A brief history of me and computers
I *know* no one is going to read this, but I felt like writing it down one
day in case I forget or die in a horrible accident.
My parents (my father in particular) knew of the importance of computers
early on, and actively tried to get me "into" them. My dad worked for GTE
on central office telephone switches, so he realized computer's growing
importance as they became big custom computers.
Circa 1982 -My father buys the family a Commodore VIC-20. I was 6 or 7
when my Dad bought this (probably at K-Mart), and I mostly remember
playing a Lunar Lander type game (Jupiter Lander), although I'm sure we
had several cartridges. The operating system, as many computers of this
era, was a BASIC interpreter so I learned a *little* BASIC programming
later on. I never had the Cassette recorder drive, so any "programs" that
wrote went away when it was powered off. Supposedly this was also Linus
Torvalds' first computer, however I can't claim that I got bored
programming in assembler on it. Of course, if I had perhaps I would be as
famous as him.
1985 -As I went into the 4th grade (transferring from another school), my
standardized tests score were high enough to get me into the pilot
elementary school program for "computer science" (perhaps they were 1
point too low, I recall my parents having to argue to get me in for some
reason). Low and behold I was allowed to go to the computer lab and take
CBT computer lessons on Apple II machines. They taught how the Abacus was
the "first computer", about Charles Babbage, all the good computer history
stuff. Also, I was formally taught BASIC programming for the first time.
We also had lab time toward the end of the year, including computer
graphics. I recall drawing a picture of Rambo on a Macintosh and having
the printout put on display in cafeteria.
1988 -After moving to Texas late in the previous year, my father
befriends an intern who has a Commodore Amiga computer. The intern
convinces my dad that they are far superior to the IBM /IBM clones and
Macintoshes available at the time. My dad then bought me my *own* Amiga
500, along with the Commodore 1084S-D1 VGA monitor. Said intern was very
active in the Dallas Amiga community and gave me tons of cracked pirated
software. I literally instantly had over 100 games and applications. At
this point, it is a "game machine" to me. Around this time my father also
brings home a surplus IBM XT (with a 5MB Hard Drive!) that is installed in
my sister's room. I spend some time learning DOS.
1989 -I enter the 8th grade at Forth Worth Christian school and take 8th
grade computer science. The computer lab consists of Commodore 64
computers - except for 1 Amiga 1000 that was donated to the school. The
class is somewhat "self paced" and another computer history / BASIC
programming course -- all this stuff is "old hat" to me, I am able to
complete my programming assignments in a fraction of the time it takes the
rest of the class. Of course, I was motivated - the quicker I finished my
assignments, the more time I had to play games on the Amiga 1000. For the
final project (which everyone else had a week to complete), I did in one
period and added color and crude graphics for extra credit. I get the
"class award" for JH Computer Science and for the first time, I become
well known as a "computer nerd".
1990 -I enter high school. I discover that the Amiga from the Junior
High was given to a Senior named Jason Nelson (the son of the Secretary at
the JH, now a programmer for Microsoft). I instantly now have someone I
can talk about Amigas with. I make friends with 2 other guys who have IBM
compatible PCs. They introduce me to modems and BBSes. My dad brings
home a surplus 2600 baud modem after some convincing. The school has a
science lab with Radio Shack TSR-80s that I use, as well as shiny new 386
computers I use in typing class.
1991 . Over the summer I attend a junior engineering program at Texas
Woman's University. Part of the computer program is, you guessed it,
BASIC programming. However all of the work is done on the campus
Mainframe, so I am introduced to TTY dumb terminals (on a VAX, I think).
They also still have a mainframe that uses punch cards that I get to see
in action (though I didn't program anything on punch cards).
Returning in for my sophomore year at FWC, I use the class at TWU as
credit for Computer I. They didn't have enough students (3) sign up for
Computer II, so take a self paced course on Pascal with the Computer I
students on IBX XT PCs. The other two Computer II students are in another
Computer I class. Again, I win the "class award" for Computer II.
Around this time my father buys a clone 386 from CompUSA that is installed
in my sister's room.
1992 -I switch to Coppell High School. By now, I'm well versed on
hacking on the Amiga. I have a highly customized Workbench disk, and I've
ported a few games to Amiga Basic. At this point, I've almost entirely
stopped using the GUI and use the AmigaDOS CLI. It is VERY not cool to be
a computer nerd. Around this time, I'm "banned" from using the modem for
having stayed too late BBSing. I had a FidoNET account on one BBS. I
attend another summer computer program, this one exposes me to Windows 3.0
and Adobe. Dad brings home a surplus 286 class "laptop" that
must weigh 50 pounds that I keep. I crudely network it to the Amiga.
