Every day i come to work and log on to this board and find the same members joining in for lively and productive discussions. Now I wonder, what do we all do for a living that we are able to multi-task like this?

It would be fun to see this information!

So I will be the first: I am the Treasurer of an International Bank located in Manhattan with a private office, thus my ability to 'secretly' log on freely!

Anybody else care to contribute?

Ed

Software developer for a company that does educational administration software (grades, attendance, financial, lunch, transportation, etc...). Much of the software I develop is browser-based, so I'm on the net all day anyway. Currently programming in FlashMX and doing Flash Remoting with PHPObject. cool stuff.

Kind of spend half my time swearing at Qt in Windows and Linux developing device drivers for a broadcast control and automation system and the other half swearing at various bit of broadcast equipment in apps rooms/studios/control rooms/edit suites/graphics areas.

I've almost always got a computer of some description in front of me, so reading and posting on the forum is pretty easy.

Software developer working for the U.S. military as a contractor. As for my ability to post here . . . I just take frequent breaks and look over my shoulder when posting! (As long as I get my work done, no one seems to mind, really).

I'm an independant software developer, though in the last 7 years I spent 6 years working for the same customer ( http://www.onyx.com/ ) designing their CRM software, so "independant" is stretching it a bit. Just spent the last 8 months working on back end software used to drive various holiday company websites ( http://www.parkdean.com and http://www.leger.co.uk/ ). I am now working on a tool for analysing MIDI files for http://www.gigajam.com/ . Hoping to go back and work for Onyx again later in the year (assuming they don't got bust or get bought out in the meantime).

I work from home a lot and even when I'm in an office the people I choose to work for tend to be very understanding, so checking the BBS occasionally has never been a problem.

I'd hate to work for one of these companies who frown on people checking a website a couple of times a day, yet allow smokers to stand around chatting for an hour or more a day...

P.S. thanks to my current project, I'll probably be asking questions here about midi and musical notation soon

Greetings!

Computer / internet engineer for a major US Telegraph company. Because I deal with internal web hosting and extranet servers all day, including firewalls and proxies. I am constantly on-line with one thing or another. Having an extra browser window up with the BBS is just a handy reference for many various topics.

Computer Programmer. Mostly Windows stuff, particularly MFC. Currently working for a startup that doesn't have any offices yet, so I'm working from home, which means that I've got nobody looking over my shoulder.

Well my lousey typeing and spelling not with standing

I have been a Network Administrator for 15 years now, currently at Intel Hillsboro camp.

Spelling and grammer are because I have Mild Dislexia, when I look at my own typeing it looks fine to me unless I spend 20 mins or so stareing at it.
Oddly enough if you don't count spelling and grammer skills I was in the top 5% of the state on my SAT my IQ is well over Genius level and I don't seem to have any problems with Vlans, Network Packets or tcp/ip ports just have problems with writting and grammer.



Dyslexia Basics
The first president of the United States, George Washington, was dyslexic. So was Albert Einstein. Dyslexia, which comes from the Greek meaning “difficulty with words,” is a language-based learning disability. It affects the ability of a person — even one with above-average intelligence — to read, write and spell. Dyslexics also may have problems putting things in order, following instructions, and differentiating between left and right.
Thought to be genetic and hereditary, some forms of dyslexia can also be caused when hearing problems at an early age affect a person’s language comprehension skills. Doctors still don’t know for sure what causes dyslexia, but they say there is a correlation between left-handedness and the learning disability in many families. It is estimated that one in 10 children is dyslexic. And more males are affected than females.

Customer Support for a software company that does educational administration software (same company as Meatballman). I support and debug the software and write simple vb code. My knowledge of programming is very simple and limited to vb currently and I've only been in that for a little over a year. I can read the code fairly well and understand it but actually writing complex code I've yet to tackle. Hopefully one of these days I'll get back to school for a CS degree.

I thought I was paid to spend all day on the internet reading forums.

Logistics & second line support for a web based data capture application (programmer/consultant on a long term contract) - but my presence on the BBS is 99% from home; usually a quick check in the morning before leaving for work, then in the evening. As I'm in Europe, the timezones makes my evening about the same a worktime in the US/Canada.

/Michael

I work for BT in the UK
A variety of things, some commercial, some technical (mainly architectural now but been known to code now and again)

I was involved in the BT/Yahoo! 'partnership' (fun - and better IMHO than BT/MSN)
Now looking at some big wholesale system transformations.

