Half a league, half a league, half a league onward...

Well, this is the official start of my "Ramblings on IT with Java emphasis" blog. Some of what I will write here you may not agree with and some of it you will. I request that those who disagree show respect and keep the comments "clean", but know that your opinion is welcome.

To start things off, let me tell you a little about myself so you can have a perspective of where I am coming from:

My education was done at West Virginia University (WVU), home of the Mountaineers (and I'll kindly ask you to refrain from any jokes relating to "hillbilly" this, or "country" that) where I recieved a degree in Computer Science and another in Business (Finance).

I began my post graduate professional work with Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in their Insurance Division at a customer site in Forest Park, OH. From there they sent me to Southfield Michigan for "Phase II" training. After that it was to a small town in OH to work on a banking product using (argh...) COBOL.

I transferred to EDS's corporate headquaters in Plano, TX to work on their Corporate Credit Union Network again using (argh...) COBOL. It was there that I decided that either I would spend my life bored to tears or retrain myself. So, I worked with a local college to get some C courses on our EDS campus, and started taking them. That lead to C++, then to VC++/MFC.

I transferred out of CCUN (still with EDS) to work on another banking product but this time it was with VC++ (less of an argh...). At that time I began to switch from more of a "bit twiddler" to an architect (if not yet in knowledge, at least in "attitude").

I was lead away from EDS and Banking by the travel industry, and began life as a contractor working on flight recervation systems for Sabre. I worked my way up to a team lead only to have the project pulled. After that I spent some time there as a project manager for the Y2K conversion they did, and that is what first got me introduced to Java and UML.

From Sabre I jumped (along with many of us) into the Internet related technologies when I joined a startup known at that time as Integrated Concepts. There I worked to get Java instruction on site, and took classes in it. I also was heavy into Object Oriented Databases while there, as well as learning about what would become J2EE (in those days, the term wasn't created yet).

From there I went into the next booming industry....Telecom, where I joined Fujitsu. They wanted my Java, TCP-IP, and UML knoweldge and allowed me to lead a team to build a new provisioning (all though it was more than just that) tool using Java and CORBA technology.

Well, we all know what happened to Telecom, and after that I went to work as a consultant (using mostly Java, JDBC, and XML) for Frito Lay on their new handheld product. Now long into that project though, some in-fighting occured, and rumors began to fly about the projects outsourcing (which did indeed happen).

That took me to a small (but very nice) company called OraMetrix where I was able to use my Java, J2EE, Java3D skills building a Internet based (www.suresmile.com) application where users can see and manipulate 3D models of teeth! Quite a challenge and a heck of a lot of fun, but the lure of the travel industry took me away from that and I find myself today working for one of, if not the, best employer on earth...Southwest Airlines.

So, as you can see, I've been in a lot of industries and have seen a lot. Hopefully, my experience will allow me to give some insight that others will find useful.