James Kelly

This is the long version of my resume. If you’d like, you can see a more traditional resume here.

I have been working in the technology field professionally since 1990. My experience is primarily in programming, networking, databases, Internet, security, and hardware. Most of my software/hardware experience is with Microsoft/PCs, but I do have experience with Linux, and Mac.

I’ve been working with Internet technologies since 1997 and am fluent with PHP/Apache, IIS, ASP.NET, Cold Fusion, MS SQL Server, and MYSQL.

I am looking for a position with a mid-size to large company offering plenty of room for growth which will help me to achieve my certification and professional goals. I would consider a smaller company if the offer was right. I am currently located in Southeast Washington State, and have no aversion to relocating or working from home.

I work well alone and within groups, I have some marketing background with Internet marketing concepts (traffic development and conversion). I am an effective communicator and my writing skills are more than adequate.

My chief asset is the ability to dissect problems and create viable solutions leveraging my cross pollination of skills.

If you would be interested in speaking with me more, you can call me at 509-547-8253, or contact me through this web site.

During my time with the employers you will find listed here, I had the opportunity to work with and for many other companies through my various employers. Some larger companies I’ve worked with:

• Battelle (Pacific Northwest National Laboratories)
• The Department of Energy
• BNFL (British Nuclear Fuels Ltd.)
• Lockheed Martin

Before 1994 I worked for BCSR (Boeing Computer Services Richland) a division of Boeing (the airplane manufacturers), which was a former contractor working for the Department of Energy at Hanford, Washington. My duties for BCSR was as an assistant administrator working in a heterogeneous UNIX network consisting of computers like DEC Alpha’s, HP Mini’s, Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, several main-frames, and one outdated Cray. The main reason that I don’t include this experience is because I feel that many of the talents it took to operate in this environment are duplicated in the experiences below.

Phone: 866-404-3946

Buzzy Planet, Inc. is primarily an Internet marketing company. They own several web properties marketing products from collector’s items and health products to information products.

Buzzy Planet also develops solutions for a small client base and hosts some of their sites also doing marketing for them when approached.

I was responsible for:

• Establishing marketing systems from operating procedures to the technology behind the systems including:
  • Visitor tracking
  • Email and customer information collection
  • Follow-up with automatic targeted email delivery
• Creating solutions for internal problems and client challenges related to the Internet
• Setting up and managing pay per click campaigns
• Security and customer information protection
• PHP, XHTML, CSS, ASP.NET, MS SQL, MYSQL development
• DNS, backup solutions, website connectivity and hosting

I helped to create Buzzy Planet and it is definitely on the road to success. My motivation for leaving Buzzy Planet is due primarily to personal issues concerning my family. It is a small company that, while growing, I simply can’t wait for. I have a wonderful wife, who I’ve been married to for 11 years, and three kids to think about and the related concerns are growing with time. If my situation were different, I’d be perfectly happy staying on for an indefinite period of time because I find the challenges related to what they do exhilarating.

MEIER Enterprises, Inc. is an engineering company located in Kennewick, Washington with an employee base of about 40 - 50 people. Most of the employees are AutoCAD designers, with the remaining employees consisting of engineers (covering most disciplines), architects, and office management personnel.

MEIER wanted to break into the Internet market and “didn’t know how”. So I was brought on with the idea of helping them do just that. The other motivation was that the increasing complexity of computer systems and networks was quickly overwhelming their staff regarding their own internal systems.

Once employed, I quickly brought their network up to speed. I also centralized their file storage and increased performance by installing updated file servers, a central RAID 5 storage system, and automated backups with a custom developed application allowing full versioning capability with rapid recovery of individual files and complete sets when needed.

MEIER offered my services to its clients including network design for schools and businesses, application development (online, offline, and hybrid), web hosting, and basic technology consulting.

In this position I grew a previously non-existent group from nothing to 5 individuals. We specialized in database driven web-centric applications successfully mixing technologies that many never would have dared to mix.

Early on we developed a 3 dimensional graphic repository for left over waste in the Hanford tank farms commissioned by DOE (US Department of Energy).

Later we developed many other applications and web properties including:

• A commercial bidding system paid for by Energy Northwest for the decommissioning of a nuclear facility located in Western Washington.
• An amateur musician website which is still in operation today.
• Learning to Write, an online writing system still being sold to, and used by schools to this day.
• Kid Compass, an online student management system still sold to and used by schools to this day.
• A prototype Internet-based real-time broadcast stock market talk shows, which I’m sad to say, ran out of funding.
• Many internal systems that eased the day-to-day operations internal to MEIER.
  • Contact management and marketing system similar to Constant Contact (which made its debut shortly after we started on this project)
• And many smaller applications and web properties that may or may not exist today.

