Maxum was one of the leading companies in the market of Internet server tools for the Macintosh computer. Their flagship products, NetCloak and NetForms, were the first commercial products available as add-ons to the leading third-party Macintosh web server software, WebSTAR. Today, Maxum is still a small company doing big things as an Internet developer, with a line of products for both the Macintosh and Windows platforms, with more in development. In fact, one of the features built-in to the classic Mac OS, Personal Web Sharing, was developed for Apple by Maxum.
Digital Prairie (DPI) is a small company specializing in Internet software development, web-to-database connectivity, and website design and development. See the WorldOpinion web site for an example of our work. While at DPI, I have ported Windows 95 CD-ROM games to the Macintosh for TerraGlyph Interactive Studios, developed SmartMap, an imagemap-processing plug-in for WebSTAR, and redesigned the DPI web site.
GBI is an Indy company best known for its HyperCard XCMD, "TableIt!", and more recently, for its AOCE and AppleScript tools, Cataloger and DataBay. While there, I created an administration application for an upcoming web server product, prototyped Netscape Navigator plug-ins on both the Mac and Windows95 platforms, and worked on a project linking a FileMaker Pro application to an Informix database running on an SCO Unix server.
I started at Loral Medical Imaging Systems (LMIS) back in July 1991, when it was a division of Siemens Medical Systems. For the five years I spent there, I worked on over a dozen Macintosh applications which were part of the Vantage PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications System). This system was designed to replace conventional x-ray films in hospital radiology departments, per the U.S. Army's Medical Diagnostic Imaging Support (MDIS) contract. See the DoD telemedicine page for more information. All the applications we developed were based on MacApp 2.0, written in C++, and communicated with a Sybase database via the Sybase DB-Lib. Since I left in 1997, the business has been sold twice; first to Lockheed-Martin, and now it's a division of GE Medical Systems.
Before I started at Siemens, I worked for Software Consulting Specialists (SCS), Inc. While there, I served as a contract programmer, working primarily for a client company called Tokheim, Inc., which is the number three manufacturer of fuel dispensing equipment in the US.
At Tokheim, I wrote the software for those credit card readers that sit on top of the gas pumps. The next time you pull into a Mobil station, look for the little metal manufacturer's plate on the pump. If it's Tokheim, and it has a card reader, then it's running my software.
At SCS, I also wrote software and designed a user interface for a start-up company called American Registration Systems, as part of a prototype ATM-like system used to renew your automobile license and registration. That system was PC-based, with a CGA monitor. It communicated with a VISA credit card network via one of those little point-of-sale terminals used in shopping malls, and emulated either an IBM 3270 or a Unisys terminal to communicate with DMV computers.
Finally, while at SCS, I served as the network administrator of the in-house office AppleTalk network of Macs and PCs. It was at SCS when I saw a Macintosh for the first time and got the bug. Anyone remember how long it took a Mac SE to redraw a Radius Two-Page Display? We used QuickMail and AppleShare on a Mac SE/30 file server, and back in 1987 we thought two 100Mb DataFrame hard drives provided an infinite amount of storage. We used AppleShare PC cards in PC compatibles on our small network.
Also during this time, I did a little shareware programming on the side. My first foray into shareware was a little app called "Stapler", which basically created multiple-file aliases -- you double-click one icon and it launched any number of files "aliased" in that file. It was good enough to include in a book of Mac shareware entitled Mac Power Toolkit (see if Amazon.com can find you a copy), written by Maria Langer (of "Visual QuickStart" fame) for Hayden Books.
I also worked quite a bit with HyperCard and at one time was a proficient HyperTalk programmer. I'm pretty rusty now...
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