You can use the link above to go to the web site but it is hard to explain exactly why the network card Ammasso sells is so cool.
As for my job, the short answer is I am paid to break stuff. The longer answer is that I am expected to test the assertions of the developers: "The thing is supposed to work this way." I get to take that assertion and try to prove them wrong. That is, it doesn't work the way they say. Or even more fun, is to try to use it the wrong way. Of course, it shouldn't break, but it sure does sometimes.
As for the company product... Normally, I am really good with analogies. (Ask Mario at Sybase.) At the core, it is a network card much like network cards used to connect most PCs together in an office. The difference is how the Ammasso card delivers the data. Using a normal network card, each packet is hand delivered. Using the Ammasso network card, it is like using UPS to come and pick up the data and deliver it doorstep to doorstep.
All this *AND* it is entirely a Linux shop. The only copies of Windows that routinely run are on the employee desktops. Personally, I run Linux as my desktop and have Windows installed, just in case I need it. There is a lab full of cutting edge gear and servers and we even get to go out and add/remove cards, harddrives, memory, and the like.
Working for Polaroid (and it wasn't even the real Polaroid, but a VC-backed corporation called PDC that bought the Polaroid name) was a chore. I worked some fantastic fellow contractors, but many of the Polaroid employees were far too embroiled in corporate politics. When the project was canceled, I was left with little doubt as to why Polaroid collapsed in the first place.
The work involved a combination of imaging technology, kiosk user interface, web administration tool and all in a Linux environment. I did much of the testing on the web site component. I got my chance to help out on other components of the project as well including modem debugging and Linux help with some of the users.
I leave a special barb to the IT/IS Department for complete lack of responsiveness and sensitivity. They truly embody many of worst traits that the Dilbert comic strip strives to barb on a daily basis.
I was a contractor for roughly a year at Sybase. Basically, I with the rest of my group maintained the interface between handheld medical diagnostic devices and the Lab Information System (LIS, mini computer holding the Lab results and Billing information). We used pcAnywhere to connect to these machines and adjust the way the results were being entered into the LIS. We also got to talk with the people responsible at each hospital that they were report the results correctly.
The other fun thing was the .NET project I worked on to better automate our customer files. Previously, they were a bunch of simple text files, I wrote a web system to be able to open, search, and link most aspects of the customer information. It was my first try at .NET and it was really a big deal to learn initially, but made sense the more I got into it.
In the middle of May 2000, accepted the job at Synchronicity, Inc, or SyncInc for short. I had been happily working at Funk Software for two years previous and had no compelling reason to leave. SyncInc was the first job that I took that was a better job than I had before.
I do software training for revision control software for hardware designers. A little explanation since that is a mouthful. The software industry has had revision control for years. Revision control keeps back ups previous versions of source code, tracks changes in source, and allows configuration management (ie build a previous version). I train users on the Revision Control software called DesignSync. Most of the users of this software are hardware designers. Unfortunately, some hardware designers don't much care for software, and new software in particular.
Most of the time, I have to train at customer sites. That means I have to fly where the users are. So I went from a job at Funk Software where I had very litte opportunity, if any, to travel
I was a contractor for a year and a half and almost half a year as a W-2 employee with Funk Software in Cambridge, MA. Once I moved on from AcadiaNet, I decided to take a trip down the road and try my hand at contract work for a few months, but ended up landing the contract with Funk then converting over to being the current W-2 employee. I have moved down to Boston full time to pursue a career in software in the "Big City".
I ended up leaving Funk Software, not because I wanted to go, but that SyncInc was a slightly better job. I had a long hard time thinking about whether to stay at Funk or to move on to SyncInc. In the end, I moved on.
Well, this was one of my most fun jobs. I worked with Matt Hochman there and made a friend (or fiend as the case may be) for life. I also happened to be working with his wife Angel who attended my high school soooo many years ago.
Copyright Donald M. Nolin, 2006