CURRICULUM VITAE - Alex Weir - last updated May 2009  - see http://www.cd3wd.com/resume/  for latest version of this document

 

 

Contact Info:   4 Brechin Drive, Marlborough, Harare, Zimbabwe. Tel  +263 912 590 516 (mobile) and +263 4 301 047 (fixed line). Email address – alexweir1949@gmail.com.  See http://www.cd3wd.com/contactus/   for current  contact info and availability.

Availability: 10 July 2009

Some Selected references: http://www.cd3wd.com/resume/ref.htm

Rate Required: Flexible

Rate History (numbers refer to jobs as listed further below):

 

(82) EUR 300/day plus EUR 100/day per diem allowance while onsite

(78) GBP 315/day, 30 days per month, plus USD 2500/month accommodation allowance

(76) US$ 125/day

(72) US$ 430/day

(71) Euro 350/day + per diem

(70) Euro 350/day + per diem

(65) US$ 350/day + per diem

(64) US$ 20/hour

(62) GBP 13.50 /hour

(58) Euro 10/hour

(54) US$ 74/hour

(53) Euro 58/hour

(52) GBP 350/day + GBP 99/day subsistence + airfare

(50) DM 120/hour

(48) DM 130/hour

(46)    DM 92/hour

(44) DM 880/day

(43) NLG 100/hour

(41)    GBP 34/hour

(38) USD 40/hour

(36) DM 90/hour

(34) US$ 20/hour

(23) US$ 45/hour plus hotel

(22) DM 80/hour

(20) DM 70/hour

(18) GBP 18/hour

(17) GBP 20/hour

 

 

Summary:  Contract Computer Software Developer, Senior Analyst/ Programmer, Business Analyst, Systems Analyst.  Also Mechanical Engineer, Agricultural Engineer, Industrial Manager, Educator (University Lecturer), Trainer, Salesman, Export Promotion Consultant, Management Consultant.  Experience in both Public and Private Sector, in UK, Europe, Eastern Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia, and South America (I have worked in 19 countries).

 

In Computer Software, I specialize in very high-quality and very high-speed building of greenfield systems or debugging, maintaining and fixing of existing systems, regardless of their original build quality.  The high speed with which I operate in no way reduces the high quality to which I work or the high system reliability which I incorporate.   Consistently top of class throughout school and university, extrovert gregarious personality, excellent communicator, high level of drive and energy, high level of acquired business, technical and people-oriented wisdom. I have an IQ of 144, which means I am a pretty slick operator without having the negatives caused by having an IQ which is too high.  Rapid learner, intuitive grasp of new tools and technology.

 

I tend to work commercially on average 6 months per year and to run my own philanthropic projects the rest of the time (often from my home base in Zimbabwe, Africa) (but I can commit to projects or jobs lasting 12 months or longer).  These projects are mainly concerned with 3rd World Development. Compared with contract programmers who work 12 months per year my experience may sometimes look superficial – do not be deceived – I am a highly experienced and case-hardened software designer and developer with a myriad of skills, experience, and capabilities.  I can also compete with 23-year-olds on energy levels, stamina and work output.  Any skills deficit is eliminated rapidly on-the-fly during the Project. 

 

Nationality: full UK and EU Citizen, full UK Passport.

DOB : 4 January 1949, Kilmarnock, Scotland, UK.

Marital Status: Married (2nd time), 2 sons, both grown up.

 

 

C#

18 months

SQL, T-SQL, PL/SQL, PGLSQL

11 years

Postgresql 8.2

6 weeks

ASP.NET 2.0 (C#) and 3.5 (C#)

9 months

Visual Basic (VB, VB4, VB5, VB6)

10 years

MSSQL (Sql Server – 6.5, 7, 2000 and 2008)

12 years

ASP 3.0

3 months

Oracle 8, 10G and PLSQL

10 months

Access

6 years

XML

4 weeks

.net (dot net)

12 months

VB.NET

6 weeks

Web database systems

2 years

HTML

6 years

PL /SQL

6 months

OOD

10 years

ADO

6 years

COM

3 months

WINNT

10 years

WinXp

5 years

Vista

6 months

Delphi

3 months

Client /Server

12 years

 

 

Contract Analyst/Programming

12 years

Business Analysis

15 years

Systems Analysis and Database Design

15 years

 

 

MIS

3 years

Data Warehousing

6 months

Reporting

6 months

EDI

6 months

 

 

English

Native

German

Fluent

French

Fluent

Russian

Basic

Swahili

Basic

Arabic

Basic

BSC Mechanical Engineering

UMIST Manchester UK 1970

Mphil Engineering and Economics

Edinburgh University UK 1979

 

