I originally hail from a small town in Northern California, where among other things, I organized, managed, and participated in a world record setting 600-mile marathon swim at age 15.
I went to UC Davis for my Mechanical Engineering BS, and attended Seattle University for my Masters in Software Engineering.
What kind of work am I looking for?
Me in a comfy corner park opposite Chicago's Lakefront.
Who is Ralph Smith, MSE?
I worked as a full-stack software developer for 20+ years supporting my fellow technical staff and management within Boeing's small Primary Standards Laboratory. I developed dozens of applications in support of seven parameters.
And I was more than just a developer.
In no particular order:
I designed and built a data warehouse (DW) as a solution for management so they could have the data they needed to respond to an FAA audit of poor calibrations of torque wrenches. (This was before I knew anything about DWs, I just developed the solution that was necessary).
I was a UNIX Admin and a Windows NT Admin. I developed policy and procedures for software configuration management (SCM), also department coding standards.
I designed and laid out networks, (TCP and SRM), was also THE resource for Office Apps & computer problems for a while.
I authored huge libraries of modules for plug-n-play used by myself and others, providing polynomial and non-linear algorithms, charts, graphs, and tables. The bulk of this library is still in use years later after being converted to VB.
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What have I done since then? You'll find much of that in my resume here.
In there you will find that I'm a continuous learner. I'm a trained and certified Oracle DBA, giving me great insight into the nuances of ANY relational database. I have mid-sized system DBA experience with MySQL and PostgreSQL, and SQL development experience and training with all the major RDBMSs.
I have been an Infrastructure Support Analyst, a Source Systems Analyst, an Architect, and a front-end developer using PHP and JavaScript (including jQuery and AJAX).
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So who am I?
I'm a versatile generalist who can jump on any problem, learn to use the tools and the best practices, and solve your problems.
• Something challenging that provides opportunity for creativity. Ideally something that includes some versatility.
• Some place where I can work either independently or as part of a team. I like both.
• I don't mind working under pressure, but I prefer to have a chance to come up to speed first, get me started and thins will happen!