Work at home a lot - but quite busy so not much time to post

David

Animator for LucasArts... the Lucas games company. Here's a little panorama we took yesterday of the animation pit for Republic Commando... I'm the second guy from the left. Notice the first guy, the animation lead, has his browser open to NHL.com. It's pretty lax as long as we get our work done.

Civil Engineer for consulting firm in St. Louis. International and general aviation airport design and layout in the off-peak construction months. Construction inspection, resident engineer in the summers.

Pretty laid back in my cube area.

Mardibloke might think that's what he is paid for. I know that's what I'm paid for though.

edsmiata - got any jobs going? Have experience, will travel, have miata.

Currently define customer site support strategy for a big news, media, information and technology company (the one with the white microphones and dotty logo)

Software Engineer for The Vanguard Group of Investment Companies. I mainly work on our security infrastructure, particularly the software that handles authentication and authorization of user accounts on our various WWW and intranet sites.

The reason I can multitask is because everything in our development environments is so slow that I have time to squeeze in 3 or 4 BBS posts while my Websphere app server restarts.

I spend part of my time as a lab tech in a optical lab, and the other half of my time working as a MRP developer/programmer for a small telecom company. Anyone know of any MRP software thats reasonably priced and will work with quickbooks?

I'm a Unix systems administrator for a certain northern Carolina state department of transportation. I can post this much because I have very little to do. Of course, the reason that I'm so high in the post ranking is because I spent my year of unemployement posting to this board.

I'm a Broadband Customer Service Coach (ie fancy type of engineer) for a large telco here in the UK.

This means that most of the time I have Broadband available to me "for testing"

Today I am sat in a cyber cafe on Tott. Court Road in London.

I need a beer....

Cheers

Cris.

..interesting.....all testosterone so far!!!!

I need a beer....

Me too...

Chief Technical Officer - mostly a machine tool designer with the occasional software project oversight, occasional MIS work and generally greasing the company wheels. Small company ($20-30 million gross) with about 30 employees. I'm in charge of new product design, as well as bringing various vendors on-line for sourcing current products. I get to spend money and have things made to spec. It's like playing lego with no rules.

-Zeke

Well I'm going to be in Onanon in Picc Circus from 1900

Cheers

Cris.

I'm a security access control supervisor working at Adobe Systems in San Jose Ca.
I mainly create, program , and update photo id access cards for 24 of Adobe's 26 offices
world wide but also manage security helpdesk requests including locks, keys, access, etc.
I have my own office and spend the entire work day on the computer so checking bbs is no prob.
The only thing that bugs me is that every time I go to reply or post on the bbs, I get interrupted
by a call for a request or a walk-in for a badge. It never fails, but I guess the customer comes first.
Good thing though is that occasionally I get a fine female come in to take their photo for a badge.
Hee hee, I'm well know with the ladies around here since I'm one of the first people the come
in contact with once hired.
Here is a photo of the San Jose headquarters.

Software Engineer / Web Developer / Linux Administrator for Schurman Fine Papers / Papyrus Stores

Posting is no big deal since I am in front of a computer all day, always have a browser open, and I always get my work done. Of course, I rarely ever leave on time, too.

A Unix/network/security/Windows/systems engineer, for a company in San Diego that makes clinical information systems.

--Nathan

Software Developer for a consulting company called RWD Technologies -- I work on a training management system there. Odd jobs by night They're pretty cool here, so as long as I get things done, nobody cares.

I am a senior information security consultant - and mostly I stop banks and global multinationals being hacked. I develop security policies and procedures and manage security projects, but I also enjoy a bit of hands on wardriving, ethical hacking and full on attacks (including physical penetration of datacentres. Damn good fun)

And although I work for an accountancy firm - one of the big four that still has a good reputation, you may have heard of us...Ernst & Young - my background is in engineering and computing: nearly 28 years designing computer networks, programming and troubleshooting, a degree in Electronic Engineering and various qualifications in Irix, Solaris, Linux, Cisco, Symbol, Telxon and Checkpoint products.

On an amateur basis I help design websites for small businesses.

Although all I want to do is be a famous rock guitar player<sigh>

what do we all do for a living that we are able to multi-task like this?

Do for a living? Not me, heck no. I've cut the soles out of my shoes, I'm living in a tree, and learning how to play the flute.

I'm a sysadmin/coder for an ISP in Cape Town, South Africa. I maintain the provider's infrastructure and develop their (my) management and CRM system. All my work is BSD, Cisco, and Lucent oriented.

