James Reynolds – Mountain City TN
I have worked in computers since the early 70s
System 3
4381
5110 Mini computer
System 38
AS400
3090
Iseries
Various Windows system since the early 80’s current Windows 11
Linux – Started in the late 90’s. I run fedora for my desktop. For servers I mainly use Debian or Fedora server. Depends what I’m using the server for.
Languages –
RPG –
Mostly RPG-ILE Free the last 10 years
CGI-DEV2 – web pages on an Iseries written in RPG Free with HTML wrappers
Perl
PHP
Python
MYSQL, MariaDB
A lot of asterisk – implementation
Heavy into networking – Cisco switches, routers and firewalls.
I spent from 1970 to 1990 in various positions at Greenville, Belding Products, White Consolidated, which became Frigidaire after the acquisition of the Frigidaire appliance business. The 2 plants employed over 6,000 factory employees and another 500 office employees.
They were eventually bought out by A B Electrolux.
Engineering Model Maker – 1970-1975
Programmer – 1975-1978
Manager Billing and Collections – 1978-1982
(5110 mini fix billing implementation)
Senior Analyst – 1982-1985 (Get conversion to S/38 on track)
Manager Systems and Programming – 1985-1990
(took over all systems and programming)
My last 3 positions I was basically a problem solver, if a department was in trouble. They created a position and moved me into it. In those 3 positions I reported to senior management, not the department head.
In 1990 I took a position at the corporate office for a lot of different reasons. It worked out well for a while but I could see where things were going. My wife worked in mainframe computers and Frigidaire decided to outsource that part of IT to EDS. We decided it might be easiest if she found a new job first and then I would find work in that area.
Dale went to work for Key Bank in Albany, NY and I found a position at a growing software company. It worked out very well for me and I think them. I worked from 1992 to 1994 in Albany, NY. Key Bank went through a merger in 1994, which left Dale looking for a new position, and she found a job in Texas. My employer basically told me I could live anywhere so I continued in my position just working out of the house and on the road. When Dale’s employer reorganized and gave her a totally different job she wasn’t happy, and at the same time my employer added a layer of management and wanted to promote me, so we found ourselves back in NY. Things went well until in 1998 my employer sold out to a Texas company just down the road from where we had lived in Texas.
I owe Larry Davis a lot. Larry hired me into his small billing software company. At the time I was employee #17. Some had come and gone, I think there were about 10 – 12 people at the time. I learned a completely new industry: telephone billing. Over the next several years the company grew to 200 people in a major office complex, what a ride! I left in 1999 for a short stint at a consulting firm which was another great learning experience. Larry started a CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier) in late 1999 and hired me back as CIO for the phone company. I held that position for the next 13 years, wearing many hats which goes along with startups. After a couple of mergers and acquisitions I was again burnt out. The company grew from a small local business to over a hundred employees in several states in the Northeast.
Larry made a spot for me to finish my full-time career, which bring me to this point. For the last 25 years he has done nothing but help me advance my career. You could not ask for a better friend and boss.
I have been semi-retired since May 2017, picking up a little work here and there. The AS400 / system I / power systems whatever it is a dying architecture, still a good system just not flashy and new-age. A lot of them are still out there doing what they do. I try to fill a void where companies occasionally need small jobs done but don’t require a full-time employee.