About Me
Welcome to my website, which describes what I do for a living and how I do it. I guess you never know how life will work out - after almost 40 years in industry, here I am on the other side of the fence, where I'm now the customer myself.
I mostly spent my nearly 40 years working on RF systems, systems solutions, testing/verification and training. After leving the industry, I turned to freelance contract work, in systems engineering, RF systems, and test engineering. I guess you never know where these things can take you, because now I work on the other side of the fence, where I'm the customer who decides whether or not to pay for what the people where I used t work are making. Have a look at the next page, on Requirements Management.
The irony is downright fascinating, as are the ethical issues that inevitably arise from being on the other side of the same fence. It keeps me thoroughly focussed on both doing the right thing, and being seen to be doing the right thing.
After I finished up my first job of nearly 40 years, I had so many requests for help with websites that I had to learn website design as well. It is such a rapidly changing field that it really does keep the brain cells functioning. So many requests have come in over time, that the number of websites I've designed and still support has crept into double digits.
What you'll find on my website is some anecdotes about what I've done and what I've learned. The articles are intended to be readable by non-specialists and are meant to be fun, so if you're a specialist in the same things that I've done, there may be a bit much background for you - and I hope there's enough to keep you interested.
This website isn't meant to be a catalogue of everything that I've done. That catalogue belongs in my CV, not here, because much of what I've done is still confidential to the customers, so it isn't here, but the mistakes that I've learned from are fair game.
I've been fortunate to have learned much from those I've worked for, and I would like to think that in turn, I have passed on some wisdom to the next generation. Or if not wisdom, then at least a few lessons (learned by experience) of how to avoid too much embarrassment.
I'm not sure that after 47 years, my original university degree is particularly relevant. I graduated from Macquarie University (that's in Sydney, Australia, if you're not a local) in 1972, at a time when they were copying Oxbridge and every degree was an arts degree. So I'm a physicist who ended up working as an engineer. but with a B.A. degree.
The links are listed at the left of all pages. Each category expands to its own article list. I hope you have some fun reading it.