I don't post all that often, but find this board an indispensable source of information. I think it attracts one of the biggest groups of seriously skilled and intellectually gifted individuals of most places online, which is really cool!


Regards,
Aragon

I think ur fibbing....its the clarinet, isnt it

RWD up in Baltimore? Whoah, small world. I just got an email from an old friend who works there as well, Daniel Korn.

--Nathan

I'm the alpha network geek for an events agency. We put on business meetings, trade shows, incentive trips, etc. Lots of cool, edgy, dressed in black, creative types. But I'm just the network geek, and look horrible in black. I spend about half my day just keeping an eye on systems in our 30ish offices.

-jk

I'm doing unix sysadmin contracting at the moment but I'm currently looking for a job in information security. I've got a piece of paper that says I'm qualified so I thought I'd better actually use it Speaking of which, I've got an interview next week. argh

A mask designer currently pushing the buttons to generate automated layout of libraries for synthesis in our favorite RISC processors. I really miss custom layout, pushing buttons leaves too much time to smack a penguin or dodge blocks...

Weird ... I looked him up in the directory. It appears that he works in another division, so I haven't worked with him before.

Ok Porgie... but what about Morse Science High?

Reference to this album

Sean

I'm the lead engineer for a small company that does online promotions (mostly for large consumer packaged goods companies). I do J2EE development, some Oracle DBA duties, some linux/solaris sysadmin, a little perl, some hosting site setup/maintenance, the occasional bit of C development, and pretty much anything else required to make our stuff work. I have worked there longer than anybody else at this point and I always get my stuff done so nobody complains when I spend time on the BBS.

-Mike

I'm CEO of my company. Employs 58 people - we're in the transport industri, doing dispatching system and mobile devices (using pSOS, Vxworks and Linux)

I'm in Denmark, Europe - posts here when i get home, and the kids and girlfriend have gone to bed.. Nothing beats empegbbs when it comes to relaxing and thinking on something else than work! really!

My background is *NIX admin & programmer, Novell CNE, MSCE, C/C++ programmer, LAN/WAN troubleshooting.. Basicly spend 12-14 hours infront of computers from the age of 10 'till 25 mixed with alot of windsurfing untill i met my girlfriend..

I'm 29 btw..

Cheers

Kaare

Ok Porgie... but what about Morse Science High?

You get the brownie pin for catching the reference. Although I don't know about the "Weirdly Cool" thing you linked, I was specifically trying to quote Dwarf.

"Step on it, or we'll be late for the last meeting of the Philatelist's Club."
"Gee, Porgie, I didn't know you masturbated..."

It never stops to impress me, the number of IT people around this bbs. And reminds me I'm quite an uncommon guy here... Anyway, I'm a Food & Beverage consultant and supervisor and I work for the Largest Casino in my country. Also I'm one of the Micros 3700 sys admins (learned all my IT skills the wrong way, trying to get the system up in the middle of a 5,000 customer rush.) But basically I'm a wine specialist turned over a large F&B operation administrator. My employers own four casinos around the country and five more in Panama.

so by glancing at the repsonses it seems that small to mid size tech companies are the median employers.....with system wizzards being the median employee!!

A HP-UX, linux, network (and yep, windows) supporter. We are 7 guys for IT-Support in a 400 employees factory. We develop, manufacture and sell smoke-detectors and complete security-systems. I read the BBS at home (germany here) and at work. Nobody cares, as long my work gets done.

cheers, Thomas

programmer in the USAF making trainers for pilots, primarily.

OOps, I meant to post this URL instead for Dwarf...

I'm currently a production supervisor for an automotive logistics support company, we sequence all the parts for the Chrysler Pacifica assembly line here in Windsor...

I was a member of the Canadian Army for 20 years just until recently tho....

OOps, I meant to post this URL instead for Dwarf...

Ooo, I like that synopsis!

"who keep yelling out silly things like "Eat it raw" and "Fuck you," and "What is reality?""

... I recall seeing a movie recently which paid homage to that very moment in Dwarf. I think it was "Election" with Matthew Broderick. Not certain...

I'm a lowly field tech for a major drug store chain in the Dayton and Springfield Ohio area though I help to cover other areas of Ohio at times.

I'm a "Knowledge Engineer" for NCR Corporation. I help improve tools and processes in our customer support centers, which may involve slinging Java, Lotus Notes, HTML/PHP/ASP, etc. I telecommute out of my home, so I can have the BBS up all day long if I like!

