Vern's Organizational Relations

After years with various companies, big and small, I finally took the reigns in my own hands. I partnered with a few good people with the right skills and we created wireless hotspots for recreation areas. We specialized in remote places like WiFi in RV Parks. The company was NomadISP and was the fastest growing park internet provider. It's a niche market but we quickly became the biggest provider. All that aside, it was a fun place to work! NomadISP has since been split and part of it was merged with TengoInternet and the other part was rebranded as BlueMesh.

Training plus consulting. Quite a validation of my knowledge. At LinOra I had the opportunity to train dozens of people on how to administer linux as well as other topics related to linux administration. In addition to all the training, I consulted at various locations doing linux support, database administration and web programming.

I thought I'd found the perfect job: UNIX System Administration with a healthy sprinkling of perl programming all from the comfort of my home office. Colossus was very nice. But, like lots of other companies, they had financial difficulties and had to let me go.

I've always thought of SGI, Sun and HP the Big Three in the UNIX world. Now I can say I've worked for all three. Hewlett Packard has a campus in Boise, ID, where I helped test an LTO tape drive. It was really nice working for a true Silicon Valley company in little ol' Boise. Very much an employee's company. That all changed, though, when Carly got the reins. Definitely not the same company I first started working with.

I worked at a company called Intermountain Technology Group in Boise, ID. Actually, they were called ComputerLand when I worked there. ComputerLand is not a retail store. They specialize in high volume computer purchases and the service agreements that go along with them. My job there was as the one and only UNIX Guru. That made me fairly unique in the company and that made it fun.

While I was still in the Bay Area I worked for Ultratech Stepper in San Jose, CA for a few months. Ultratech builds the steppers that are used in burning microchips. They said they control 80% of their market.

I worked at a fun, new company called Intranet Parnters in Santa Clara, CA. IP specialized in helping companies better use their internal networks. This was the first time I was part of the formation of a company. Fun. :-) Alas, they closed their doors and are no more.

I worked at a really great company called Taos Mountain software in Palo Alto, CA for about one and a half years. Taos is a collection of SysAdmins contracted out to work with several other companies. Taos was and still is a great place to work!

One assignment I had with Taos was doing SysAdmin work with Silicon Graphics. I couldn't have asked for a beter group of people to work with.

Taos also sent me on a short contract with Sun Microsystems. I have to say, I liked working for SGI much better.

I am also one of the Hungry Programmers who are working on several free projects such as Japhar and LessTif.
Stop on by my Hungry Home Page.

I worked at Cactus Computer Co. in Idaho for two years and became a part of the family. Every time I go back there I feel like Norm from Cheers because everyone yells, "Vern!"

University of Idaho Computer Science Department is where I worked as a SysAdmin and learned most of what I know about unix.

I have attended the University of Idaho on and off since 1990 working toward a degree in Computer Science.

I was the Webmaster/Editor for the ACM at the University of Idaho during the 94-95 school year. I designed the fundraising T-Shirt.

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