1993 -I sign up for AP Computer Science III. Again, even though this is
a far larger (8-10X) than FWC, only 3 people sign up. This time, instead
of a self paced course, they make us "lab assistants" for the computer
labs that are occasionally used by English classes. This lab is running
286 PS/2 (How're ya gonna do it? PS/2 it!) computers with a server
running Netware 2.x all networked together with coax Ethernet. However,
we all ended up doing "PC Support" for the entire high school, in
particular the new business classrooms that were running Netware 3.1x on
486s with a new Pentium server. The biggest watershed event is that I get
dial up internet access with the "lab manager's" (a teacher who didn't
know anything about computers) account. I use *real* e-mail for the first
time to contact authors of Amiga software that I like (who are in
College). I also can BBS from school now. I enter Business Professionals
of America programming/debugging competition and win 1st place at the
regional competition, but fail to place at the state competition (didn.t
help that I had stayed up half the night in the hotel to watch Cinemax
with my roommate). Computer nerd still not cool.
1994 -1995 -This is the big year...Over the summer of '94 I get a Packard
Bell 486DX2/50 with 8MB of Ram and 500MB hard drive. The big time, just a
few months before college -- I can recall it cost my parents $2000. It
came with DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1, but I quickly upgraded to DOS 6.1. It
has a built in 2400 baud modem, but as soon as I hit campus as a freshman
at Valparaiso University, I made a run for the local computer store and
got a Zoom internal 14.4 modem. As a Computer Engineering student, it.s
now *cool* to be a computer nerd. The University used a DEC VAX for
student E-mail and TTY internet access via college Gopher
server. BBSing activity faded quickly, and I mostly dialed into the
campus system for text based internet access. I had a large notebook of
handwritten FTP and Gopher sites, Veronica and Archie enter my vocabulary.
Then, newsreaders like TIN, where we downloaded uuencoded porn in multiple
text parts and copied and pasted them back together hoping to re-encode
them
into pictures. We quickly strung phone cables across the dorm hall to
play DOOM head to head. We then learn we can get accounts on the
Engineering Department's Unix server (gem.valpo.edu). Nate Smith runs
into my room one day and tells me I've *got* to go to engineering lab -
they had just installed NCSA Mosaic web browser and I saw the world wide
web for the first time. Auri Rahimzadeh (now
"hacking" author) lives in my dorm and hands me a printout of "The
Beginners Guide to HTML" and my first webpage is born a short time
thereafter (Auri also handed the phone to me one time to talk to his
friend Steve Wozniack ) . Auri was the
moderator of the largest Apple II GS forum and had met the Woz doing an
interview with him. On my Packard Bell, I installed OS/2 for a while,
then went back to DOS with PC DOS 7.0. In August of 1995 I got a copy of
Windows 95 on 3.5" floppy disk and loaded on the Packard Bell.
1996 -After dropping out of Valpo and graduating from TCJC, I moved out
into my own apartment. I briefly enrolled at University of North Texas.
I had a job at the local library as lab assistant, taking care of the
small Novell Netware 3.12 network and helping people in the lab. This is
where I learned Netware pretty well. BTW, proof positive nothing on the internet
ever goes away,
here is a post I made to the Novell Listserv in 1996 asking about CNE study materials.
I upgraded the Packard Bell to a 486
DX4/100, and brought it up to 16MB of RAM. I also installed Linux
(slackware) for the first time. Also installed Windows NT Workstation
(4.0) for the first time.
[RIP My 486 Packard Bell mid-tower. Xerxes (the 1st, my primary PC is
always named Xerxes) ran 3 versions of DOS, 2 versions of OS/2, Windows
3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT 4, and Slackware Linux. I really wanted save
the case when I upgraded in 1998, but Packard Bell stuff was all
proprietary (card slots were the wrong way among other issues)]
1997 -Got a job as the Network Administrator for the North Texas area of
the Texas Youth Commission. It was a large state network that ran Netware
4.10 servers and Windows 3.1 clients. I was responsible for 10 of the
servers and about 150 clients in a very large area of the state. Half of
the sites were Ethernet, the other half were Token ring (I guess the
Network Manager in Austin was hedging his bets). This year I passed the
first MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) exam toward the MCSE
(Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) certification. I also passed CNA
(Certified Novell Administrator) exam.
1998-1999 -Worked on upgrading the TYC network to NT 4.0 Servers with NT
4.0 workstation clients. Started building my own PCs, first with a Cyrix
Pentium class chip, then with AMD Athlon chips (The 486 DX 4/100 was the
last Intel chip I've owned -*edit* Until 2008 now I have two, a Mini-ITX
Lego PC and an AppleTV). From this point on, I always run one Windows
server and one Windows Client at home. In 1999, I passed the last exam to
receive my MCSE certification (shortly after I broke up with my
girlfriend). I studied at home with the Packard Bell as an NT 4 server
and a Cyrix box as an NT 4 workstation. When I was rejected for a
transfer/promotion to Austin because they didn't want to try to replace
me, I started looking for another job.
