Cover Letter
Hi - and thanks for the interest. I've been in Pensacola since 2008. I am always interested in hearing about full-time, part-time or contract (short or long) software development opportunities in or around Pensacola.
I have experience in both R&D and production environments performing full lifecycle development and maintenance of internet, client/server, database, scientific, realtime, data acquisition, modeling and inversion systems and applications. I also have a good bit of experience with development environment and data center utility systems and applications.
I can offer additional experience in SQA (including program and procedure development and evaluation, government contracts, ISO 9000 and 9003), TQM (a la Crosby), project and group management (though I prefer to keep my hands "dirty" as a developer). I have tutored, mentored and taught various university and professional courses on quality and programming and I am a contributing author of a national/industry standard for complex data interchange (DLIS-RP66). I also have cursory familiarity with HIPAA from both clinic and in-home service provider perspectives.
I've been online since '94 as hav.software at https://www.hav.com/
I'm a coffee & chicory drinker, a pipe smoker and an aussie-owning "dog person" (which, beyond the obvious, means I prefer packs to prides). I'm a software developer by profession, an Internet developer by accident, a veteran paratrooper of the 82nd and I play at playing classical guitar - and a little tennis and bowling on the side.
I can do "corporate" but, honestly, I prefer a more casual work environment and would rather wear my weejuns than my wingtips. I've done my "climb the latter" thing and am at a stage in life where I just enjoy design and code slinging - and, of course, new technology challenges.
Anyway, please give me a shout if you think I can help with your development needs - OR, if you have any advice on the development markets here in Pensacola and the surrounding areas.
Thanks!
Objective
I'm always interested in Software development activities & opportunities, particularly those dealing with application of Neural Nets, Expert Systems or other alternative technologies. I'm also particularly interested in Internet Applications development - Java, JavaScript, NeoWebScript/Tcl, XML (et al), Tomcat, Servlets or JSP, etc.
Experience & Positions
Owner, operator and developer of hav.Software - Commercial and Custom Software Development. My own commercial products include several C++ and Java Neural Net libraries (havBpNet++, havBpNet:J and havFmNet:J) and havChat (TM) - a nice little non-IRC, TCP/IP server with several applet clients providing standard chat, shared whiteboard and live support capabilities.
I've been active on Internet since 1994. Other Internet related experience I can offer include the development and use of Internet applications, interactive web sites and tools, and webserver platform development (NeoWebScript Apache mod), with particular focus on Java, JavaScript, NeoWebScript (inline tcl), Tomcat (w/Apache) and some JSP, Servlets, xml/xsl, rss/mrss etc. You are invited to see various demos online.
I have several (JARS) top-rated Java Applets. I helped develop (and continue to use and extend) the NeoWebScript/Apache mod (like PHP but based on Tcl instead of perl). I also taught a Java course at Kingwood College (12 wk/48 hr course for experienced C++ and OO developers) - that was really fun!
The most enjoyable site that I've developed was the TennisPensacola.com site - which, as a quick aside, became THE site for Tennis information and opportunities in the Greater Pensacola, Fl area. ... yeah yeah - I know - but don't laugh, it was a nice and very active site for few months short of 10 years ;-)
Other sites and related projects to which I've contributed can be found at https://www.hav.com/about/services.htm
| 1977 - 1994 : | Atlas Wireline Services (formerly Dresser Atlas)
10201 Westheimer, Houston, Texas 77042 |
The remainder of my professional experience was with Atlas Wireline Services (formerly Dresser Atlas), serving in several staff and management positions and gaining experience ranging from geophysical data-processing - to group management in R&D - to active participation in national standards development.
My background is mainly software and systems development. I am experienced in all phases of development from proposal through post-release maintenance and system redesign. I am experienced in developing and managing the development of scientific data-processing applications, realtime data-acquisition systems, operating systems, device drivers, assemblers, and other development environment support utilities. I am experienced in managing the coordination necessary while designing and developing software that will be used on or in support of equipment concurrently under development. I am comfortable and experienced with project and group management, admin & capital budgets and time frames from six months to over two years.
I have experience with alternative technologies. I have used Expert System shells to implement both scheduling and verification applications. I have developed and trained Neural Networks used for 1- and 2-D forward modeling and inversion of electromagnetic logging instruments and their measurements. I have integrated Clips (from NASA) and my own Neural Net C++ Class libraries to produce a package that combines Expert System and Neural Net processing.
From 1988 to 1994, I represented Atlas on a national standards committee; specifically, the American Petroleum Institute (API) D9-subcommittee responsible for data interchange standards. I am an author of the Digital Log Interchange Standard ( DLIS - RP66 - now supported by POSC).
In the area of Quality, I am a certified and experienced Master Instructor of the Crosby Quality Education System. I am a Certified Quality Analyst and have received some little training in Malcolm Baldrige examination. I am experienced in Software Quality Assurance, and was responsible for the development of a company-wide Software Quality Assurance Program sufficient for DOE contract requirements for software used in weapons testing and nuclear waste storage. I am also familiar with the requirements of ISO 9000 in general and ISO 9000-3 in particular.
Just for fun: if you like little puzzles - here's one (sort of related to -- quality - errr hemmm) from which you might get a giggle or grin - answering the question: "Just WHY is it so hard to test software?!!".
- 4/94 - 10/94 - Manager, Application Systems - Atlas Technology, Systems Engineering
- 1992 - 1994 - Sr. Staff, Systems Analyst - Interpretation, Research & Advanced Development (IRAD), Advanced Scientific Research
- 1991 - 1992 - Manager, Quality&Test (acting Manager, SQA -Technology) - Atlas Technology, Software Systems Engineering
- 1982 - 1991 - R&D, Digital Systems Group, Houston, Tx.