Someone has to be totally different. I am the "Frozen Foods Manager" at a local grocery store! No need to clap. But with me still in college it works well. I am however studying telecommunications, and recently received my CCNA, so I am learning the stuff to be like everyone else

Spelling and grammer are because I have Mild Dislexia

Reminds me of one of my favorite cartoons:

Man in white robe and long beard, marching with his sign that says:

"DYSLEXICS OF THE WORLD -- UNTIE!"

No disrespect intended, and I am glad that you have made a good adjustment to your problem.

tanstaafl.

Here is a real original job...

I am the network administrator for my company, CDR Associates. Although I am IT, the company I work for is in the health care industry. We resolve credit balances for patient accounts betwen hospitals and health care companies.

I am responsible for anything and everything that is IT at the company. A year and 2 months ago, there was no IT department. We're growing some, which is nice. No need to go into further detail, I think everyone here knows what network administrators do.

Unfortunately, I don't have as much time to browse the BBS as I would like. The company I worked for before, Aether Systems, was going down the tubes. I was a support guy there. As time passed, I spent more and more time on the BBS simply because they kept laying people off, so we had less people to support.

We kept ourselves amused. There was a hole (about 3 inches in diameter) in the ceiling and we would throw things at it hoping to get something stuck up there. We stopped when someone's orange ended up there.

Anybody else care to contribute?

Traffic manager at a group of radio stations in Interior Alaska. I'm the guy who makes sure that all the commercials get on the air at the times they are supposed to be on, and that the clients get billed the correct amount for those commercials. I deal with 1000--1500 commercials each day (about 300 on each station).

I guess I am sort of second in command (after our chief engineer) as systems administrator for a two-server network (one Windows, one Novell) with 50 or 60 workstations on it. Was a beta tester for the traffic and billing software that we use to run the stations, bailed from that and refused to upgrade to the newer versions when they went to a ridiculous mouse-driven GUI system that would have increased my workload 25%.

tanstaafl.

Anyone other then me think its funny that 99% of the people in this post are Geeks (Yes I said GEEK I say it loud I'm a GEEK and I'm Proud)

That’s ok I have heard them all, I normally ignore the first few comments, after that I get annoyed and for some reason the network Port that person is on, gets routed to south Yemen via a Dial up connection routed via Glasnosic Siberia (Really not sure how that keeps happening but I’ll fix it as soon as I can

Or maybe the PDC seems to think that the minimum password length for that person is 87 characters and their password expires every 32 minutes.

I don't know what else you would expect from a bunch of people who have FREAKING LINUX COMPUTERS IN THEIR DASHBOARDS!

I still get weird looks when I tell people it's a computer that runs Linux. There's a running joke in my department that if we can't find server space for something "we can always run it on Mark's car stereo".

Currently unemployed from the web development field in North Carolina. Anyone know of a WebDev position in the RTP, NC that is hiring???

Sean in NC

I guess I'm another kind of the oddball here.
Although I wasnt always...
I was a sys admin at Brandeis University outside Boston for about 5 years, but about 2 years ago, I got tired of sitting behind a desk.
So now I'm a "Marine Systems Engineer" (boat builder), in Portland, Maine.
I check the board here once in the morning on the way out the door, and then again when I get home.
Keeps me current with the goings on, although I'm woefully behind on my Hijack updates. Sorry Mark.

Just for fun heres a pic of the head (toilet/bathroom for you landlubbers) on an Open 60 Class sloop that completed the last Around Alone, and is competing in the upcoming Vendee Globe around the world singlehand race.
Notice the carbon fiber whoopee bar.

Systems programmer for the central campus computing organization at a university in Pittsburgh. Consultant doing distributed filesystems support from home as a side job. Volunteer at many levels for the OpenAFS project

..interesting.....all testosterone so far!!!!

I even things out a little bit -- I sew frilly little pink dresses and other figureskating costumes.

Oh...

Wait. No I don't. I'm a software developer at a visual effects studio, working on developing tools to improve integration between our mix and mashed conglomerate of software tools (some off-the-shelf, many proprietary), as well as the overall efficiency of the studio in general. I'm currently transitioning from being a mere plebe to being a plebe with serfs working under him as a pipeline programmer lead. I have about a half-dozen movie credits, but I haven't bothered to add myself to IMDb.

Edit: I typically only read/post from home, because I have other timewasters at work.

Wow. All these people with jobs and stuff.

Makes my very jealous.

