FiddleTech

"Where tradition meets innovation, one semitone at a time"

I'm available for a wide variety of technical needs, for example, you:
  • need advice on which personal computer to buy
  • need help with any type of problem on your computer system
  • want to set up a network, and need help or advice
  • want to set up a web presence
Picture of Happy Couple
My rates are always competitive. For a quote, or more information, contact me.

Experience Details

I spent 20 years or so working at Macdonald, Dettwiler, & Associates (MDA), and its spinoff Cymbolic Sciences International (CSI). During most of my career, I worked on the process of getting pixels from the computer system onto 10-inch wide film (see below for more detail). In the process, I picked up considerable expertise on personal and corporate computers:
  • 25+ years experience in the computer field, including hardware design, programming, technical writing, problem solving, and teaching
  • Experience with a variety of hardware platforms: PC, Macintosh, mainframes, minicomputers, and HP / Sun / SGI workstations
  • Proficiency with all commonly used operating systems: Windows 3.1/9x/2K, MacOS, Unix (HP-UX, IRIX, Solaris/SUNos, and Linux)
  • Extensive knowledge of personal computers and peripherals
  • Programming languages: C, Fortran, Pascal
  • Device Driver software written under VMS and UNIX
  • Wide experience with specialized and common business application software
  • Webpage design, using hand markup of html
  • Proficiency with TCP-IP networking of personal computers/workstations
Picture of Dave in Techno-land At MDA and CSI, I worked in many capacities over the years. Since the early 1980's, most of my work was in the field of film recorders: gadgets that accept a stream of graphic data from a computer, and expose color or black/white film with that data. Common applications are in remote-sensing (processing data from satellites) and graphic arts (magazines and commercial graphics). I worked on project engineering teams developing hardware interfaces, and also wrote device drivers (software that is part of the operating system and deals directly with hardware), application software, and technical manuals.

For most of the 1990's, I installed film recorder systems, mostly in Europe, Asia, and the United States. This work involved setting up complex systems, fulfillment of contract requirements, and training of technical personnel.


Page last updated on August 28 2023 18:42:42.

Web Page design by Dave Marshall.