I was a hardware developer for the first 10 years of my career and then after the introduction of the Atari Computer, a Software Developer for the next 25 years. I’m not *that* old [yikes!] but the site name will give some of you a clue.
I’ve been fortunate enough to debate with, argue design and work side-by-side with some of the most gifted people in the Telecom and Datacom Industry. The majority of my career has been spent developing communication protocol stacks for high-speed backbone routers and working on other forms of embedded systems.
During the 1990’s, I was one of five founding employees, a principal developer and Member of the Board of Directors for a startup company that developed ‘portable protocol stacks’ in Boston, MA. After nearly 10 years, the company was sold to Conexant in 2000 and ultimately some of us retired. I have also worked for Argon Networks, Unisphere Networks and Juniper Networks.
Atalaya Studio
A few years ago I decided I needed to make several changes in my life and one of them was to start my own company; Atalaya Studio was created. I found myself moving up the OSI Model ladder from designing and developing software at layers 2 and 3 (protocols) to designing and developing software for layers 6 and 7 (applications/web development). The cross-over has taken some ‘experimentation’, a little ‘trial and error’, and a lot of hard study but I’ve managed to do it.
Today I design and develop single-user Word Press based web sites, community sites using Word Press MU and Word Press plugins. I’m a regular one-man band and I’m usually fairly busy.
What Can I do?
Most anything. If I can’t do it or provide a job of reasonable quality I will be the first to tell you. I have extensive experience in writing white-papers, developing presentations, creating writing proof-of-concept prototypes for ‘dog and pony shows’, writing software design documentation and user guides. Over the years, I have taught advanced C language courses to corporate groups, developed software design and development standards, designed and created complex systems using OOPS methodologies. I write software in C, C++, PHP, Java Script, Java, PHP, mySQL, CSS (and others) and I have developed software for Windows, LINUX, UNIX. pSOS, VxWorks and other real-time operating systems.
How I Work
I have often described myself as a ‘recovering perfectionist’. I usually provide more than I’m asked for and I’m firmly entrenched in the religion of software extensibility and scalability – I also believe that you do something once and you do it right – there are no acceptable shortcuts.
If I am involved with your project, I’m in all the way. If you need a ‘hack’ then I suggest you find someone else to ‘hack away’. I’m not capable of giving you something that only works if the moon is full and you are wearing a green shirt. I am usually not interested in working in situations where the finished (and untested) product was required last week unless you are willing to pay a premium. I consider my reputation as a developer and designer far more important (to me) than the money.
I usually work for no more than one client at any single time; juggling projects and switching development paradigms is not my favorite thing to do. I like to focus my time and effort on a single client from start to finish – I find the work goes more smoothly and is less likely to have problems later on.
I can be contacted via MSN/voice/video conferencing and email. I provide comprehensive weekly status reports on my progress and I always alert clients to issues or future problems as soon as I discover them.
I prefer to be given detailed instructions in the form of email so there are no misunderstandings later on. Providing me with reasonably understandable email works for me as a task ‘checklist’ and provides me with a basis for weekly status reporting.
My Rates
I decided a long time ago that I will never get “rich” doing this type of work – nor is money a priority. I often find that the work is far more rewarding – but unfortunately, I do have to eat and pay my bills like everyone else. My rates depend on the project duration (not on complexity)
- If you have a long-term project (a guaranteed month or more), I work at the (incredibly cheap) rate of USD 25.00 per/hour (for engineers with over 20 years of experience). This is based on a minimum of 40 hours per week.
- Short term projects (less than one month) my rate is USD 35.00 per/hour also based on a minimum of 40 hours per week.
- If your project requires less than a week my rates are USD $100.00 per/hour with a 4 hour minimum.
Of course, project work is always negotiable in some form or another. I am always willing to do a little ‘barter’ so that everyone gets what they want in the end.
I am hired as an outside contractor and as such I handle my own taxes.
How Do We Get Started?
Give me a comprehensive and reasonable idea as to what you need done. I prefer to work with clients that have long term or ongoing development projects – steady work is always more desirable. If you just need some help with something, I can probably find some time or advice to offer unless the problem you are trying to solve looks “involved”.
Contacting Me
Since I’m usually parked at my computer like a potted plant the majority of the time, I see emails come in and I often answer them right away. Send me an email, tell me who you are, what you are doing and how I can help you. I’m certain we can work something out that we can both live with. If you are interested in reviewing my resume, please email me for a copy. However, apart from the gruesome details, everything there is to know is written here.