So.....
A few things, iSick Bay started because friends of mine whose computers I had fixing for the past 20 years started handing me their iPods and asking me to fix them. There are many similarities and because of my deep knowledge of computers and mechanical things I was able to my mind around what I was seeing an iPod immediately.
After fixing six iPods as favors in a single week two of them suggested I start a business to earn "mad scientist" money. You know money to buy new servers and personal enrichment/knowledge project money.
There are links about other things I'm interested on the left. I'm an award wining wine maker, award winning photographer, a film/screenplay buff and a couple of other things
Now let me give you something on my work history and background.
M.I.S. Guy with experience in Internet Systems / Call Center Management / Web &
Desktop Publishing
442 Steele Lane
Santa Rosa, Ca 95403-3149
Profile
Founded bicycle store and mail order business while still in college that developed sales which
reached $10.1 million in annual revenue, through
expertise in Marketing, Color Desktop Publishing, Digital Photography,
Internet Development & Marketing, Telephone/Call Processing
Systems,
Mini & Micro Computer Systems.
Career Highlights
MIS Director Santa Rosa, Ca.
[Internet Commerce Solution Provider]
I find myself brought in a technical problem solver frequently for clients that have complex
computer and data storage/warehouse problems when they need specific information on older legacy systems presented in real time on the
internet.
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Maintain and Administrate UNIX systems from
HP 9000 system and in the past 715 & 735 workstations
Silicon Graphics IRIX (UNIX) servers which are soon to be retired
Suse Linux (SLES 9.3 and SLES 10) on Intel architecture
In the past but now retired I used :
Digital Equipment Vax
Digital Equipment Alpha OpenVMS servers
RedHat Linux on Intel architecture
Apollo UNIX workstations
-
Maintain and Administrate other systems
Intel based Windows servers
Intel based Windows XP client systems from various vendors
Macintosh systems OSX versions 10.3, 10.4 and 10.5
-
Write batch routines for overnight processes and Cron jobs on our
systems
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Maintain LAN and Internet connectivity
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PERL Programming to change and customize shopping cart system
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SQL Programming for data extraction
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Javascript Programming for dynamic web page presentation
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System Admin for the UNIX based Sendmail email server
MIS Director/ Vice-President of System Operations T-Zone,
Sunnyvale, Ca.
[A retail computer store based in Tokyo, manufacturing and selling
PC on four continents world-wide]
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Designed and built the T-Zone Wide Area Network linking San Mateo and
Sunnyvale sites..
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HP 9000 K-220 system administrator using HP-UX 11.0 running TOLAS ERP system
and Informix On-Line Dynamic Server DB engine.
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Established specifications and implementation of modifications to the
ERP system
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Maintained Internal Networks
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Programmed and Maintained the Panasonic and NEC phone systems.
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System Admin for the Post.Office NT server based email server
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System Admin and for the Windows based server that ran the T-Zone web site.
Founder / Operations Manager / Owner: Pedal Pusher Bicycle Store, Santa
Rosa, Ca.
[A retail and international mail order company selling bicycles and
bicycle parts to cycling enthusiasts]
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Coordinated all operations of Mail Order Sales (70%), Retail Sales and
Service (30%) and warehouse shipping functions. Had a staff of 52
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Automated business to maximize inventory turn over and return on
investment using DEC VAX computer system running ADP/GSI TOLAS
Distribution software package. Automation involved system modification
designs, testing and implementation to make TOLAS more useful for
retail & mail order sales environment.
-
Wrote, designed and laid out in desk top environment all print media
ads and color catalogs. Created and re-touched all the digital still
images for the catalogs.
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Developed Internet marketing presence bikepro.com in late 1994, which
became the first and largest Internet site related to bicycles. It
featured tabled product comparisons, a mirrored secure server allowing
customers world wide to place encrypted secure orders and submit their
name and address to be included in our postal print mailings. The submitted
email addresses were used to send automated bulk email sales messages.
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Designed and installed the internal LAN and desktop systems used by our
email & phone agents.
-
Designed and built the facility for our phone agents, including the
Hayworth work areas, configured and programmed our PBX phone switch,
and performed the data and telephone wiring.
