nerd1951.com

email: harvey.sugar@nerd1951.com

I am an embedded software and engineer specializing in telecom and networking products. I partcipate in all phases of product development from customer requirements thru deployment and maintenance. I am also a blogger, aspiring author, and a ninety-ninth percentile nerd.

I have over twenty five years of industry experience developing leading edge networking products. In software I have implemented everything from low level drivers and embedded software for eight bit microcontrollers to web-based element management systems.

I have been a representative to the ANSI T1/EI commitees, the ATM forum, and the DSL forum. I’ve worked with various carrier and safety testing labs in obtaining certification and acceptance of network equipment. I have presented at the Embedded Systems Conference on C++ programming and communications protocol software. My skills include team leadership, mentoring and process improvement.

My technical interests include networking technologies and applications, hardware/software trade-off analysis for networking equipment, software development for network elements, software design methods, and software development processes. As you can tell from my BLOG content, I spend much of my free time studying computer networking and software development. One of my colleagues went so far as to call me fanatic; meaning that as a complement, I’m sure.

What’s All This Nerd Stuff About?

I believe that engineering should be fun because bringing a sense of fun to the job leads to creative new solutions to tough technical problems. Real time software has some of the toughest technical problems to solve in the years ahead with the exponential growth in complexity and the emrgence of multi-core processors and multi-processor systems. We are going to need all the creativity we can muster to solve these problems.

So while I’m serious about producing quality products and software, I think we shouldn’t lose our sense of fun. That’s why you’ll find me poking fun at myself for being a nerd or why I’m libel to stick a CAT5 cable in my ear if someone points a camera at me.

Other Interests (Besides Computers)

Some of my other interests include hiking, back-packing, and long distance running. I’m an ultra marathoner wanna-be. I enjoy studying math, physics, and astronomy. I’m also trying to understand postmodernism and globalization and how they relate to art and culture.

I have a growing collection scifi ‘B’ movies, mostly from the fifties. I like saucer movies, bug-eyed monster movies, and early space travel movies. I find that most recent scifi with so much of the emphasis on big budget special effects just isn’t as entertaining or imaginative.

I’m also trying to live a nearly car-free lifestyle. Some call it car-free insanity. I haven’t used my car regularly for over a year. I get around using a mixture of bicycling, public transportation, and walking. Of course I always have zipcar as a backup.