 

Mechanical Engineer (Aero Engines) and Engineering Undergraduate Student – Glasgow and Manchester UK

1966-1970

Postgraduate Student – Mphil – Edinburgh UK

1970-1972

Agricultural Engineer and University Lecturer – Tanzania

1973-1979

Salesman (reprographic machinery) – London

1980

Maintenance Engineer III – Saudi Arabia

1981

Mechanical Engineer (NC Machine Tools) – London

1982 -1986

Business Graphics Consultant – London

1987-1988

Export Promotion Consultant – International

1989-1990

Computer Programmer and  Software Developer

1990-present

 

 

UK

11 years

Tanzania

6 years

Germany

3 years

Belgium

5 months

Netherlands

5 months

Denmark

4 months

Saudi Arabia

1 year

India

3 months

Brazil

1month

Israel

1 week

Cambodia

2 weeks

Rwanda

4 months

Malawi

1 week

Zimbabwe

4 years

France

1 month

Romania

1 week

Tunisia

4 months

Uganda

4 months

Iraq

3 months

Kenya

2 months

Guinea Conakry

6 months

Botswana

3 months

 

Work List:

 

(82) 2009/03 – 2009/07 – Team Leader and Software Developer, European Commission Project, Gaborone, Botswana.  Oracle 10g and ASP.NET 3.5 (C#) – Design, build, install, train an online web database system for coordination of Aid Donors and Recipient Government (Botswana).  A Management Information System with Tabular and Graphic reporting and many advanced features. Done to high quality in record time to tight deadlines.  Incorporated into the Project the creation of a Program Generator in the mould of Ironspeed or CodeCharge.  Referee: Vincent Vire, European Commission, Gaborone. Vincent.vire@ec.europa.eu

 

(81) 2008/10 – 2009/02 – Conceptualized, designed, promoted, programmed, tested and implemented www.ec3wd.com/ - Third World E-Commerce Systems – work done from Harare, Zimbabwe.  In C#, Sql Server 2008, and ASP.NET 3.5.  This was and is a free philanthropic project to stimulate economic activity in the 3rd world.

 

(80) 2008/04 – Presented paper on ‘Electronic Banking Systems for the Destruction of Poverty’ – www.aitecafrica.com Banking Technology Conference – Nairobi, Kenya. (www.cd3wd.com/SPS/ )

 

(79) 2008/01 – 2008/06 – Marketing global fraud-proof presidential/parliamentary election/voting system in Kenya and Rwanda (www.cd3wd.com/SEEV )

 

(78) – 2007/06 – 2007/12 – Sql Database Programmer – Rio Tinto Iron Ore, Conakry, Guinea, West Africa.  ASP.NET 2.0 (C#), Sql Server 2000.  Business analysis, systems analysis, database design, programming, and configuration - creating web database systems for use on 2-3 sites with relatively low bandwidth and slow response times – Health and Safety database, Employee Database, Flights control database, Capital Expenditure Authorization and Monitoring System (Capex), plus design of an Integrated Purchasing and Stock Control System (IPIS).  In a mixed English- and French-speaking environment.  Created and used innovative techniques to enhance standard Microsoft capability to produce RAD Applications.  Reference – Adriaan Riksen –adriaan.riksen@gmail.com.  Also Gustavo Gomez (gus.gomes@riotinto.com), Gary Vallerius (gary.vallerius@riotinto.com), Rozey Abbott (rozey.abbott@riotinto.com) - Rio Tinto HQ, Paddington, London, UK. Through Computer Futures (Ryan Speed and Alan Furley).

 

(77) 2007/03 – speaker, CTO conference – African E-Government Forum, Accra, Ghana – www.cd3wd.com/SEEV/ - ‘Low-cost tamper-proof voting system for the 3rd world’.

 

(76) 2007/02 – 2007/03 – www.prideafrica.com - Business Analyst, Systems Analyst and Programmer – www.cd3wd.com/sfmss/ -  designing and building system for structured sms interaction with robot system for management of 20,000 smallscale farmers growing sunflower in Western Kenya.  Sms gateway, interface with e-banking systems. In Postgresql functions pglsql to run under Linux with Java front-end (note that Postgressql functions programming is very much like Oracle).

 

(75) 2007/02 – speaker, www.aitecafrica.com conference – Banking the Unbanked – Nairobi, Kenya – on low-cost highly-secure mobile banking solution – www.cd3wd.com/SPS/

 

(74)  2006/09 - 2006/12 – in UK, Sweden, Denmark and Belgium promoting my low-cost tamper-proof voting system for the 3rd world (www.cd3wd.com/SEEV/) with various international organizations.