I am currently unemployed. Going on 4 1/2 months now...

Mechanical Design Engineer in the UK division of an automotive components supplier, working on audio,nav,comms products etc amongst others. To some extent can claim this to be work related, but post either from home or lunchtimes. So it is mainly my wife looking over my shoulder to see what I am looking at!

Once described by Hugo as "not strictly a geek" hence the nickname...

I am the "Frozen Foods Manager" at a local grocery store!

Hey, at least one food & beverage colleague .

As I'm a landlubber, is that big thing behind the toilet an anchor?

For the last 7 years I've been the IT support manager at the head office of Spar UK (big convenience store chain) in Harrow.

This pretty much means I'm left to my own devices.

So at the moment I' teaching muself Linux, Oracle and vba, and testing the offices new sdsl line with Wolfenstein ET.

is that big thing behind the toilet an anchor?

'Tis indeed. Big sucker too.

There's a running joke in my department that if we can't find server space for something "we can always run it on Mark's car stereo".

Heh, I get this one all the time, too. I wonder how many times this suggestion has been made to an empegger?

I still get weird looks when I tell people it's a computer that runs Linux. There's a running joke in my department that if we can't find server space for something "we can always run it on Mark's car stereo".

I still think we should have done the "My other unix box is a car stereo" T-shirt.

Peter

I'm a Linux Kernel Consultant -- been working on and contributing to the core of Linux since 1992, and making a full-time living as an independent consultant since 1996. I do kernel customizations, device drivers, and develop/deliver training courses.

I also climb a lot of REALLY BIG rocks, and play with sharp woodworking instruments!

Cheers

I'm an electrical contractor licensed in GA, NC, SC, TN, AL and FL. Gadgets, electronics and music have always intrigued me so the empeg only seems natural.

Since I put together estimates for commercial retail type of projects I'm constantly staring at a computer screen and therefore peer into this forum quite often (probably more than I *should*).

Cheers!

I "work" as a tech support grunt supporting HP StorageWorks products. Right now on a call with 3 servers connected into a low level storage box, the MSA1000. Just got training on a new product, but, can't say much about that one yet. Storage products that I will eventually support range from the low end like the MSA1000 (14 to 42 drives) up to the EVA systems (max of 168 drives, fibre channel drives, not SCSI). I also deal a bit with the tape devices, all the way up to robotic systems with 24 drives and 730 tape slots, with robotics to deal with it all. And they can be linked togther if that isn't big enough. I also deal with the fibre network interconnecting all this, and it can be as complex, if not more so, then ethernet networking.

I used to do support for the Proliant servers, but after advancing a few levels there, hit the roof at this site for the most part. Moving to storage gives me the possibility of moving on to the other building, where the actual engineering of fibre specs and such is done. Though my ultimate goal is to be a programmer in the game industry. With the great economy though </sarcasm>, I've been keeping my claws burried here, since it pays the bills.

Heh. Interesting reading everyone else's hobbies. Er, I mean work..

Like a few other here, I work in Tech Support. (Somehow, tho, my duties have grown to include Programming (C, VB, and PHP for web.). I work for a company that makes "Call Center Solutions". A few year back, they would have been called "Predictive Dialers". See, you get 8 T1s, of 24 lines each, plug them into this thing. You hire 24 people to sit on their butts, and wait for their screen to announce they got someone on their hedset. Then they go: "Hello, is Mr. Sm-er.. Smyth there?" Our systems would make a SWAG on how many lines to dial per agent, and start making phone calls. Sad? Maybe, but true..

I'm not on here AS MUCH as others, but I'm always online doing one thing of another. Usually it's because 90% of my calls are along the lines of: "All our lines are going disabled! I re-enable them, but they go right back to being disabled!" "Have you called your T1 vendor?" "No, I thought I'd call you guys first." "Well, it looks like they're all in alarm. Meaning that they got turned off or unplugged. You need to give them a call." "Oh, okay, thanks!"
And the other 10%, well, I don't need to be really paying attention when they describe their problem.

I sit at work, Waldorf in it's lillt Mlord dock up in my cube providing hours and hours of entertainment while I sit on my tush (it's start to show, too. Rrf.) talking to our clients about ID10T errors.

Me.
[Edit: Off of work, I'm an anti-geek. I'll check the board once or twice, but that's it. I'm either out driving, brakeman on a railroad, or out hunting for Benchmarks. (Government versions of Mlord's Caches).]

I'm the alpha network geek...

