MeredithPoor
From TheRobotGroupWiki
New to The Robot Group as of February 2009.
Thinking up some phenomenal new idea
I first programmed the Datapoint 2200 computer in 1970, the computer architecture that eventually became the 8008. I spent my teenage years (actually all the remaining years as well) speculating on how to get robots to mow yards, pull weeds, wash dishes, and otherwise put people out of work.
I ran my own software development firm from 1979 to 1986, and then again from 1999 to 2005. During the earlier period, my programming was focused on the Databus programming language. Most of the applications were the usual minicomputer apps: Order Entry, General Ledger, Inventory, Billing, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, etc. Some special ones were Oil and Gas Joint Interest Billing and Revenue Distribution, Sewershed Capacity Analysis, and Bill of Materials Processing.
During the economic collapse of 1988-1992 I was finishing my four year degree at UTSA, whereupon I worked for various companies programming dBase, FoxPro, C++, Microsoft Access Visual Basic for Applications, and various report writing tools. From 1994 to 1999 I worked at Brooks AFB and Kelly AFB on database related stuff that enabled the Air Force to finish up their work at these respective bases so they could close them down. The exception was during 1997, where I worked for Southwest Research on a sounding rocket that, in it’s previous launch, had almost started WW III.
My first real-time embedded control project was for a company called Automated Control Electronics in 1974, for a truck scale using a Z80. I didn’t really finish this, as I had been offered a full time job in Canada.
I worked for a company called USPCI (US Pollution Control Inc.) on a system that included monitoring emissions, which was my introduction to National Instruments Lab Windows. This was in 1992.
The work with Southwest Research involved sampling data at 80,000 samples per second. We bought cheap DA boards, which we tried to monitor using LabView 5.0 for Windows, where we discovered the ‘real’ sampling rate maxed out at about 2000 samples per second. Making it work required sampling in DOS C++ programs and then taking the sample series and feeding it into LabView.
From 1999 to 2005 I worked at a food packing plant creating an order entry system from scratch using Microsoft Access and SQL-Server 2000. I ended up providing occasional support for ‘date coders’, the equipment for putting the expiration date on packaged food. I also had to mess with ‘case printers’ (ink jet printers for cardboard boxes) and other controller driven equipment.
During 2006 I was part of a team developing a monitoring console for a network of computer projector monitors. This system would raise an alarm if a projector was stolen, and would allow someone at a security office to shut down projectors that had been left on overnight. This was my first heavy involvement in Visual Studio .NET and C# programming, which is what I’ve been doing ever since.
As of this date, I have been living and working in Austin for about three months.
A column written for PC Alamode between 2002 and 2004: http://www.alamopc.org/pcalamode/columns/poor/index.shtml