 

(73) 2005/10 - 2006/08 – writing classes and components in C# - while at home in Harare Zimbabwe. Also working on my www.cd3wd.com/CD3WD/ 3rd world wikipedia product/service; also developing 3 innovative SMS mobile telephone-based products – e-banking (www.cd3wd.com/SPS/), e-voting (www.cd3wd.com/SEEV/) and e-messaging (www.cd3wd.com/SAM/ ). Also writing a bunch of products in C# for free dissemination through www.download.com (find at http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Adownload.com+%22weir+consultants%22+%28C%23+OR+encryption+OR+text+search%29&btnG=Search )

(72)  2005/07 - 2005/09 – Database Adviser, IFES (Washington DC)  in Baghdad Iraq.  DBA and sole Programmer for National Electoral Register.  C#, VB6, T-SQL, Stored Procedures.  Built systems for data input, storage and output and print in Arabic, with some Kurdish script work also. Langdon Miller lmiller@ifes.org, Darren Nance; www.ifes.org

 

(71) April 2005 – IT Consultant, EU Project, Statistics Office Lithuania – for Icon Institute, Koeln, Germany.  One of 3 external IT Experts advising Lithuania Statistics Office on aspects of their program of automation.  My area mainly E-questionnaires, Metadata, and data capture using handheld computers . 20 days work over 6 months.  Silke Rautenbasch and Barbara Schott  www.icon-institute.de . 

 

(70) November 2004 – March 2005 – Analyst Programmer, EU Project, Tunisia – for Icon Institute, Koeln, Germany for EU Commission. MIS System to assist insurance sector regulatory body – automation of data capture, ETL, RDBMS data storage, automatic reporting to HTML reporting files.  Sole programmer with 80% role in system architecture and design. System in VB6 with Sql Server 2000 Database, IIS Intranet, VPN network. Trilingual System - Data storage, display and input in Arabic script, French and English.  4 missions, 75 man-days. Communication in French with also conversational Arabic. Mike Pfister. Mike.pfister@icon-institute.de  and pfistermike@hotmail.com

 

(69) August 2004 – writing C# Classes for ADO.NET (Database), parameter reading, error logging and other functionality for the creation of client/server, n-tier, web database, and  webservice systems in C#.NET.

 

(68) August 2004 – October 2004 – Consultant – Business and Technical Advice to Cyberplex Zimbabwe, the leading Zimbabwean Web Design, Web Database and E-Commerce Company – Ref: Roy Steiner - tel +263 4 777 160 – www.Cyberplexafrica.com

 

(67) July 2004 – Consultant -Design of Medical Insurance System for Rwanda Military – Alphasoft Kigali. Reference Richard Nzamwita rnzamwita@yahoo.fr and tel +25008518465.

 

(66) May 2004 – Developed tool for automatic production of screens from underlying database, plus database table-driven screen positions, labels etc..  Used for a PC Maintenance system in VB6 and Access database for Iplex Technologies Harare. Technique can be used equally easily with SQL Server, Oracle etc.. Ref: Farid Husein fareed@iplex.co.zw or iplex@hotmail.com tel: +2634781396.

 

(65) April 2004 – June 2005 – Analyst Programmer for a National Petroleum Management Information System,  Uganda.  For Petroleum Development Consultants London and World Bank.  In VB6 with Access 2000 database.  An MIS system with 6 business areas; among other work, created innovative database-driven automatic charting system, with  automatic production of 250+ dynamic MIS Charts and 350+ reports. Sole IT person on the project.  4 missions, 50 man-days. davidaron@pdc.uk.com. www.pdc.uk.com

 

(64) February 2004 - Analyst Programmer for local Software House Alphasoft sarl Kigali Rwanda. Conceptualised, designed and programmed a highly innovative Database Security System to protect a Banking Application in Visual Basic 6 and Sql Server 2000.  This technology is applicable also to conventional Western Banking Systems and any/all sensitive data, and is superior to C2 security measures. All communication  was in French language.  Reference Richard Nzamwita rnzamwita@yahoo.fr and tel +25008518465.