This is the first time I've heard a bunch of geeks used in reference to a wolf pack.
Cute. It fits sometimes, too..

Me.

brakeman on a railroad? volunteer on a tourist line?

I used to write software for banks to automate their check processing, but now I'm a game developer in training

I "work" as a tech support grunt supporting HP StorageWorks products.

I was going to get your direct number so that you could talk to my SAN guy on the regular basis that he screws something up, but then I realized that I wouldn't sic that numbnuts on my worst tech-support enemy.

Both, actually, now. I started out volunteering for the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway two years ago, and only his winter got certified for official Brakeman. So now I can hop on whenever they need someone to fill in. (Since I work second shift at my 'regular' job. it works out perfect. Wake up real early, show up, do 8 hours or so, then go down and sit on my tush, to talk to slow people.
(That's why so many of my projects, both Empeg and other, have been hurting lately. Ugh.)

Me.

I'm an ISF & HAA certified home theater calibrationist. The only things I can program are remote controls (OK, I've done a little Crestron programming). My network aministration is limited to pointing out that hooking up a high definition cable box to your TV with a single RF cable probably won't yield the desired results...basically I get paid to play with other peoples' toys
After a couple of years of being under-employed as an designer/installer, it's beginning to look like I may actually be able to make a decent living with this gig...so I can buy some new toys for myself!
And maybe this year I'll be able to afford to come to the Ohio meet with our 12th octave RTA in hand and do EQ setting for folks.

Now, that would be a cool toy to bring. I'd love to have that done to my van.

I still think we should have done the "My other unix box is a car stereo" T-shirt.

That would have been a good case badge or sticker

I'm an ISF & HAA certified home theater calibrationist.

Hey, cool. I just got my Mits done. Real happy with the results. Only, I'm not sure if the guy (Craig Miller) was ISF certified or not, but he SURE knew his stuff.

I started out volunteering for the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway

I'm a patron of our National Rail Museum here in York, UK, which sounds grand, but only means life member.
Glad to hear that someone else has a real interest, apart from being a Geek!
The only volunteer job I've been offered is running the kids train at the weekend, methinks no-one else wants the job!
By trade I run my own ad. agency, whch specialises in recruitment ads., but I'm down to 3 days a week and retiring next year.

This is the first time I've heard a bunch of geeks used in reference to a wolf pack.

I guess Al Gore was the original alpha network geek - after all, he invented the internet!

-jk

Does everybody realize that the notion that Al Gore said he invented the internet is untrue?

I believe he said:

"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system."

So I can see how it was interpreted that he "invented" the internet.

Does everybody realize that the notion that Al Gore said he invented the internet is untrue?

While Snopes covers it well, it has become part of the cultural lexicon that he "invented the internet". Hence the .

-jk

By illiterates, yeah.

I'm a patron of our National Rail Museum here in York, UK, which sounds grand, but only means life member.

As a PFY I was an S&T engineer at the Avon Valley Railway near Bristol. I think a lot of geeky people are drawn to restored railways as an escape from large scale integration to large scale period.

Rob

In reply to:

---

from large scale integration to large scale period.

---

Yes there are days when I feel like hitting things with a very large hammer after work.

I'm a system integrator for a U.S. military contractor... We do healthcare software.

I'm a college student with the prestigeous job of sitting at the desk of one of the dorms two days a week (M & F). I'm usualy not doing anything except answering the phone occasionaly and letting people into their rooms when they lock themselves out. So I'm basicly being paid minimum wage to sit here and read the board : )

As if it is any supprise, I'm a CS major.

Reminds me of a movie in the 70's where a college football star who needed a job was paid to watch the sprinklers turn on and off...

I run my own IT consultancy in the West Midlands (no, I don't have a Brummie accent) and very rarely get time to log on to post anything. In fact, I think this is my first post in a couple of years.

In my previous life (when I bought the Empeg and when I posted here a little more often), I was a systems manager for a Swiss bank in Zurich. Once we got the machines set up, they just kept running (VMS, of course), so we had loads of time to do anything and everything that wasn't work related.

Nick.

PS - must change my sig. The Empeg's running fine now, but I've got engine whine so I need to check the wiring.

Dayton and Springfield Ohio area

Hey! My parents are from Springfield, OH!!!

I've held a smattering of positions, starting in the architectural field and traversing across the fields of graphic design, web design, and publishing. I currently work for the same company as Meatballman and Russmeister, although I reside in a different state.

although I reside in a different state

Hopefully not too much longer. It'll be great to have you here for more frequent LAN parties.