I thoroughly enjoyed working for MEIER Enterprises, Inc. Of course all things must end and so too would my employee relationship with MEIER. It was my choice, simply put, the opportunity for growth was too limited.

Dynacom Systems, Inc. was a small local (Kennewick, Washington) computer system manufacturer, ISP, and consulting firm. Dynacom Systems designed, installed, and maintained several small networks around South Eastern Washington.

I became an employee with Dynacom Systems in 1995 when they purchased my one-man computer consulting business, Aries Computer Services.

Dynacom Systems also attempted to gain entry to the Internet through a site that I designed, created, and initially maintained called The Executive Pages. The site was a success, but the business model was flawed which resulted in the site languishing for years never really reaching its full potential.

I quickly rose to my maximum potential with such a small firm until I was literally running most aspects of the business. I was the sole designer and installer of networks, primary contact with the manufacturing process and lead programmer.

It became obvious that my growth with Dynacom Systems had peaked, so in 1997 I joined forces with MEIER Enterprises, Inc. a local engineering firm also located in Kennewick Washington.

This tiny company, created and owned by myself, was relatively successful considering my lack of experience and wisdom.

ACS was organized as a sole proprietor business with a single employee…me. This endeavor was basically a crash course in economics and business in general. During the time that I owned and operated ACS I embarked in no marketing campaigns. All my marketing was strictly word-of-mouth and kept me very busy.

ACS was a computer consulting company specializing in business networking, computer repair, maintenance, and general troubleshooting. Many of the first networks I installed and maintained were of the 10Base2 variety (coax).

My client list included construction companies, schools, outsourced work from other local computer companies, government partners like British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. (BNFL) and individuals.

One of the largest networks I maintained during this period was a star topology consisting of one server and fewer than 50 clients. The server was running Windows NT 3.51 and the client machines were running MSDOS with MS Windows for Workgroups 3.11 (Thank God that’s over).

In late 1995 I sold ACS to Dynacom Systems, Inc. and became an employee for them basically doing the same thing as I was doing in ACS and more.

I’ve always enjoyed working with data and it gives me great satisfaction when I can organize data and retrieve datasets quickly and efficiently regardless of the DBMS I am using.

I am most familiar with MS SQL Server, and am just as comfortable with MYSQL. Two databases that you may notice are missing from the list below are PostgreSQL and FoxPro.

The reason for this is quite simple: I’ve never worked with them. I have looked at FoxPro briefly and I feel I can be relatively confident when I say that should I ever be required to work with either of them in the future, I could come up to speed quickly.

Quickly to me means a couple of days (max, more likely a couple of hours) studying the fundamentals to be able to confidently use them and streamline input and output, with a level of true proficiency developing within 5 to 10 days.

MS SQL Server is probably my favorite DBMS. I have over 6 years experience working with SQL Server and I am extremely comfortable with it.

I am proficient not only with development concepts but also administrative and maintenance concepts. I am adept with Data Transformation Services (DTS) and have used it for a myriad of purposes from merging heterogenous data sources to routine backup applications.

I’ve used MSDE (now SQL Server 2005 Express Edition) for web applications as well as stand-alone desktop applications and when possible will use it instead of other methods.

It is important to note however that I am not a Microsoft junky. I fully embrace other technologies (such as MYSQL) when it is logical to do so.

I am currently studying SQL Server 2005 concepts since DTS is no longer used and coming up to speed with SQL Server Business Intelligence, Management Studio, and Analysis Services.

I’ve been using MYSQL for going on 3 years. I love how portable it is and the concepts I’ve learned regarding other databases transferred very nicely allowing me to run with MYSQL in less than a day.

I have used MYSQL primarily for web applications and most of my experience is with 4.x. I have used MYSQL 5 and can’t wait for it to become mainstream. It’s my opinion that where MYSQL 4 is a fully functional database, 5 comes much closer to being what my opinion of a professional DBMS is.

I have used MS Access for many purposes throughout the years and have used it successfully to drive web properties as well as desktop applications. I avoid using it for most applications if I can use a SQL server solution, however, there are times where it just isn’t feasible, and that’s where Access truly shines for Microsoft-centric solutions.

I am proficient with VBScript so I can create, work with, and support Access enabled desktop solutions when necessary.

This was the platform that I was introduced to databases on. I don’t miss it except perhaps in a nostalgic way.

One of the first professional grade applications I created used DBase IV as the database with Quattro Pro (an antiquated spreadsheet program) thrown in for good measure.

