirement,” I returned to the DFW area of Texas, and I contracted at Lockheed-Martin for about a year and a half. At LM, I got the opportunity to return to using my favorite OS (Linux), although with my least-favorite distro (CentOS/RH). My first contract ended on March 11th, 2022, and my next contract with LM started on March 29th, 2022 (different division). That contract ended in July 2022 (see my blog post New Opportunity of a Lifetime).
I am also a violinist (my first W2 job was with the El Paso Symphony, while still in high school), and I teach violin and viola lessons in my home studio.
I am a Navy veteran. In the Navy, I was an Electronics Technician, and a Reactor Operator.
Other: I have waited tables, managed a restaurant, washed dishes, sacked groceries, dug ditches, picked cotton, moved furniture, operated construction machinery, been a high-school substitute teacher, worked as a chemist making analytical standards for X-ray florescence analysis, and taught in a community college. But for the past 40+ years, my main occupation has been writing software.
You might wonder if there is anything I haven’t done. Well, I’ve never stood on a street corner with a cardboard sign that says “Will work for food.” I have also never been on food stamps.