Not strictly a geek, I'm technical director for a small publishing consultancy based in London, although I work a lot in Edinburgh and am currently sitting in the Scotch Malt Whiskey Society enjoying a few drams and deciding it's far to late to work. Hence my very sporadic posting - always hear to read though...

Small world I don't know my way around there much, just know how to get to the 3 stores I service. They do have a great classic car dealership there.

Now I now what ISF stands for! Too bad you live in another country and are so far away from Washington State. I'm just about to trade my Barco 808 in on a NEC XG135LC and would like to get it calibrated.

I probably won't be making it up there to far northwest Texas any time soon! However if you go here, click on "ISF-trained dealers with calibration equipment" and then select your state, you'll get a list of folks who might be able to help you. I don't know how far they've gotten with updating the database, so there may be a few outdated listings.

Thanks Milton!

My wife graduated from Wittenberg University in Springfield. I used to live in Cedarville, but now live in Columbus.

I'm the one-man tech department for a small research institute at a large university. I work too darn slow and inefficiently to ever take a break, which is why I unfortunately never post during the day. Probably have checked the BBS during work all of twice in the year and a half since I joined; during upload crisis that were really weighing on my mind.

But I DO hang out on the BBS while eating dinner (at my computer) at least one night a week. I get some quality time in with the crew... eventually.

Chief Operating Officer of a government program tasked with the commercialization of law enforcement and corrections technologies.

My cousin works in law enforcement and municipal software. Has for quite a while.

I work in the lumber industry. I design systems that move tons of mass at very high accelerations (1000"/sec/sec) and fairly high velocities and position it to within a few thousandths of an inch.

Just the web developer/webmaster for an online tools suite for an intranet here at the U.S. Dept. of State. I mainly work with perl and JSP on HP-UX, but my workstation has to be windows (policy!). Being a contracter is OK, but I'm bored of IT in general. I do my more fullfilling stuff away from work.

I'd like to get into circuit design like I studied for at Virginia Tech (EE), but the short commute, nice people, god status, and easy money make it difficult to break away. Not to mention, starting at the bottom again with no experience in the field is not terribly appealing.

I spend plenty of time on the net when there is no release coming up, and nobody really cares as long as I'm not looking at pron or downloading a bunch of stuff.

BTW, My avatar is just an old pic from my college days - I do have short hair and look somewhat presentable now

I've been trying all week to come up with a reply for this thread and I can't, my jobs involves so many other sub jobs that the details are just mind numbing! So here is a brief summary of the main stuff I do.

I work in the IT industry for company that make big storage systems (big as in 70TB), for whom I work on the Mfg side of the house. On a day to day bases I'm responsible for Mfg concerns with the laptops that are attached to these systems. This means all the software loaded as part of the Mfg process (used for testing) - which must all get done with the click of a mouse button or less (to keep it simple for the people who install it - think of have some really complex selection of software installed with the click of a button) and the removal of said software before shipping - can't ship software XX to the Field, we don't have a license for that. This is achieved though lots of smoke and mirrors, aka WISE & AutoIt scripts and lots of use of the command line, long live the command line.

Of course this means that as soon as there is a problem with any thing related to the laptop I get the call, usually this should just involves a quick bit of FA and a hand off - but as we all know people suffer from denial and don't accept that it their code or hardware that is to fault. Fortunately my boss & director trust me and my opinions enough to go to bat for me - though I have found it quicker to take care of some things through back channels. Of course this has a down side, my bosses see me as some "can do" type of guy and frequently drop me in the middle as stuff that is not working and needs to be up and running yesterday. The most recent was a high level FA problem from the Field a system had a "Thermal Event" and they needed to know why the laptop didn't call home - in this case the Field had sent us the wrong laptop .

And that's just the main part of my job, I also end up back stopping our departments network/systems admin, he does not have a fun job as our companies IS department will have nothing to do with our group - we won't play by their rules! And with good reason, things in our world change way too quickly. I could go on....but my work involves alot of PC time and often I hitting the web looking up registry setting to abuse Windows in some new way .

PS If anyone is ever looking for some looking for some help with a WISE script, or would like to package up their program let me know, I'd be happy to help. And if your looking to hire a WISE scripter....

Anybody else care to contribute?

