Looks like my last introduction went out with the crash.
I'm single, living on a large lake in Virginia. I like ANYTHING to do with water. Swimming, water-skiing, snorkling, sailing, canoeing, kayaking, jetskiing, etc. By age twelve, I had all the requirements to be a lifeguard, except the age requirement. I love animals, and they love me. Put a cat into a room with 100 people, and I'll be the first one it goes up to. Unfortunetely, as luck would have it, I'm also highly allergic to fur dander, so I content myself with stealing time with the neighbors pets, and feeding the wild animals.
I'm currently starting on my third career, though not by choice. After a year of college, I went to work as a saleman for Radio Shack as a part time job. For a guy who was/is so shy I jumped at my own shadow, I turned out to be a fantastic saleman, and ended up spending 13 years at the Shack. I eventually decided to get serious with my education, and used the shack job to put myself through a BS in Management Information Systems and a double MS in Information Systems and Operations Research. After an internship at Amtrak and a several stints as a teaching assistant, I got a job at a telecom billing firm as a programmer/analyst. I spent several years there, and had a chance to travel several times to Finland on business. I then went to Bell Atlantic (now Verizon), eventually being demoted up to manager. In July of 2001, I got downsized, coincidently 2 weeks after I moved into a new house. After having worked 60-70 hour weeks for the previous several years, I decided to use my severance pay to take a few months off to rest and get settled in to the new house. Of course everyone knows what happened in September of 2001, and afterward, you couldn't buy a job in the IT field in the DC area, let alone one in telecom.
Luckily, when my house was built, I had been bitten by the HA bug, and installed a lot of automation. Some of my neighbors saw what I had done, and asked me to do some things for them. One thing led to another, and I eventually decided to start a Home Automation/Integration business. It's not paying all the bills yet (income from startup HA business does NOT equal income from senior IT manager), but it's fun (and better than nothing). The house is 2 floors, plus an unfinished basement and full attic. It's around 4000 sq ft. on the two main floors, sitting on around 2 acres of land with around 500 ft. of waterfront.
HA wise, I've got an OmniPro security/HA system, expanded to 80 zones. It handles the security, life safety functions (smoke/CO/LP/heat detectors), HVAC control, and occupancy lighting. It also has an interface (controlled by Homeseer) to the Toro sprinkler system for special watering tasks. A Panasonic KXTD-1232 PBX provides phone and intercom capability. Whole house music is provided by a Xantech ZPR68-10 system, expanded up to 15 zones with a boatload of mixed amplifiers bought on eBay. I did have integration between the music system and Homeseer using a Slinkee, but it bit the dust in a thunderstorm and I have not replaced it. I probably will write a plugin to control the Xantech using the serial port and an Ocelot for IR. I overwired the house, having a MINIMUM of 2 cat5 and 2 RG6QS drops on every wall in every room. Everything comes together in a dedicated HA room in the basement, with the computer equipment mounted in several computer racks (eBay again), the patch panels and music system mounted on relay racks, and the alarm system, PBX, and sprinkler controls mounted on one of the walls. Currently I have 9 computers, + 2 Audreys running throughout the house, most of them on UPS.
I'm single, living on a large lake in Virginia. I like ANYTHING to do with water. Swimming, water-skiing, snorkling, sailing, canoeing, kayaking, jetskiing, etc. By age twelve, I had all the requirements to be a lifeguard, except the age requirement. I love animals, and they love me. Put a cat into a room with 100 people, and I'll be the first one it goes up to. Unfortunetely, as luck would have it, I'm also highly allergic to fur dander, so I content myself with stealing time with the neighbors pets, and feeding the wild animals.
I'm currently starting on my third career, though not by choice. After a year of college, I went to work as a saleman for Radio Shack as a part time job. For a guy who was/is so shy I jumped at my own shadow, I turned out to be a fantastic saleman, and ended up spending 13 years at the Shack. I eventually decided to get serious with my education, and used the shack job to put myself through a BS in Management Information Systems and a double MS in Information Systems and Operations Research. After an internship at Amtrak and a several stints as a teaching assistant, I got a job at a telecom billing firm as a programmer/analyst. I spent several years there, and had a chance to travel several times to Finland on business. I then went to Bell Atlantic (now Verizon), eventually being demoted up to manager. In July of 2001, I got downsized, coincidently 2 weeks after I moved into a new house. After having worked 60-70 hour weeks for the previous several years, I decided to use my severance pay to take a few months off to rest and get settled in to the new house. Of course everyone knows what happened in September of 2001, and afterward, you couldn't buy a job in the IT field in the DC area, let alone one in telecom.
Luckily, when my house was built, I had been bitten by the HA bug, and installed a lot of automation. Some of my neighbors saw what I had done, and asked me to do some things for them. One thing led to another, and I eventually decided to start a Home Automation/Integration business. It's not paying all the bills yet (income from startup HA business does NOT equal income from senior IT manager), but it's fun (and better than nothing). The house is 2 floors, plus an unfinished basement and full attic. It's around 4000 sq ft. on the two main floors, sitting on around 2 acres of land with around 500 ft. of waterfront.
HA wise, I've got an OmniPro security/HA system, expanded to 80 zones. It handles the security, life safety functions (smoke/CO/LP/heat detectors), HVAC control, and occupancy lighting. It also has an interface (controlled by Homeseer) to the Toro sprinkler system for special watering tasks. A Panasonic KXTD-1232 PBX provides phone and intercom capability. Whole house music is provided by a Xantech ZPR68-10 system, expanded up to 15 zones with a boatload of mixed amplifiers bought on eBay. I did have integration between the music system and Homeseer using a Slinkee, but it bit the dust in a thunderstorm and I have not replaced it. I probably will write a plugin to control the Xantech using the serial port and an Ocelot for IR. I overwired the house, having a MINIMUM of 2 cat5 and 2 RG6QS drops on every wall in every room. Everything comes together in a dedicated HA room in the basement, with the computer equipment mounted in several computer racks (eBay again), the patch panels and music system mounted on relay racks, and the alarm system, PBX, and sprinkler controls mounted on one of the walls. Currently I have 9 computers, + 2 Audreys running throughout the house, most of them on UPS.