 

(63) Instructor and Software Developer, National Electoral Commission, Kigali, Rwanda Africa for Geekcorps USA, , Academy for Educational Development, IESC and USAID (as volunteer) – November 2003 – December 2003.  In 6 weeks built complete system in VB6 and Sql Server 2000, with 500k Stored procedures, 200k VB classes, and 200k VB forms, 31 menu options plus 45 reports.  System has many smart features, including DTP-standard printing and instant user-controlled reporting without programming.  And taught 3 NEC staff who were primarily System Administrators; this teaching was  done totally in French and Swahili languages. Reference Mr Fiacre Mutabaruka, (fiamut@gmail.com)  NEC and Neil Bibbins, Geekcorps tel +1 413 664 0030 x 15,  neil@geekcorps.org  -  http://www.geekcorps.org/default.asp?l1i=1&l2i=7&l3i=440

 

(62)  Unisys Milton Keynes UK,  October 2003 – Contract Operator, Global PC Discovery Project. In addition to normal operational duties, conceived, programmed and implemented reporting system in VB6 and Access Database on progress of discovery activities.  Reference: Zan Sayani or Keith Moore, Unisys, +44 1908 212 251, and Nathan Ross, Logistics International.

 

(61) One day project for NRI, East Maldon, UK – mastering of HTML and PDF information onto CD for dissemination. In VB6 and Access Database September 2003.

 

(60) Work converting and mastering a CD of 3rd world development technologies – CD3WD - a 4 week project – my private initiative.  Product passed on to World Vision UK , Interserve and other bodies active in 3rd world development activities.  CD contains 800 books on all aspects of 3rd world development. www.cd3wd.com

 

(59) Canteen Management system for Innscor/Servcor in Zimbabwe.  In ASP, VB6 and Access Database.

 

(58) December 2002 – Jan 2003 – Analyst Programmer for http://www.uptoyou.com in Chamonix France - a site associated with http://www.easyjet.com - which organizes and sells ski holidays.  VB6 Com Object, ASP 3.0, SQL Server 2000, Visual Source Safe , Visual Studio. Maintaining, enhancing and debugging existing site.  Existing system had been mis-designed and effectively existed at an 80% state of perfection – I made my task to bring the system up to 90-95% perfection.

 

(57) September  – December 2002 – HTML work on expansion and enhancement of website http://www.suzannewhite.com.  Also creation of  global online issue voting system and various other asp web database systems.

 

(56)   August 2002 – Consultancy to Software House in Brasov, Romania – advice on Project Management and  Marketing.  Refence dan@itprovision.com www.itprovision.com

 

 (55) June2001 – July 2002 – Various voluntary and self-training Projects – Self Training on Dot Net (.Net), VB.NET, XML, SQL Server 2000 etc. – writing a collection of classes for use when building Dot Net Systems.  Writing an ecommerce web database system in ASP (Project X) and an online email and phone address redirection system (Xref). Writing a Shareware Rapid Text Search Utility – Wfindstr.exe.  Also a Shareware high level encryption utility and a Word-created -htm processing utility to slim down the size of the html output file.  Zimbabwe export promotion actitivities.  Promotion of Humaninfo Technical Encyclopedia CD’s for 3rd world development.  Editing and dissemination of a high quality practical business,  industry and commerce  shareware CD for the 3rd world.  Remastering of 13 Megabytes of Text and 4000 .tiff file diagrams to an HTML system for Volunteers for International Technical  Assistance (VITA), Virginia, USA – Village Technology Handbook and other related info for 3rd World Development.   Mastering of a 3rd world info system with data on electronic and paper publications by the major players in 3rd world development technical info, i.e. CTA, NRI, Humaninfo, ITDG, GTZ, VITA, SKAT, KIT  etc..  Relaunching CPS – a database of 3rd world development consultants.  Launching GPS – a text-based global database of companies, products and services utilising rapid text search utilities.

 

(54) January 2001 – May 2001 – Data Architect for Maersk Copenhagen through Tanning.  Performed complete Data Mart project in 17 weeks.  Business analysis,  Database design, programming of loading module to read, import and load 8 text file formats, programming of reporting direct to HTML under IIS (80 reports written).  In Oracle 8.1.7 on WinNT with a VB6 Enterprise application running as a service.  Extensive use of PL/SQL Stored Procedures.  Achieved to spec on time on budget.  Reference : Michael Jul Hansen (Maersk). Carsten Wievel (Maersk). Through Progressive Computer Recruitment. www.tanning.com

 

(53) November 2000 -December 2000 – A/P with RSLCom.be - a telecoms company in Brussels Belgium.  Working on telecoms billing system – SQLServer 6.5  on Dec Alpha with VB6 programs.  Largely an operations-type job.  Some development work involved in the porting of data to a Sybase system and in MIS reporting,  Through Computer Futures.