After some time as an RN, research project coordinator, epidemiologist, systems analyst, consultant and network engineer, I am now a lead computer person for a research-oriented department at a large public university. Mostly (for now!) Windows desktops but 99% Linux in the core (anybody wanna swap OpenMosix stories?) My role is 60 percent "do stuff" and 40 percent PHB (there being no other PHB to take up the slack!).

At the tender age of 51, I was remarkably lucky when my previously-filed resume popped up in their search based on some keywords. My phone wasn't exactly ringing off the hook. In the irony department, it is remarkable that during my recent 3 years of private sector employment (with Lucent) I managed to post to the BBS all the time but now that I am a shiftless public employee I am reduced to posting on Friday nights! (this may change. The first two months on this job were the busiest of my employed life, but I can see a future where I will do things like go to lunch and post to a BBS!)

I work for a company called Portables Plus who basically sell laptops, I used to work in the service dept repairing laptops from replacing faulty parts to mainboard board level repairs.. I got bored of it quickly so we started a Wireless Solutions division about 2 years ago where I was a head techie in all things wireless.
Now I am wireless technical manager of the division, and wireless security specialist, we consult, plan, survey, procure and install wireless LAN’s, hotspots, point to point links etc....
I enjoy it a lot especially with all the new toys I can purchase... for "development and testing"
I also admin our internal servers...

I read the board when i get time, regrettably not posting much due to time..

Jaidev

My wife graduated from Wittenberg University in Springfield

I remember back in the 80's when ABC sports aired a Wittenberg football game for some strange reason. My mom was all giddy about Springfield being on national TV. (We lived in AZ at the time.)

Anybody else care to contribute?

I'm a medical researcher in Upstate New York. I split my time between medical research at a major medical college and my own business I'm starting at a college business incubator. I'm trying to start a small biotech firm focused upon protein-based drug development using minimal funds (my own) to develop my first few products. Definitely a challenge considering I'm my only employee so far . But I love doing it, it keeps me busy and most important out of trouble. Luckily I have access to the internet at both locations and try my best to check in as often as possible. The diversity and interests of people in this forum keep me coming back. I've learned quite a bit and I must admit it's been something of an addiction to check in to see what's happening even if I don't have time to get in all the good threads

Traffic manager at a group of radio stations in Interior Alaska.

Someone asked me to elaborate a bit on that, so here is a paste from the Windows clipboard of what I told him:

Putting a program log together is fun...

I have over 100 different product conflict categories to keep seperated, I have to ensure horizontal and vertical rotation of the commercials (make sure a client's commercials don't always air in the 10am and 2pm (for example) hours every Tuesday) and I have to ensure that a client's commercials have more or less even distribution through the dayparts. I am responsible for four radio stations' program logs every day, 12 of them on Fridays. So today I'll deal with about 3,000 commercials (4 stations, three days worth).

Next, I have to make sure that the appropriate copy gets played for each of those spots. I might have copy rotations for a client involving a dozen different commercials, some of them allowed to air on certain days of the week, some of them not, some of them allowed in certain dayparts, some of them not, and some of them in differing percentages from the other spots in the rotation. Figure 60 or 70 different clients playing on average 4--5 commercials each on *each* of the four stations each day.

Then on Monday I'll have to make sure that all 3,000 of the commercials did indeed air on the days and times they were supposed to run, airing the copy they were supposed to air. At the end of the month, I'll have to verify that each client's billiing does indeed match up with his contract before the invoices are printed and mailed out.

Does this give any insight as to why I am an anal personality? :-)

Oh... I almost forgot the balancing act of sales vs inventory. There is a fixed amount of inventory (both time and units) available, and some of the stations are usually over-sold. So now I have to prioritize which commercials actually get on the air, based on how likely is it that the commercial can be moved to another day. Sometimes I can be over-sold on time and still have units available; other days I can be over-sold on units and still have time available. (A commercial break is defined as being full when it has either 5 commercials in it, or 3.5 minutes in it, *whichever occurs first*. So... :30 spots, :60 spots, expensive spots, cheap spots, spots from advertising agencies, spots from local sales, there are probably a dozen variables that determine whether I can or cannot place a commercial on the log.

A right-brain individual who is intuitive, creative, spontaneous, artistic -- absolutely *cannot* do radio traffic. I'll post a picture on the bbs later today in the "pictures of your office" thread and you'll see what kind of environment the person who can do traffic lives in.

tanstaafl.

"My other unix box is a car stereo"

To have that emboradried on a case should be trivial. The hard parts are finding a shop and maybe getting a case.

To get back on topic. I'm a Mechanical Designer.

Glenn