Mike Read (Updated March 2002)
mailto:mread@rr.swfla.com
https://members.tripod.com/~MikeRead/allnews.htm
Education:
1973-77 North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC
Graduated BS Computer Science, with Electrical Engineering
Licenses: FCC: General Radiotelephone Operator License (GROL)
(Formerly known as First Class
FCC: Marine Radiotelephone Operator License (MROL)
FCC: Amateur Extra Class - AE4AG
Languages: C/C++ PL/1 Pascal Fortran APL FORTH Basic
MANY assembler languages from IBM mainframe to PC 80x86, TI990
4 and 8 bit microcontrollers/microprocessors, bit-slice and
microcoding, watches, and calculators, embedded processing
Spanish
Hobbies: Computers, electronics, Ham Radio, teletext, music, kids
Employment history:
77-78 Data General Corp., Research Triangle Park, NC (18 mo)
Implemented Basic interpreter/compiler, improved performance of Word
Processing application.
78-79 Business Applications Systems, Cary, NC (18 mo)
Ported existing Basic applications and interpreter from HP2100A to
TI990/12 for Response of Hawaii, Honolulu. Included terminal
communications Device Service Routines.
80-84 Texas Instruments, Lubbock, TX (4.5 yr)
Wrote algorithms for watches, calculators, intelligent peripherals.
Wrote assemblers and disassemblers for several processors. Wrote bar
code scan and activities code for Magic Wand Speaking Reader.
Interfaced the Magic Wand Speaking Reader to the TI99/4. Implemented
a program that allowed simulation of watches and calculators on the
TI99/4 with a keyboard/display interface I designed, speeding up the
development cycle.
84 Sunware Ltd., Lubbock TX (6 mo)
VP of R&D and production for startup manufacturing software cartridges
for the TI99/4. Designed and built electronic hardware and software
including the device programmer, and made cartridges, software
development kits, linking loader.
85-87 Coulter Electronics, Hialeah, FL (2.5 yr)
Responsible for the programming of the two embedded processors (TI9900)
that accumulated data and controlled the machine, and communications
processing DSRs on the mini (TI990/4/10/12) of the DACOS Blood serum
analyzer.
87 BMP Computer Services, Orlando, FL (6 mo)
Provided system software and backup hardware support to service bureau
covering Florida area. Primary client was Orange County Sheriff's
Office. Wrote a modem communications package that supported X/YMODEM.
88 American Manufacturing Systems, Maitland, FL (1 yr)
Programmed embedded 80186 and 80386 in a distributed processing
real-time process-control program for factory automation, called
Orchestrator and Podium
89-now Fischer International Systems Corp., Naples FL (8 yrs++
Overhauled X/Y Modem and Added Y-Modem-G and Kermit protocols to
existing modem product. Helped port mainframe EMail client/server
product from Assembler to C and run on 6 platforms. Converted to multi-
lingual, multi-codepage for international market. Integrating efforts
of 6 programmers on different platforms and managed source control.
Implemented APIs and database transactions to support appointment
scheduling for new GUI clients. Designed and implemented Archiving
facility, for migrating data out of EMail database. Implemented POP3,
IMAP-4, SMTP, FTP, and HTTP interfaces to proprietary email database,
and next generation db, operating in Windows NT, MVS/TSO and USS.
Added SSL/TLS support to various TCP/IP interfaces.
-------------------------( Home Projects )----------------------------------
* Stock Ticker/Big Board decoder implemented in TI99/4 assembler,
decoding FM SCA broadcast to 300 baud modem, then decoding and routing
packets to display/printer.
* Designed, breadboarded, programmed, and debugged a single-board
computer based on the TI TMS9900 that read UPC bar codes to select a
phrase that was then sent to the speech chip. I wrote a bar-code
generator program for the line printer. This project was the pilot
for the Texas Instruments Magic Wand Speaking Reader.
* Made an adaptor for the TI99/4 that alowed direct printing of strings
and plotting commands from BASIC onto a Houston Instruments DMP-2
incremental plotter. Used for plotting commodities history.
* Designed and built a programmer for 27xx (12v) and 25xx (5v) EPROMs as
a peripheral for the TI99/4. Programmed control program into a TI99/4
plug-in cartridge. Later interfaced programmer to the TI 990 mini.
* Made an adaptor that allowed an EPROM programmer to read Atari 2600
videogame cartridges, and another adaptor that allowed the EPROM copies
to play in another Atari 2600.
* Designed, laid out the PC board, and made a limited production run of
TV Stereo Decoders, which decoded the MTS TV stereo signal from Channel
3 input, with output to the speaker. Also decoded Secondary Access
Program (SAP).
* Interfaced a QIC-02 tape cartridge drive to the IBM-PC, and wrote the
backup and restore software.
* Interfaced a Cipher Streaming 9-track tape drive to the IBM-PC through
the DMA interface. Wrote the backup, restore, scan software, and
software to convert between PC/IBM 370/TI990/and other formats.
* Designed and implemented a bit-slice video decoder based on the
AMD 2900 family. Implemented a custom clock circuit with skewed clock
cycle to allow use of 450ns EPROMs, "Wait for video SYNC" instruction,
and hardware debugging. Wrote the bit-slice compiler. Wrote the
hardware debugger, and interfaced it through the IBM-PC, with program
up/download to EPROM emulator, single-step, breakpoints, etc.
* Wrote an interpreter for Houston Instruments DMPL that mapped CAD
plots onto the DMP-2 incremental plotter.
* Converted TI Professional computer monitors to run on IBM PC.
* Wrote a C compiler for the IBM-PC, based on Small C. Brought the
implementation up to full K&R Chapter 4. Wrote a companion symbolic
debugger that ran on the IBM-PC.
* Designed and implemented a Video Test Pattern Generator for the Harris
RTX2000 RISC (FORTH) Processor design contest. This device read a
keyboard and produced a video display using the Motorola RGB-NTSC
converter chipset. The keyboard was used to walk menus, selecting
convergence and alignment patterns, and audio output.
* Wrote a IBM-PC DOS device driver that extended the type-ahead buffer
from 16 chars to 256.
* Wrote a IBM-PC DOS keyboard TSR that allowed extensive command line
editing, access to environment variables, text assignment to function
keys. Similar to (and written before) DOSKEY.
* Designed and implemented the only _true_ IBM PC teletext decoder board.
Using the Plessy teletext chipset to extract teletext from a composite
video input, the packets were fed into the DMA interface of the PC, and
decoded in software. Designed and made a small run of the PC boards.
One objective was low-cost extraction of the commodities information.
* Acquired Amateur Radio License Extra Class, and Commercial GROL
(formerly known as First Class).
* Built an audio-RS232 interface, and used HamComm and various FAX
programs for decoding WEatherFAX and morse code transmissions.
* Built a 2-meter FM transciever Ramsey kit, and constructed an amateur
radio packet-modem station, using BayCom software and a homemade
J-pole antenna.
* Wrote a Win31 application that reads the dynamic IP address after
dialup and writes it and the current time and date to a website using
FTP to a password-protected account.
* Wrote finger and Ping clients.
* Wrote the only _TRUE_ multi-server usenet newsreader, AllNews, which
is touted at the URL at the top of this resume. This Windows 3.1
MSVC++ (MFC) application allows the user to specify several news
servers (instead of the traditional single server), combines the
contents of these servers into a single user display, and distributes
the download requests to maximize the modem throughput. Used in
combination with a companion application, DCD, carrier loss is
detected, the modem is redialled, and downloads are restarted.