 

(52)    October 2000 – Programming Consultant to DFID (UK Government) through Empower Dynamics Consulting in Kigali, Rwanda, Africa, on Rwandese Government Integrated Payroll and Human Relations System Project. 5 days work – assessing competence of system under construction, recommending improvements in programming techniques, and supplying and working in of sample code segments.   VB6 and Sql Server 7 - Supplied  8 page report before departure.  Reference :  james.emmett@empdyna.com . www.empdyna.com

 

(51)   September 2000 – Appropriate Technlogy Consultant to ZOA (Netherlands Refugee Care), Poipet, Cambodia – 9 days onsite assessing existing technologies and scope for additional production processes.  This was a non-programming engineering-type assignment.  Reference : Mike Fennema zoappt@ksc.th.com .

 

(50) January 2000 – July 2000 – A/P with Compaq Computers, Munich, Germany.   VB6 and Sql Server 6.5, Client/Server.  Programming an NT-Admin type-system for dissemination of 55 Applications (comprising 2.5 Gigabytes) to 130+ Servers throughout Compaq Europe, Middle East and Africa which in turn fed 20000+ desktop PC’s.  Picked up existing 700k code, reworked where necessary, wrote additional modules, built automatic testing system whereby we simulated 1 year operation in 6 weeks.   Redesigned operational methodology to minimise bandwidth hit and built in several intelligent features.  Extensive use of fault-tolerant concepts and in general an OOD programming technique to produce an industrial-strength package. 

Reference : Kevin Mahoney – tel 00 49 89 9392 2410 kev.mahoney@yahoo.co.uk  and James Turner, Certes Recruitment – tel 00 44 121 712 6657/ 6681 - james.turner@certes.co.uk

 

(49) October 1999 -January 2000 – developing programming tools and self-training at home office in Zimbabwe Africa.  Main product was an advanced version of VB6 Wizard using disconnected ADO suitable for rapid system prototyping and construction for Sql Server, Oracle or Access Client/Server or Multi-Tier Systems.  Complete with sophisticated rights system, selective menu item display, sorting, filters, obligatory fields, reporting with totals etc.  Creating own web page system to document Appropriate Technology, Consultancy and other work done 1972 through present.   Creating web database system for Technical Cooperation Experts Database project.  Porting some old Clipper systems to VB with Sql Server.

 

(48)  July-September 1999 – A/P Essen Germany – VB6 & Sql Server 7 - Data Warehousing project thru German Consulting Firm (RWE/Mitoc) for the client, an international telecoms company.  Importing data to 50 Sql Server 7 tables and 44 shadow tables from 3 families of 45 different data format text files, exports from 3 different computer systems (Ingres and Oracle).  Formats were too complex for use of simple Sql Server DTS methods.  Complete with audit trail triggers for update and delete. Set up for weekly/periodic incremental imports.  Automatic allocation of industry sector to 70% of companies by automatic processing of company name.  Part of a 3 man team, other team members handling reporting and editing using Access 97 with the Sql Server tables.  Done in 490 man-hours over 9 weeks to tight deadlines.  3.5 Meg VB6 Code, including 75 classes; 3.3 Meg Sql Script; extensive use of server side stored procedures, OOD, automatic code generation, error trapping and logging, and thin client techniques.  Performed last 48 hours offshore from Home Office in Zimbabwe.  Reference : Frank.Wendiggensen@mitoc.de www.mitoc.de

 

(47)  April -June 1999 – on holiday in Zimbabwe – writing VB OOD classes and dll’s for high level encryption, for array sorting and for code generation of VB classes for database handling.  The last of these mini-projects can typically save 5-10 days programming per project, and also eliminate coding errors.  Also writing an automatic-email-based database search system, in VB5 Enterprise with Sql Server 6.5 database and RDO.

 

(46) Jan – March 1999 – Analyst/Programmer, VB6, Sql Server 7, VB5, Oracle 8 (under Unix), ADO and RDO for DASA (Daimler Chrysler Aerospace) Munich Germany.  Working as part of a team of 1 perm + 2 temp programmers producing modules for an EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) system to link DASA with their suppliers.  Utilising automatic internet email and automatic FTP. This was actually 2 separate projects in 10 weeks.  Produced 1 Megabyte code in 6.5 weeks on the EDI Project.  Heavily Object Oriented (OOD).  Wrote simulation code to test my modules. Many of my classes were also used by the Project Leader.  Used also Sybase Data Architect.  Reference: Klaus Steltzl –tel 00 49 89 607 21662 and Anju Handa, Computer Futures London – tel 00 44 171 446 6565 www.dasa.de