The application was a custom-built data repository and research platform for a doctor who specialized in surgical operations regarding obesity. It was imperative that the data be entered, stored, and retrieved accurately with the ability to rearrange the data quickly and easily. This application was definitely a first-of-its kind solution that both the doctor and I could be proud of.

I’ve written code in just about every mainstream desktop, web server language, and scripting language in use today.

Every language I’ve ever attempted to learn I’ve come by quickly through my own persistence. I can usually pick up a new language in a few hours or days becoming proficient with it in 10 to 30 days depending on complexity.

Some code skills that I haven’t mentioned, and that I believe you come by and have to know to call yourself a developer, are SGML based “languages” (like XML, RSS, XHTML, and the like), Scripting languages (JavaScript, LiveScript, VBScript, ActionScript), and various data transfer methods (SOAP and RPC).

Standards are very important to me. I will fudge them when there is no way around it due to time constraints, requests, or compatibility issues, however I always strive for compliance when possible.

This section isn’t meant to go over every language I’ve ever used, but instead is meant to be a highlight of languages I’ve used with the intent to prove that I possess the ability to leverage learned concepts and applying them to new languages and concepts.

One language that I specifically omitted is ASP. I have a great deal of experience with ASP but do not consider it a solution for any new development.

This is one of the first languages I learned as a professional; unfortunately I’ve had very few opportunities to use it.

One occasion that I did use it was to eradicate corruption caused by a version of Nimda (a virus) on over 20,000 files that hadn’t been backed up. Virus scanners couldn’t remove the corruption because the virus itself had somehow malfunctioned and instead of replicating itself, it replicated part of a printer driver file into all the files it should have infected, sometimes many times.

This of course resulted in all of the files becoming totally unusable. As could be expected, many people were experiencing a great deal of anxiety over this because the files represented well over $200,000 of time, energy, and expense.

In about 6 hours I was able to analyze, write, compile and test a nifty little program that recursively ran through every file system infected, restoring 97% of the files to fully functional binaries.

While I enjoy working with this language, it simply isn’t feasible most of the time. However, knowing C++ has gone a long way toward allowing me to pick up other languages quickly.

Visual basic has been a language I’ve used to solve problems for employers and clients for years. Applications I’ve developed include stand-alone desktop applications as well as applications which take advantage of the Internet.

One client wanted a web based shopping cart with a content management system that was NOT web based. In other words, the client wanted a system they could update on laptops and that would synchronize with their web page. Visual Basic.NET allowed me to quickly create a management system that both fit their needs and grew with them.

Visual Basic.NET really enabled those I supervised and myself to develop applications and modules to solve problems reliably and fast.

My most recent development experience has been with PHP and Apache on LINUX servers. PHP is an incredibly robust language and I’m embarrassed to say, having worked with it many years prior as a CGI, I never really gave it another chance.

Luckily, I was forced to work with it again for the first time almost three years ago and have never looked back. It is a powerful language and can hold its own with most other languages today.

Now that it has fully come of age and supports advanced concepts like classes and inheritance it is truly a valid solution for many applications.

The majority of the solutions I’ve developed in the past three years have been with PHP. The open source community has given me a lot of leverage allowing me to take concepts, modules, and even fully developed solutions and mold them to my own and my clients needs with less time and financial resources invested.

I typically use MYSQL with PHP but in my opinion, the power of PHP really shines when coupled with a DBMS like MS SQL server.

I have developed many server side web properties with C# and ASP.NET. Most of them admittedly smaller applied solutions, but with my background for scalable solutions, presented with a challenge, I have complete confidence in my ability to perform in this regard, especially teamed with other professionals. My lack of experience with C# specifically has been mostly due to customers requesting VB.NET solutions.

Most of the development I’ve done with the server side of .NET has been outside of Microsoft Visual Studio and has been commercial in nature (shopping cart systems and dynamic sites). However, I have had opportunity to create various web controls and class based systems.

Various projects have also required me to develop a couple of ISAPI based solutions using C#.

Having been one of the first 100,000 Cold Fusion developers globally, I’ve been developing Cold Fusion applications since version 2.0. That gives me over 8 years of Cold Fusion development experience which makes me a veteran regarding this language.

I’ve developed web based Cold Fusion applications freestyle, using Fusebox, and other methods based on the task at hand and the requirements of clients. I haven’t developed any Cold Fusion applications since version 6.0 because recent projects haven’t required it.

Anymore, Cold Fusion is just too expensive for most to justify when other solutions like PHP and .NET are available. However, with my Cold Fusion background I can confidently say that I could quite easily come up to speed on the advancements in a day or two.

