Permanent Vacations GitHub Enterprise

Hi, I’m @RalphHightower of PermanentVacation.

I freeze time; I photograph. I have 50++ years of computer programming and software development; most recently using C# and .Net. Athough I am retired from software development as a vocation, I am still active for personal projects. I have witnessed two final space flights: the US half of the Apollo/Soyuz Test Project, and Space Shuttle STS-135 Atlantis with the Final Four [CDR Chris Ferguson, PLT Doug Hurley, MS1 Sandra Magnus, MS2 Rex Walheim], as well as the final landing next to the control tower of the Shuttle Landing Facility (200 yards from the runway).

Now that I am retired, I am getting into the Arduino ecosystem.

Open Source Projects

Useful Software / Utilities

As an INTP on the Myers-Briggs Personality Assessment, my career in software development was a natural match; I have enjoyed computer programming and software development since my introduction to computer programming in my first engineering class at the University of South Carolina College of Engineering. Our class chose to use the department's Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) PDP-8 minicomputer programming in FOCAL (similar to Dartmouth BASIC). In the next class, we learned to program using the PDP-8 assembly language; which provided the basis for learning other computers instruction sets: Intel 8080/8085, DEC PDP-8 and PDP-11, Motorola 68000, and IBM 360/370. Computer high-level languages: C, C++, C# & .Net, Fortran IV, Java, PL/1, SNOBOL, Algol, Pascal, Visual Basic, Dartmouth BASIC, APL, and Delphi. Operating Systems: Windows, Unix, and Linux. Web markup languages: HTML, JavaScript, and XML.

In between my employment at NCR E&M-Columbia and SC DHEC, I had a brief tour of duty at Policy Management System (Stock Symbol: PMS). This was during the time when they were fined by the Securities and Exchange Commission because its executive and senior management booked revenue on December 32^nd. I have also worked for a few DOT-COM'S 🎆 that became DOT-BOMB'S 💣

• Affinity Technology Group (Stock Symbol: AFFI)
• HealthMagic
• Global Health Technology (bought by CBSI aka Covansys)
  

As a Software Developer at the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, I developed web applications using C# and .Net using Microsoft Visual Studio and Microsoft SQL Server and IBM DB/2 databases. I have also written Windows services to monitor the health of web applications, their associated databases, SSL certificate expiration and network connectivity to alert the appropriate teams. Besides developing Windows services to monitor web applications and their associated databases, I have developed services to extract data for SFTP file exports on a monthly basis, update SCSERV hospitals and clinics in Microsoft SQL Server with reference data from the EFIS Oracle database.

One large scale Windows application that I developed using C# and .Net for my personal use read the NASA mission schedules for the Space Shuttle missions that they published as Excel spreadsheets and created events in the calendar of Microsoft Outlook using Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Office. I thought that others would be interested in using the application also, so I published the installation executable with the source code on Microsoft’s now decommissioned source code publishing site, Codeplex; I migrated it over to GitHub although support of the application officially ended with wheelstop of Atlantis on mission STS-135 with the Final Four, CDR Chris Ferguson, PLT Doug Hurley, MS1 Sandy Magnus, and MS2 Rex Walheim.

On July 8, 2011, I was able to check off a 30 year old bucket list item: witness a Space Shuttle launch in person.. I also had the opportunity that few people have seen; I, as well as forty-nine other people by the Shuttle Landing Facility Control Tower, got to see Atlantis land for the final time on July 21, 2011. I have witnessed two final manned spaceflights in person, Atlantis and the US half of Apollo/Soyuz Test Project on July 15, 1975. Atlantis was the second final manned spaceflight that I witnessed in person.

My wife bought me a Sun SparcStation IPX at a company salvage sale so I could keep my UNIX skills active. I had Apache Web Server with OpenSSL installed from source code, and OpenLDAP also installed from source code using gcc. I installed Apache web server installed on my Windows NT Workstation as a proxy server so the SparcStation and Linux server could share internet access, first using dial-up and later with cable.

A technology company had shut down and one of the Affinity Technology Group former coworkers rescued a DEC VAXStation II/GPX from being trashed. He was moving from South Carolina to Washington (home of Microsoft) and he was going to toss it in the dumpster. He asked if I wanted it. "Sure!" That is a heavy sucka!

What can I say? I've been a big fan of HP Calculators ever since they introduced the HP-35. I finally managed to buy an HP-45. I use the Reverse Polish Notation (RPN). I cannot use an algebraic calculator. As HP said in their print advertisements, "HP has no equal."