 

(44) August 98 – October 98 – Analyst/Programmer (A/P),  VB5, ADO, Access database for Cambridge Technology Partners Inc Frankfurt/Darmstadt Germany.  Working as part of a team of 8 perm + 4 temp programmers producing a business system for Deutsche Post with 100 screens for the selling of Financial Products in 1300 branches throughout Germany.  With 3-tier architecture, an Oracle backend and utilsing ICL Riposte middleware.  Heavily OOD with 60 Active X dll’s.   In a QA environment with coding standard adherence.  Completed in 13 weeks from start including documentation and User Acceptance Testing.  The 100 screens are effectively dynamically painted from local Access Database and the system utilises an innovative events-driven architecture designed and developed by members of the Team. Reference: Parity Eurosoft Germany – Philip Sanner –tel 00 (49) 69 170 8615.

 

(43) February 98 – July 98 – A/P VB5, RDO, SQL Server 6.5 for Digital/Compaq Nijmegen Netherlands.  Business Analysis, Docu, Programming, Data Translation and Go-Live of business system for testing and routing of suspect and faulty hard drives for Digital Europewide.  To replace an RDB system on Dec Vax.  Utilised Client/Server architecture with extensive use of OOD and VB Classes, and also a high useage of Thin Client techniques – namely Server-side Stored Procedures, called with passed parameters thru VB5 RDO, to provide solidity, reliability and high performance.  Project also involved reading and printing of barcodes to Intermech and Zebra barcode printers – VB Active Barcode components were used, also proprietry Intermec and Zebra programming scripting languages in order to get high quality rapid output printing.

 

Also with 2 of Digital’s permanent employees designed and built an automated email data warehousing system which shadowed a Dec Vax business system thru nightly data textfile dumps and processing into SQL Server, with automated reporting and automated emailing of these reports.  Using VB5, RDO, SQL Server 6.5, MAPI, MS Exchange, and local Access Database.  Released at end of 3+2 month extension because Digital were under pressure from Compaq to shed all non-mission-critical contractors.  Reference: Paul Thijsson paul.thijsson@compaq.com or Geer Leenders geer.leenders@compaq.com or Patrick McGovern (p.mcgovern@db-central.com)   tel 00 (31) 24 352 9010 or Parity Eurosoft Netherlands

 

(42) January 98 – 2nd project for Adore Gold Harare Zimbabwe (see item(39) below).  Property sales system for Low Cost Housing Project assisted by USAID.  To replace original system written in Cobol.  In VB5, DAO, Access Database.  Project included data importation.

 

(41) October 97 - December 97 - A/P VB5, DAO, Access Database with LANT NV, Leuven, Belgium.  Maintaining and Enhancing existing VB5/Access Database Application for Machine Language Translation company. Reference: paul.busse@lant.be , tel (32) 16 40 51 40 Paul Busse or Herman Caeyers.  Agency was FdiGroup/Longueville. www.lant.be

 

(40) October 97 - A/P VB5 Enterprise, RDO, MS SQL Server 6.5 – for Trustserve Software Harare Zimbabwe  - designed and created system for insurance of retail credit hire purchase contracts.  85% of work done in 5.5 days – this was a cooperative program-and-train venture with Trustserve.  Reference: Craig Jones – craig_k_jones@hotmail.com

 

(39) September 97 - A/P with Adore Gold Harare Zimbabwe - designed and created a system in VB5, DAO, Access Database for management of 1300 savings accounts for a Building Society Operation.  Package done in 15 hours; data conversion module (from 1300 messy excel spreadsheets) took another 12 hours.

 

(38) August 97 - A/P with Mashonaland Holdings, Harare Zimbabwe - VB5 Enterprise, RDO, MS SQL Server 6.5, Win-CGI VB routines - a Web Database  (Reilly Website) Project for selling of electric motors.  4 VB Modules written and revised after customer testing in 52 hours - Internet exe, control panel, sales managers module, and exe for auto import from Tetra (Unix) accounting package. Reference: Farid Hussein, tel +263 4 781 396.