- 1989 - 1991 - Manager, Computerized Logging Systems Development
- 1988 - 1989 - Project Engineer
- 1985 - 1988 - Sr. Research Engineer
- 1983 - 1985 - System Analyst
- 1982 - 1983 - Research Engineering Associate
- 1977 - 1982 - New Orleans Log Analysis Center, New Orleans, La.
- 1980 - 1982 - Computer Operations Supervisor
- 1979 - 1980 - Computer Operator
- 1978 - 1979 - break for school
- 1977 - 1978 - Digitizer
- 1980 - 1982 - Tutor in Computer Science department of Loyola University, New Orleans. Tutored language and architecture courses.
- 1975 - 1977 - Johness Realty, New Orleans, La. Assistant Manager of a 56 unit tourist motel.
- 1973 - 1975 - ODECO, New Orleans, La. Roustabout on several offshore drilling rigs
- 1971 - 1973 - U.S. Army, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, North Carolina
Technical Skills
A brief summary/enumeration of equipment, languages, platforms and applications that I have used or developed with first-use or time frames where appropriate -- probably not comprehensive but may offer examples.
Equipment and O/S:
HP 9000 (HPUX), IBM RS6000 (AIX). SUN-Sparc (SunOS), VAX (VMS)- Perkin Elmer 7/16, 8/16E, 8/32 & 32/xx (O\S-32, O\S-16, DOS), PC and clones (various Microsoft and *nix/linux)
Languages:
Java - 1996, JavaScript - 1995, Tcl - 1996, HTMLScript (now called Miva) - 1995, C++ - 1988, Visual C++ - 1994, C - 1984, Visual Basic - 1992, FORTRAN - 1977, LISP (Xlisp and GCL) - 1985, assembly (6502 and Perkin Elmer - general register like IBM 360 assembly) - 1982, VAX MACRO - 1988, Various command/script languages - 1977
Internet Specific:
Apache (including co-development and use of NeoWebScript (Apache mod) - 1995, Tomcat - 2002, PostgreSQL (also DB2), Berkeley DB, GD (for on the fly web graphics), OpenSSL
Expert Systems:
Gold Works I & II - 7yrs, CLIPS - 5 yrs, ECLIPSE - 6 mo, from scratch (class project cosc-6366 '89)
Neural Networks:
Netware - 6 mo, NeuroWindows - 1 yr, havBpNet++ & havFmNet++ - Own libraries 1992
Review Level Familiarity (or historical use):
IIS, Netscape Commerce Server, ADA, ART, BASIC, 6502 assembly, PASCAL, COBOL, NEXPERT-OBJECT, VP-EXPERT, KEE, OPS5,
Application Domains: (things I've developed)
- Internet - webserver, e-com sites, chat, site stats, spiders and indexing etc. - 9 yrs,
- Data Acquisition - real time (to microsecond granularity) - 7 yrs,
- Scientific Data Processing - filtering, optimization, modeling etc. - 15 yrs,
- Development Environment Tools - assembler, cross reference DB/engine, import/export, etc. - 15 yrs,
- Libraries - low- to mid-level - scientific, communication, neural net etc. - 10 yrs,
- Device Drivers - memory board support, tape, disc, logging tool surface support etc. - 5 yrs,
- Operating System (in-house) - interrupt queuing, banked memory support etc. - 5 yrs
Technical Training, Certifications and Membership
- AWS Management-II - AWS internal
- Effective Negotiating - AWS sponsored - Karrass
- International Neural Network Society (INNS) - member since 1992
- Master Instructor: Quality Education System - Crosby Quality College, San Jose, Ca.
Q.E.S. Instructor,
Q.W.G. Facilitation Instructor,
Q.W.G. Facilitator.
- Quality Improvement Process (QIPM) - Management College - Crosby Quality College, Dallas, Tx.
- Certified Quality Analyst (CQA) - Quality Assurance Institute
- Assessing and Improving Information Systems Quality - Quality Assurance Institute
- Effective Speaking and Human Relations - Dale Carnegie
- Project Management - AWS internal
- AWS Management-I - AWS internal
- Advanced Unix - AWS sponsored - Uni-Komp
- Introduction To Unix - AWS sponsored - Uni-Komp
- Building Knowledge-Based Systems with Gold Works - Gold Hill
- Vax/VMS Advanced Concepts - AWS sponsored - DEC
- Jr. Field Engineers Training - AWS internal
Publications / Presentations
-
Vallas, H.A. Jr. (1995). The Bonsai Master - An Allegory for Management. The Journal of the American Bonsai Society, Winter-95, Vol 29, #4, pg 152-153 ( https://www.hav.com/bonsai.html )
- Vallas, H.A., Jr., Mezzatesta, A.G., & Strack K.-M., (1993). Resistivity Log Inversion using Heterogeneous Artificial Neural Networks. Expanded Abstracts with Biographies, 1993 Technical Program of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), WS7.2 1395.
- Vallas, H.A., Jr. (1993). Avoiding the Evil Spirit. The Digital Review - July/August,1993 pg 18-20.
- Vallas, H.A., Jr., (1992). Results Oriented Quality...(not a contradiction). The Journal Of the Quality Assurance Institute - April,1992 pg. 16-24.
Personal Data
1989 University of Houston, Houston, Tx
- Graduate work in AI and Knowledge-based systems.
1979-1982 Loyola University, New Orleans, La.
- Computer Science - minor Math
1974-1976 Loyola University, New Orleans, La.
- Music Therapy - minor Classical Guitar Performance
Hobbies - Tennis, Classical Guitar, Bonsai (past: Fencing)
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