Photography is another creative endeavor that I have enjoyed almost as long as I've used computers. My first 35mm SLR is the Canon A-1, which I still own and use is the Canon A-1, an innovative camera in 1980 with its shutter priority, aperture priority, program, stoped-down metering, and manual control; I added a few accessories, and a few lenses. I added digital to the mix with the Canon 5D Mark III and the Canon EF 24-105mm f4L.

My Y2K12 project: Photograph the year exclusively using B&W film. I rediscovered the classic look of B&W film when I photographed the final Space Shuttle landing. Since it was a pre-dawn landing, color would have been wasted. For that year, I had two photography projects:

1. Photograph the sunrise over Columbia, South Carolina from the Lake Murray dam on the equinoxes and solstices;
2. Photograph the full moon rising and setting (started in February and carried over to January).

Camera Manuals, Software, Firmware

I have bought new and used equipment from B&H and used equipment from KEH, including a complete Canon New F-1 system. KEH also does camera repairs. I have rented lenses from lensrentals.com for use at The Masters and for the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse.

GM-Canada 🇨🇦🍁 figured out how to retain OnStar functionality in 2015 when Cellular companies in Canada 🇨🇦🍁 sunsetted 2G CDMA technology in 2015. GM-USA 🇺🇸 solution is to supply a dongle that plugs into the ODB-II port.

Paula and I have had and raised Beagles since 1979 when someone dropped a Beagle off in our neighborhood, who we named Sport. We have put the obedience title, Companion Dog (CD) on Ranger and Runner. We got Writer and Rebecca from conformation breeder and they have earned Championships along with the CD obedience titles.

We have bred and raised a few litters.

South Carolina has a number of craft beer breweries.. Below is a list of the current active breweries. I have a few favorites:

1. River Rat Broad River Red Ale
2. River Rat Mourning Stout
3. Steelhands Coffee Lager
4. Palmetto Brewing Expresso
5. Palmetto Brewing GhostRider
6. Holy City Brewing Bowens Island Oyster Stout
7. Legal Remedy World Court Mocha Blonde Stout

South Carolina Breweries

I enjoy water-skiing. I learned on Lake Greenwood, South Carolina. I consider Lake Murray, South Carolina to be my "home lake" since I live nearby. My wife, Paula, and I would camp at Hamilton Branch State Park on Clark Hill Lake, South Carolina and Georgia.

Bodies of Water That I Have Skiied:

• South Carolina Lakes
  • Lake Greenwood
  • Lake Murray
  • Clark Hill Lake
• Midwestern Rivers
  • Cedar River (Cedar Rapids, Iowa)
  • Mississippi River (between the Quad Cities of Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline, Illinois)
    

RALPH HIGHTOWER
PROFESSION: Software Developer
HOBBY: Photography, water-skiing
LATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: Checked off 30 year old bucket list item (Witnessed final Space Shuttle launch and landing)
QUOTE: Freedom from Consequences is not a protected Constitutional right
LAST BOOK READ: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (several times)
MOST AMAZING EXPERIENCE: Total Solar Eclipse, Augusta 21, 2017, Chapin, South Carolina
CARS I WISH I KEPT: 1966 Chevrolet El Camino, 1966 Ford Mustang
BUCKET LIST CAMERAS: Canon F-1N (July 2013), Mamiya 645, Mamiya RB67 or RZ67, 4×5 Monorail View Camera
BUCKET LIST CAR: Chevrolet Corvette
FAVORITE CAMERA BRAND: Canon
FAVORITE (BEST) DOG BREED: Beagle
FAVORITE NON-FICTION BOOK: Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
FAVORITE SCIENCE FICTION: Dune Trilogy by Frank Herbert
FAVORITE TECHNICAL BOOK: The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick Brooks
FAVORITE TECHNICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA: The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth
FAVORITE MOVIE: Dune (2021)
FAVORITE TELEVISION SERIES: Star Trek (The Original Series, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery, Picard, Strange New Worlds)
BEST COVER SONG: American Pie by Greenwood, South Carolina musicians with blessings by Don McClain
BEST MUSIC VIDEO: Learning to Fly by Pink Floyd
FAVORITE ALBUM: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominos
GOAT ALTO SAX: Candy Dulfer
GOAT DRUMMER: Sena Doering
GOAT TENOR SAX: Clarence Clemmons
MOST VERSATILE BAND: Dire Straits
WHY I DO WHAT I DO: Software development involves creativity
PROFILE: INTP (Myers-Briggs: Introvert, iNtuitive, Thinking, Perceptive)
HIS BEER: River Rat Broad River Red Ale, Palmetto Expresso

I enjoy television 📺 series that have been rebooted or spun off from my favorite series. Below is a link to the series that have been rebooted or spun off that actually have a plot and worth watching.

Television Series Reboots and Spinoffs

Tabasco Sauce Scoville Ratings