Miles O'Neal - Working Hard

or Hardly Working?

Work & Related Stuff

2009 brought another layoff as Intrinsity prepared to be bought by Apple. A year later I landed at Cirrus Logic as a CAD systems engineer- sort of a Linux/Unix systems administrator on steroids. The motto is "Cirrus rocks!" and it really does. This is definitely one of the two best employers I have worked for; they really understand the importance of happy, good employees. The job has morphed more than once so far; from generalist to Linux/Unix infrastructure operations to managing the SCM systems (mainly Perforce and Subversion) with Samba thrown in just for grins. I also blog from time to time, document like crazy, and help with training in related areas.

2002 brought about a slight career change. I've always had my finger in the system administration pie, but became a full time manager of a sysadmin group at Intrinsity in the summer of 2002. It's primarily a Linux shop, with a few Solaris systems, and a handful of Mac and Windows systems. The entire network, plus the phone system, is mine to command. Or command me, depending on your point of view.

I finally got the chance to work F/T for Vignette! I was with the Enterprise Application Portal (EAP) division, formerly Advanced Solutions Team (AST), which was a part of Vignette Global Marketplace (VGM), which was the fastest growing software company inside the fastest growing software company in the history of the known universe. Until the IT economy collapsed, anyway. I was the architect for the E-Support diagonal group (not exactly horizontal apps, not exactly vertical apps). I got hit during the third major round of layoffs, and started seriously considering whether to stay within this industry or not.

For a year I was a Senior Web Guru (yes, that was on my business card) at Hire.com, the best way to find a job or employees using the Internet. The Product Services Group, of which I was a part, does everything related to the product that isn't core development. Among other things, I handled customer modeling, web server enhancement, optimization and maintenance, some QA, the odd system and network admin assist, and ping pong.

For a year and a half before that, I worked for I.T. Masters, in product development, and briefly, allegedly as the US IT Master, although I was stymied at that by Those Who Nod Meaninglessly.

For the previous six years I worked at Pencom Web Works and Pencom Software (later PSW Technologies), both divisions of Pencom Systems . There I worked on a variety of projects, including co-Xist (X for NeXtsTeP), and co-authoring Awt Programming for Java with Tom Stewart (possibly available from Amazon.com). Also during that time, I contracted at Vignette twice; the first time I wrote the first GUI for the first StoryServer release, and the second time helping out the fledgeling Professional Services grup. I really wanted to go to work at Vignette, but was trying to work less hours, not more, and Vignette was in serious startup mode.

I've been playing with X ever since it escaped the labs at MIT. I wrote one of the first commercial apps for X, which my (then) employer decided was too good to market, and kept for Internal Use Only, so they could continue selling services. They were bought by a giant USA conglomerate, and barely survive today. I, on the other hand, am doing fine. [1]

At PSW Technologies I also worked for a couple of years on an X product for NeXTSTEP, co-Xist, which is now defunct. This was where I also got started with the web (early on, on my own time, after reading about the Web in ORA's The Whole Internet User's Guide & Catalog. I've been working with web technology in some capacity ever since.

I attended Georgia Tech (arch-nemesis of the Clark County Community Cow College) where, studying EE, I found computers. I started out in FORTRAN on mainframes and minis, but managed to get a solid software engineering background anyway.

At my first full-time software job I got more experience than I ever counted on, including learning all about interviewing. And here are some valuable resume tips!

A Limited Edition Career

(Many 80 hour weeks to do all this!)
Where did I do all that?

Other career-related things:


--
[1] Life is sometimes, as Eric of the Troubles loves to say, fair.
[2] Designed & co-developed a portable, graphics-device-independent system in FORTRAN for minis & micros, before X was even a gleam in Bob Scheifler's eye. Alas, it was proprietary, and never went anywhere.
[3] a.k.a., Sysadmazon.
[4] Working title: Foiled! Curses Again! provided by Susan Liebeskind of the Georgia Tech's Graphics, Visualization & Usability Center.

Non-Computer Stuff

Kids, there's a big, wide world out there, and I tasted a bit of it when I dropped out of school for a while. What was life like, that it drove me into software as a profession?

Read all about it.

In my spare time, I run Roadkills-R-Us, a company existing only in Cyberspace, dedicated to recycling as high up the food chain as possible.
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Miles O'Neal <roadkills.r.us@XYZZY.gmail.com> [remove the "XYZZY." to make things work!] c/o RNN / 1705 Oak Forest Dr / Round Rock, TX / 78681-1514