 

(54) June 97 - August 97 - A/P with Software Associates,  Harare Zimbabwe - VB5 Enterprise, RDO, SQL Server 6.5 job creating automated search system for credit checking of individuals and companies.  I was technical team leader of 3 other programmers.  Wrote most of programs for searching, data entry and for the data translation of very dirty data from an existing Dataease system.  Created innovative search algorithms using fuzzy logic and soundalike technology.  Technically a very interesting project.  Done in 770 hours over 11 weeks, working 6.5 days per week, 11 hours per day.   Fixed Price Contract.  Reference: Steve Newman aegis@id.co.zw

 

(36)  March - June 1997 - A/P with Hoechst AG Frankfurt Germany thru InlineKpg agency. Internet/ VB5 Enterprise , RDO, SQL Server 6.5, Macrofirm IdleYIsapi dll's for Microsoft Internet Server (IIS), Microsoft Index Server (MIS) - a text search internet project with Web Database logon and client billing incorporated. Had not worked with Microsoft Index Server or IdleYIsapi prior to this project.  This was a tight-budget project  – I completed the work inside 8 weeks, including business analysis.  Reference: Mrs Ulrike Augustin or Mirko Reimat, email: world@hiserv.de ,  tel: 00(49)69 305 168 47.  www.hiserv.de

 

(35)                  February 97 - private project with a programmer colleague in Florida USA - Web Database creation.  Did literature search (web, textbooks, magazines), considered Cold Fusion, Visual Interdev, installed and tested Intrabuilder and Website Plus, finally, because packages gave insufficient power, wrote generic windows CGI program in Visual Basic to interact with any backend system (e.g. VB, Delphi, or any other Windows language) on any Windows NT  Server or Workstation with Website+ installed.  Reference: Philncyn@netscape.net .

 

(34) December 96 - learn and teach project to enable programming team to build Tobacco Sales System from scratch using VB4 Enterprise, RDO, MS SQL Server 6.5.  Did literature search, studied 2 books on the techniques available, set up examples using RDO (Remote Data Objects) technique and Stored Procedures to effect add, modify, view and delete records in the various tables on SQL Server.  Designed sample tables.  Conducted training course and produced video for later reference.  For Archangel Systems Harare Zimbabwe. Reference: Andrew Cranswick andrew@mweb.co.zw .

 

(33) Sep 96 - Dec 96 - design and build automated internet email search database system for identification of products and services, with searching and data updating done through standard-format emails.  In Delphi ver 1 and Visual Basic 3.  3 modules were built - email pop3 and smtp module utilising Devsoft Delphi dll's; database search and maintenance module in Delphi with Paradox 5 tables; plus a VB3 DDE module to drive Delrina Winfax Pro fax server.  For Samara Systems Harare Zimbabwe.

 

 

August 93 - August 96 - various projects including: (note all are in Clipper 87 multiuser unless otherwise stated, and are fixed-price contracts performed in Zimbabwe unless otherwise stated):

 

(23) Sep 94 - Oct 94 - Systems Analyst, World Bank/African Development Bank - Tanzania Livestock Marketing Project, Dar es Salaam (through Carl Bros/Danagro, Copenhagen).   To improve physical data capture techniques, computer data capture, data processing and reporting for 3 major and additional cattle markets throughout Tanzania, in order to give cattle buyers and sellers better information on which to base their decision-making. Inherited 2 disparate systems in Lotus Symphony and Enable. Converted 5 years' data from 3 sites from spreadsheets and disconnected databases into a single database system in Clipper 87; analysed data using Harvard Graphics 2.3.  Discovered that despite daily and seasonal variations, prices and weights could be well correlated by a log-log relationship; wrote software to process best-fit, reporting, and storage; made extensive practical recommendations to reduce sample sizes required, increase accuracy, and present data in understandable format. Reference: Danagro Adviser Copenhagen,  tel (45) 43 43 45 90 attn Verner Jensen. vjedan@carlbro.dk  or raymond.colley@carlbro.com  or www.carlbro.com

 

(22) Mar 93 - Jul 93  - Analyst/Programmer, Dell Computers Frankfurt Germany.  Performed most of the programming to integrate a new remote selling operation (Dellware) utilising EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) into the existing Product Selection and Sales System.  This linked the business partner's Dec Vax system with Dell's Clipper 87 system through an IBM VAN, PCExpedite and Perwill.  Dell recalled me after my success in 1992 on another project.  In Clipper 87 multiuser.  Communication in English and German.  Reference : www.dell.de

 

(21) Dec 92 - Feb 92 - A/P Belina Computers Bulawayo Zimbabwe. Design and create a payroll package from scratch in Clarion 2.1, a language in which I had not programmed before.  Work done in 12 weeks.  I designed the data structures to be future-proofed against any and all Domain changes to the payroll processing requirements without reprogramming.  An enhanced form of that product is still in use and still on sale in 2003.

