Nerdvana...
It's not just a job...it's a way of life.

I'm an Embedded Systems Software Engineer with most of my experience in the telecom and datacom industries.

I learned the ropes at Telcordia Technologies (formerly known as Bellcore) in the Telecommunications Network Engineering and Product Integrity group where I contributed to a team that built a suite of CCS/SS7 and VOIP network test tools used to evaluate the operation and performance of network elements in the PSTN and converging data networks.

Of course, I didn't just walk into a great development position. I worked my way up the ladder, first assuming a lab manager/system admin role, in which I wound up building and managing PSTN network test facilities designed to evaluate performance and conformance in the SS7 signaling network. I developed a reputation for competently engineering high-availability data-mining networks utilizing cool gear from Sun, Network Appliance, Fore (now Marconi), and Cisco. Then, for some reason, I accepted additional responsibility as network admin/ip/dns coordinator for several corporate networks. It was during this time I was first exposed to sendmail and its hideously complex configuration files. Yes, this was before the macro configuration methodology...and yes, I still have nightmares about it. :-)

I'd say this was a cool job because I had a lot of responsibility AND the power to effect change, but also because it massaged my techie muscles. I wasn't just a sysadmin...I hacked all kinds of telecom gear a traditional IT Department sysadmin never touches, including stuff like digital clock distributors with redundant rubidium oscillators, digital cross connects, and, of course, many kinds of network test gear including Tekelec's MGTS and Bellcore's own Network Services Test System (NSTS). I even got to do provisioning on Lucent 5ESS, Nortel DMS100, and Siemens EWSD switches all running beta loads with the latest and greatest features. For example, I tested conformance for 888 toll free number support, calling name delivery, and other cool stuff now commonplace in the PSTN.

Working with test gear intrigued me to such an extent that after 18 months in this position supporting testers utilizing NSTS and doing a couple test programs myself, I requested and received a transfer into a development role for the NSTS.

I spent the remainder of my six years at Telcordia as a developer, and worked my way up the ladder again, this time utilizing my "real-world" experience of the tool and the networks it monitored or emulated to eventually become a senior software engineer and lead system architect for the embedded side of the platform (the side that physically connected to the network). My work reached a pinnacle when I arranged to build a custom hardware platform based on a custom VMEbus backplane with proprietary timing bus, proprietary system timing interface card, and a really nice NEBS-compliant enclosure with hot-swap power and cooling. Then, to top it all off, I had a bunch 'o fun doing the driver-level programming to tie all the hardware together.

As I was convinced I was going to build what had started as a mere R&D project into a full-fledged independent business, I continued to leverage my skills in network, systems, and lab administration to build a state-of-the-art software and hardware development and support laboratory that incorporated many of the same technologies I used in the test lab. I added a firmware programming & replication station, a hardware test/conformance bench, and a suite of servers for builds, source control, internal and support documentation, as well as network administration, and merged it all on a web server (running apache, of course!).

The cool thing about this job was the sheer breadth and scope of the work I did on a daily basis. I wasn't cast as a mere sysadmin, a configuration management specialist, a tech support rep, a customer interface, a contract manager, or a hardware or software developer. I was ALL of these things. RARE is the job where one can do all of these things at this level and still have enough time in the day to sleep (I did, just barely), but I wouldn't have it any other way. While my time at Telcordia was one of the busiest times in my life, it was one of the happiest, because I was constantly learning new things and because the regular positive feedback I received from my customers was proof that I was making a difference. Of course, the regular merit raises didn't hurt either... :-)

Unfortunately, due to company finances and other management priorities, my dream to spin off the group was never realized, and by the time the products I was working on began to mature in the summer of 2000, the startup bug bit. The possibilities of building another complex platform outside of the somewhat restrictive management hierarchy of a large corporation beckoned, so...in late 2000, I found myself at Issanni Communications (acquired by UTStarCom), where I helped develop a new generation of broadband access management systems designed to simplify subscriber configuration. This box had the ability to camp on its edge network interfaces, and provision subscribers automatically according to the protocol supported by the client in use.

The post 9/11 business climate was not friendly to us, so I left Issanni in January 2002 and took it easy for a few months building up a few new systems, flying, working on some open source projects, and continuing research for a couple business plans I had on the back burner.

Oddly enough, while doing research toward one of my product ideas, I found a company in my local area that was doing something very much like what I'd proposed...and they were looking for help. So, to make a long story short, I'm now working at Packetstorm Communications. I was originally hired as a Senior Member of Technical Staff to develop drivers and other glue between the application space and custom hardware.

As is typically required in a small, understaffed business, however, I'm serving multiple roles. I'm doing application-space programming, developing a custom operating system distribution and traceable build system, designing firmware interfaces and related documentation, and doing necessary hardware debugging in support of it all. And yes, somehow they found out about my system administration skills, so I'm now responsible for all of our systems and networks, too. It's definitely not your average, run-of-the-mill software job...and thankfully so. I'd get bored quickly if it weren't.

In what little personal time I have, I get a kick out of doing web application development and design using PHP. I also have a nasty habit of building PCs from scratch so I maintain a cluster of Linux and Windoze boxen at home to service my every whim. Needless to say, I have a cooling problem...even in the winter, and the CEO of JCP&L regularly takes me out for dinner to say "thanks" for helping them to meet their numbers. :-)

So, you see, I live, eat, and breathe technology. In short, it's nerdvana.