2000 -Got a job working for NEC America as a QA Systems Engineer.
Initially, I was hired to test applications run on SCO Unix that
interfaced to the NEAX 2400 IMS. Later, I volunteered to test an
application called SD10 (Named changed to SP10) which was a soft phone
that ran on Windows. I passed my MCSE upgrade test to Windows 2000. I
buy an Amiga 1200 tower, and set it up on my network.
2001 -The groups were functionally split, and I was "moved" to the PBX
testing group. I started testing Voice over IP trunks and then phones.
Late in 2001, I was sent to install the first Voice over IP 2400 IPX in
North America. Amiga 1200 dies in an upgrade attempt, and after I move
into a new house it doesn't get re-setup on the network.
2002 - 2003 -I was sent to Japan to receive training on the next
generation Voice over IP phone system, the Univerge SV7000. I installed
the Beta system in the lab that ran our house phone. Also worked on a
Linux based VoIP Voice Mail, the UM-4730. I also took over the network
administration for the systems engineering department (two Windows 2000
servers) after the previous guy who did it departed.
2004-2005 -Started working on a Linux based PBX, the SV7000 MPS.
Still a member of the PBX testing group. In the summer of 2005, I
returned to the University of North Texas. Sent to The Netherlands
(Amsterdam) to train the newly partnered Philips PBC (now NEC Philips) on
the SV7000.
2006 -Promoted to Supervisor of the PBX testing group. Graduated from
the University of North Texas with an undergraduate degree in Business
Administration. Windows 2003 server (Darius) at home dies (Athlon XP
2000+), after
an upgrade I start running Linux instead opting to use it as an HD DVR
instead of a general file/media server.
2007 -Still Supervisor at NEC (now NEC Unified Solutions).
Home network includes Xerxes (AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+, running Vista
Ultimate) and Jester (AMD Athlon 64 3000+ running Ubuntu Linux and
MythTV), as well a NAS server (some embedded Linux) and wireless router
running DD-WRT.
2008 -I built a computer for my now 1 year old son
William. The Lego Star Wars PC is an Intel based
Mini-ITX board running Windows XP, ending my decade run of not using an
Intel processor in any of my home PCs. A nod to Intel, there is no other
manufacturer that makes a superior (speed-wise) Mini-ITX solution at a
price point that
is even close to the $65 I paid for the motherboard and CPU. Also bought
an AppleTV in hopes of making it a Linux based Mythtv frontend for a
future TV I plan to put in the bedroom. It too is Intel based. In April, NEC sent me to
Japan again to recieve training on the all new SV8500 linux based NEC PBX.
At the end of July,
I left NEC and started a new job at BNSF railway. They have the world's largest CCIS network
of NEC PBXs, but they are looking to interoperate them with a replacement system. Jester got
an upgrade to an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ and switched from MythTV to Windows
Media Center (on Vista).
2009 - Did a successful migration at BNSF to Exchange UM for Voicemail and
to OCS 2007 R2 for VoIP solution at BNSF. I passed the Microsoft Exams to
be MCITP certified on Windows Server 2008. Upgraded William's Star Wars
Lego PC to a Intel D945GCLF2 Mini ITX board. Xerxes gets some upgrades
and has a new AMD motherboard waiting for install. Added Linksys
Windows Media Center extenders to connect to Jester for bedroom and
office.
2010 - Finished my MBA at TAMU Commerce. Got to go to
Microsoft in
Redmond twice this year - Once for the
then "Wave 14/CS 2010" (name later changed to Lync 2010) Airlift in March,
then again in December for Delta
Force Ranger Summit for Lync Architects. Left BNSF and Started at RBA
Consulting in
September as a
Unified Communications Consultant. Started a Microsoft Lync blog and signed a contract to write
"Lync Server in Action" for Manning Publications. I also co-founded the DFW Microsoft Unified Communications User Group.
Finally mothballed the AppleTV
(bound for
E-Bay - I haven't used it in over a year since I switched to WMC),
upgraded Jester to Windows 7 Media Center. Recommissioned a new
Darius server- AMD hexacore Phenom II X6 1035T based system with WD Raptor
drives, running Hyper-V and several virtualized Windows 2008 R2 servers
for a home MS Lync system.
2011 - Went back to BNSF as the Unified Communications Architect.
Added 6TB of storage to Darius and installed Windows Home Server 2011.