                                                                           

(13) Mar 90 - Oct 90 – Export Promotion Consultant to UK Developing Countries Trade Agency on Software  from India to EU.  2 field trips to India of 4 weeks each.  Reference: DECTA, 66 Cannon St, London and EAG Consultants London.

 

(11) Feb 89 - Oct 89 – Export Promotion Consultant - export promotion, medical equipment sector, Brazil and India for EU.  Field trips 4 weeks each country.  For Deva Consultants Coventry UK.

 

(9) Feb 87 - Nov 88 - various temporary/freelance data entry, data analysis, programming (in Clipper 87) and graphics production jobs for a wide variety of clients in London, including Bain & Co Management Consultants and Ambrosetti Management Consultants.  Best job was a 4 week Harvard Graphics assignment (in colour) for a major London-based Market Research company producing 300 graphs for a US$ 0.4 million study for one of the top 10 Global Pharmaceutical Companies.  I had total creative input on graphics; as the client said:  'the graphs are so good they don’t actually need any written comment!'.

 

(8) Feb 82 - Jan 87 – NC Service Liaison Engineer then Service Manager Machine Tools for B Elliot plc/Press & Shear Machinery London UK.  Applied intelligence, computerisation and hard work to improve service levels, company image, machine tool sales and profitability. Our range of products were Strippit Sheet Metal Hole Punching (USA) , Peddinghaus Structural Steel Drilling Lines (Germany) , and Promecam Sheet Metal Press Brakes (France).  Reference: tel +44 208 965 6535

 

(7) Jan 81 - Jan 82 - Maintenance Engineer III ARAMCO Dharan Saudi Arabia, dept MRPD/MMD - worked on designing physical plant inventory systems and computerizing the data input. IBM Mainframe TSO, SPF and Mark IV. Advised by Don McArthur  (head of MRPD) that I 'would be on the board of directors one day' (I never made it).  Reference: PESACO agency and ARAMCO, Dharan.

 

(6) Jan 80 - Dec 80 - Copier Salesman, Roneo Alcatel, London UK.  As a sideline wrote an innovative computer program for Sinclair ZX81 to enable complex double-sided printing and collating of 150+ page documents using 20-bin offset litho highspeed sorter.

 

(5) Jul 79 - Sep 79 – Mechanical Engineer & Appropriate Technology Specialist, USAID/Tanzania Govt Arusha Integrated Dev Project; thru DAI Inc, Washington, USA. Reference:  www.dai.com

 

(4)  Jan 73 - Dec 78 – Agricultural Engineer Small Farmer Technology Specialist, University of Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, Tanzania.  Built prototype equipment: threshers, winnowers, grain mills, water pumps, windmills, sugar cane crushers; utilising man power, animal power, windpower, tractor power.  Sold 2 of my design of manpowered irrigation pumps to UNICEF and one of my pumps made a photo in Newsweek Magazine (www.cd3wd.com/CD3WD_40/CD3WD/APPRTECH/PEDALPWR/EN/PP910.HTM ).  Did computer simulation of windspeed analysis, windmill performance and water pump characteristics using HP and TI programmable calculators. 1998 I documented most of the content of my work during those years on my website and on my 3rd world development information initiative www.cd3wd.com

 

(3) 70 - 72 - MPhil Student, Edinburgh University UK – ‘Appropriate Technologies for Less Developed Countries’ - a combination of economics and engineering; equipment design plus work on appropriate capital intensity for workplaces.  Did 10-week field trip in Idi Amin's Uganda. Failed to assassinate Idi Amin and Jean-Paul Bokassa in a jeep in Central Kampala. Organised Edinburgh University’s first 3rd World Film Festival. Gordon Brown offered to help me get into politics.  I refused (politely).

 

(2) 67 - 70 - BSc Mechanical Engineering Student UMIST Manchester UK.  Consistently top of class.  Also Chairman of Mechanical Engineering Society and Third World Society, and Academic Vice President, Students Union.  Got married and became father at end of 2nd year; attained BSc (Hons 2.1) despite extra-curricular activities.

 

(1) 66 - 70 - Student Apprentice Mechanical Engineer, Rolls Royce Aero Engines, Glasgow UK.  Employee ref S4420. This was a 1-3-0 sandwich system.  I was destined for top management but went instead into the Aid and Development Business for idealistic reasons.  I learned a lot about quality in this job.

 

(0) 1954 – 1965 - Schooling at Kilmaurs Primary School, Stewarton High School, Kilmarnock Academy and Dingwall Academy – all State-run Day Schools. Consistently Top of Class.  Studied piano at Moscow (Ayrshire) and Kilmarnock.