July 1990 to July 2001

Software Design Engineer, Microsoft Corporation
Redmond, Washington

Hired into the LAN Manager group.   When Microsoft decided to focus development on what became Windows NT, I joined its Network User Interface group and was in charge of the installation and configuration of all networking components, both hardware and software.    I helped design the overall setup process for Windows NT.   My primary was design and implementation of a "no questions asked" network setup protocol involving (insofar as was possible) auto-detection of all hardware components and automation configuration of the network stack.   The auto-configuration algorithm was written in Prolog (see  Papers for more information).  I ported a small Prolog interpreter into NT and built the necessary software bridges.

Began working with the original Decision Theory Group in Microsoft Research late in 1993.   The group's primary research are was uncertain (i.e., probabilistic) reasoning in a Bayesian framework.  Initial focus was construction of editing tools for Bayesian belief networks.   Soon began working on collaborative filtering algorithms, utility-based recommendations and troubleshooting, database retrieval.   Programming in a research organization required using all available tools, both from inside and outside Microsoft, keeping current with emerging technologies, blending the requirements of mathematical algorithms for memory and speed with the realities of existing platforms.

Performed continual enhancement to various research toolkits running on all Windows platforms.  Pioneered usage of XML and in the groups.  Build several applications designed to monitor, record and analyze user activity, including process activation, keyboard usage and graphical text rendered.

Projects required extensive, in-depth knowledge of C/C++, Visual Basic, COM, ATL, HTML, XML, ODBC, SQL and many other core industry and Microsoft technologies.   Wrote many hybrid applications using Visual Basic and C++ for maximum flexibility and performance.

January 1990 to July 1990

Startup Partnership
San Antonio, Texas

Formed a partnership startup with a close friend who is a lawyer.  The goal was to product "intelligent interview" software that would aid lawyers and paralegals in collecting facts and documents in automobile collision and injury cases.   I build the (Macintosh-based) prototypes, which included a rule-based guided interview system and a document generation system.

My partner's other legal obligations prevented him from completing his commitments to the partnership, to the effort was abandoned by mutual agreement in July, 1990.

May 1977 to December 1989

Software Architect, Datapoint Corporation
San Antonio, Texas

Datapoint Corporation was a primary minicomputer manufacturer in the late 1970's and through the 80's.  I joined in 1977 as lead developer on what was then their primary product, a proprietary business language interpreter and operating system with LAN capabilities.

Over the years, I was a key contributor in the development of a new generation operating system.  Toward the end, as the PC revolution was taking hold, I formed a group to bridge Datapoint LAN technologies and protocols to standard PC LANs and WANs.   Implemented client redirectors, multiprocessor file servers, print servers and systems management tools.

I left Datapoint when its financial situation was no longer tenable.  Its management had failed to reformulate corporate strategy and product placement, so it declined in the same fashion as its competitors, companies such as Wang, Prime and Data General.

May 1974 to May 1977

Data Base Administrator, Billy-the-Kid, Inc.
El Paso, Texas

BTK was a nationally known manufacturer of high quality children's wear.   I joined as a developer in '74 and was later promoted to DBA.  I was primary developer and project leader conversions from Honeywell systems to Burroughs systems, and from batch-mode tape order processing to on-line database management.

May 1971 to May 1977

State National Bank
El Paso, Texas

I was a developer of business applications for the bank and many of the clients of its service bureau.  Developed applications in several language on several platforms.