Applications I’ve developed or overseen the development of include:

• A web based MS SQL Server data repository of over 5 million records and a three dimensional VRML front end.
• Many shopping cart and content management systems
• Online bid management systems for the Department of Energy
• Real time media streaming and management systems
• And dozens of smaller applications and web sites

The first “web site” I ever created was with Cold Fusion 2.0 and was written using MS Notepad as the development environment.

CGI is a language I’ve used quite infrequently. Rarely was there a time that I could justify delving into the depths of CGI. Frankly, the only solution I’ve ever developed with CGI was while developing a custom web based file up loader in PHP. I needed CGI to help make a rudimentary progress bar. I’m certain many others could have done far better and it was rough, but it worked.

Regarding servlets; I’ve never written anything using this technology. I’m confident I could, but I’ve never seen the value, nor had a request to develop anything with this methodology.

Java is a language that I have used in the past but haven’t touched in the last 3 years. I am competent with Java, but far from proficient (in my opinion).

My first introduction to Java was a trial by fire. A client came to my boss and wanted two pieces of an application. A web based UI in the form of a java applet, and a client side Java application to manage the backend.

My boss quickly accepted the three-week deadline assuming I had previous knowledge of Java, which I didn’t. I complained naturally, and then quickly got to work to meet the deadline, which we did. It took me a week to come up to speed on at least some of the practices, syntax, and concepts, and two weeks to develop a fully debugged deliverable.

Needless to say, the client went away happy, paid his bill, and we breathed a collective sigh of relief, even me…I just didn’t let anyone see.

Python is a language that I am not very familiar with at all, however, based on what I have seen and read, I do not fear it and feel that if need be, I could come up to speed with very little investment of time.

Most of the skills I developed in this area were from necessity. I was constantly placed in positions where I was surrounded by people who knew what they wanted to do, and with no capability to do them.

This typically resulted in ”trial by fire” situations where the deadline was yesterday with maximum performance expected and no down time.

I typically excel in this type of environment and can’t think of one incident where I didn’t deliver.  Were there ever mistakes?  Sure, and I usually recovered from them quickly and completely.  I typically would test out theories and unproven knowledge on non-critical systems first, a must when working in a production environment.

Regarding Novell: I have experience with Novell Netware although not too many people appear to be using Novell in my area anymore. Even though I don’t include a section for Novell I am familiar with their concepts and, of course, IPX.

I also don’t speak directly to my design experience, that not withstanding, I’ve designed several corporate networks and local school networks from the infrastructure up.

I have experience with switches, routers, firewalls, Wi-Fi, cabling, connectors, wiring specifications, and multi-homed systems to name a few knowledge areas.

Most of my experience in networking has been with Microsoft technology. I’m familiar with and have implemented solutions using Active Directory, Exchange Server, and many other Microsoft technologies.

I’ve never been certified mainly because I’ve been too busy solving problems and haven’t spent any time working toward the paper trail. I’ve recently started looking into the certification process and intend to work toward getting certified. I know how much of a gamble it can be for employers to hire those with nothing but their word of their track record.

I’m currently working toward my Cisco certification and once complete will work toward both Microsoft networking and programming certifications.

The most common client and server systems I’ve installed, configured, and maintained include:

• Windows for Workgroups 3.11
• Windows 95, 98, and ME
• Windows professional
• Windows XP Home and Professional
• Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0
• Windows 2000 Server
• Windows 2003 Server
• Exchange Server
• Active Directory

I have experience with Cisco switches and routers and I’m currently working toward my Cisco CCNA certification. With a lot of work and my current knowledge I should be able to pass this exam by the end of October, 2006.

I am familiar with TCP/IP, IPX, and network layers. I believe my programming and application development background gives me an advantage here because I have a more thorough understanding of layers 5 - 7 than some network technicians.

Most of my experience with the application of Cisco systems is from a local small ISP that serviced several hundred dial-up customers, DSL customers, and a few dedicated Permanent Virtual Connections utilizing frame relay. In that regard I am familiar with Data Terminal Equipment and Data Communications Equipment from an ISP’s perspective.

Once I’ve acquired my CCNA my intention is to get MCP certified. I will be working toward completion of the network and programming tracks combined.

I have some experience with marketing and sales both to businesses and individuals. I am not a believer that marketing and sales are the same thing, nor that one can exist without the other, and it amazes me that there are those that think the opposite.

