Webmaster, Instructor
I lived in Mercer County, NJ for the first 62 years of my life. My wife and I came to Spring Hill in September, 2016.
My career spanned over 39 years with the NJ Dept. of Transportation. Although my title claimed I was a Draftsman and later an Engineering Technician, most of those 39 years had me working with computers in several different manners.
During the early 1980’s, I had the responsibility of backing up the computer systems of the department. At the time, these were huge, heat producing machines that were in a secure basement room with excess air conditioning to keep the heat down and the computers up! These computers ran large reels of tape that weighed about 10 lbs. each and took several minutes to back up a reel.
During these years I also took training courses to learn how to use the PC. The screens at the time used a blinking orange cursor and typed in orange on a dark green screen. This is where I first learned to use spreadsheets, etc.
In 1985, the department started training Draftspersons on CADD. (Computer Aided Drawing & Design). Since I was a Draftsman, I was one of the trainees, but later became involved with the CADD Support Team, where I learned how to create custom menus and programs to make the job easier for the end user. I also created a large product manual and held training courses to teach others how to use our CADD System.
Later in my career, I was transferred to another office, where I was responsible for helping them create and maintain a data base of all public railroad crossings in the state of NJ. This system is still being used today, several years after my retirement.
In the early 2000’s I took a course in HTML and self taught myself how to design websites. I did this on a personal level and created several over the years for myself and others. These were very basic, and since then, the technology has changed immensely. At this point in time, I’m enjoying working on the new website for the Hernando Computer Club.