Specific Skills
PERL, Javascript and SQL Programmer
Write PERL, SQL and Javascript programs for data extraction and
presentation in the UNIX environment. Write and modify Shopping cart
programs to present and accept specific information and create a
personalized shopping experience.
LAN/WAN manager
using TCP/IP, DECNET, DEC Pathworks, Appletalk/Localtalk, EtherTalk,
T-1 and T-3 circuits,
I have also worked with Internet work hubs, routers and terminal servers
System administrator for a pile of different computers operating systems now and in the past, including
DEC VAX/OpenVMS 6.1~6.2 & 7.1~7.2, Silicon Graphics Irix
5.3, 6.2 & 6.5 UNIX, Hewllet Packard HP-UX, IBM AIX
Microsoft Windows XP (soon Vista, but since the SP1 release was so lame I'm not sure if I want to support it), Microsoft Server environment, and Macintosh 9.x and OSX environments and provided
advanced level of support to end users. Maintained the hardware and
software of these systems.
Web Server Installation and System administration
have installed and maintained
Apache server on HP-UX 10.20 and on SGI IRIX 6.5, Also Apache on Suse Linux 10 and Microsoft IIS on Windows Servers
Hosted multiple domains
on Silicon Graphics IRIX/UNIX and Hewlett Packard HP-UNIX based
Internet servers. Wrote CGI/PERL and
JAVA scripts to enhance its appearance and usefulness.
email System administrator
using Sendmail on UNIX servers and Post.Office on Windows Servers
Ardent user of Adobe programs
..including Photoshop, Illustrator, Pagemaker and Dimensions used for
both
Web and print media publishing. For web publishing I also have used GoLive, Cold Fusion
Program and administrate phone systems
from Toshiba, NEC, Panasonic, Seimens/Rolm and Harris. I have been the
system administrator
for Octel VPC100/Aspen & Toshiba Strategy DK voicemail systems.
Designed bar code Point of Sale systems
using Zebra, Metrologic and Symbol Technology hardware which was
interfaced
with the larger TOLAS system.
Maintain and can fix most computer hardware
down to board level parts replacments, including cpu's, dot matrix
line printers,
laser printers, bar code printers, cash drawer terminals, bar code
scanners,
and keyboards of all types.
Systems I am using
I am the site manager for our computer systems.
I use Macintoshes extensively for the graphics work involved in our
web site design, and print ads
We also use several Wintel based PC's Windows XP to view
our web designs in the PC environment and as the front end (running
terminal emulation software from Persoft) of our order fulfillment
system.
I am using a Microsoft Servers for internet geographic mapping projects.
This iPod repair thing I do
Starting around 2003 friends of mine began handing me their broken iPods to fix. Among my friends I am considered the fellow that can fix
anything except a rainy day. From childhood I have always studied how things work and it's lead me to be quite skillful at figuring out
what is wrong with something and how to fix it.
At the end of 2004, in a single week six friends dropped off their iPods with different problems, in each case I was able to correct the
problem and hand back to them their working iPod again with all of their music files intact. The last two were a doctor and lawyer friend
of mine who commented that the Apple response to their problem was a $210 out-of-warranty repair or Apple wanted them to trade in iPod and
buy a new one for $250 less a $25 trade-in. Both of these friends commented that "there seems to be an opportunity here".
So I did a soft launch of an iPod repair business to test the waters and it was well received.
While the 'contract technical problem solver' part of me is gratified by coming up with solutions to complex problems... almost all of that
work is performed under a non-disclosure agreement and I never get to discuss the tools and methods I use even among collegues. So those
projects not something I get accolades from.
On the other hand this iPod work fits well into my computer skills and people adore me for being able to get their iPod running again.
If you're someone that has dropped you iPod in... water, the toilet, a pot of soup, a hot tub half and hour, saltwater in the Sea of
Cortez, water bottle exploding in your gym bag, sink full of water while drunk in a bar bathroom... I'm you're best salvation and I have
people send me their iPods from as far away as Korea, Scotland, Brazil, France, England, all over Canada and all over the US to solve
liquid immersion problems.
~ frank