My Internet marketing skills include:

• SEO – Search Engine Optimization is something that I find fascinating. Early SEO was fairly easy to understand and manipulate. However, recent changes to the top three’s (Google, Yahoo, and MSN) algorithms have made SEO increasingly difficult. I do have the capability of positively influencing search results through viral campaigns and the dissemination of information in a targeted way.
• SEM/PPC – Search Engine Marketing/Pay Per Click is another aspect of search engines that interests me. I know how to create and optimize PPC campaigns particularly through Google Adwords so that maximum exposure is achieved with minimum expense.
• Email – I do not condone nor approve of SPAM techniques, however, permission based, targeted email to customers or interested parties is a sure fire way to drive up both sales and customer loyalties. You’ve got to keep your customer’s close, and that often requires a great many “touches”.

Buzzy Planet, Inc. needed to be able to quickly create commercial web sites that were easy to update and maintain. The goals to be accomplished were as follows:

• Easy to implement
• Easy to update
• Be XHTML standards compliant
• Compatible with modern browsers
• Allow different systems to be added for different needs
  • Shopping Cart
  • Search
  • Feed Management
  • Search Optimization Features
  • Visitor Tracking
• Easy to grow and expand as needs arose
• Secure

In order to meet all these needs, I looked to the open source community for a base on which to expand. WordPress, a blogging platform, seemed to be the best pick.

WordPress is a full-featured content management system built with PHP and is easily extended in any way imaginable through an extremely flexible plug in and theme system.

One new goal became very apparent once it was decided to go with this approach, any expandability had to occur with absolutely no core code changes. This way all existing sites could be upgraded by simply copying over the new code base with no, or minimal, impact to the sites.

The development for the ongoing needs of this system is fairly easy and straightforward. Whenever new functionality is needed a new plug in or widget (another Word Press system) is created, and most of the time it’s as simple as activating the plug in and configuring some options to get the desired result.

One of the more complex systems was a shopping cart with shipping systems, coupon management, related content, related products, affiliate program and other typical modern commerce concerns. It also needed to be integrated with MS SQL server, which added a bit of challenge since WordPress only uses MYSQL.

Rather than break the cardinal rule of no core code modifications, I chose to operate both MYSQL and MS SQL. This meant that I needed to make certain that a few elements synchronized back and forth between the two databases. I succeeded and I didn’t modify any core code, nor did I modify the structure of the MYSQL database in any way. A future system will likely be created so that everything is MYSQL based.

The way the system goes together, only a few main components of the shopping cart need to be enabled on any site, and then different capabilities can be added by activating plug-ins that depend on the core plug-ins.

The last goal to be met was non-critical customer data needed to remain online to allow customers to view historical information and other proprietary needs I can’t discuss here. Finally, all critical customer data had to be migrated off the Internet so that there was no possibility of a breach due to any kind of security hole.

I can tell you that those goals too were met, but I am bound to not reveal the specifics or the methods used.

Musicians Registry is an amateur musician registration web site where musicians, small labels, and others in the music industry can post information about bands and events.

This site was originally developed using Cold Fusion and Access as the back end database. However, it was redeveloped using PHP and MS SQL Server.

From what I understand the current owners are working to bring the site up to date and make it standards compliant, which unfortunately it is currently not. I was responsible only for building the back end so that data could be entered and retrieved.

Regardless, this is yet another successful project which is still alive and doing well today. Feel free to visit Musicians Registry and take a look around.

Energy Northwest was responsible for decommissioning a nuclear facility in Western Washington with a skeleton crew of seven people. There was no way that these seven people were going to be able to create the necessary bid package, adhere to all the legal specifications, manage contractor bids, distribute the bidding packages to the bidders, quickly respond to changes in the package, and notify all the bidders of the change orders.

This is where MEIER Enterprises was probably one of the only companies around that could have handled this request completely in-house. As an engineering company we were able to create all the drawings and specifications needed. Next we developed an online bidding application where registration was required. We also handled phone requests for those companies without Internet access as the legal regulations required.

As a result, not only was Energy Northwest able to achieve its goals, they did so (with our help) and met all legal obligations. The online system took bids, distributed drawings and documents, and handled all the day-to-day needs of the contractors in a secure and easy to use system.

This system used Internet Explorer with the free DWF format viewer to view AutoCAD drawings, adobe PDF to accurately display documents/drawings for those who were unable or unwilling to install the IE plug in, compatible HTML/JavaScript, Cold Fusion, and MS SQL Server.

Kid Compass is a web-based system used by teachers to manage students, their grades, personnel, and many other aspects of student management by teachers and teacher management by administrators.

This system was created by a local business and, prior to our involvement, was an MS Access application. This system was, and is, used by many teachers in many schools mostly across Washington State.

The goal of this project was to port the existing Access application to the web so that data, maintenance, and support could be centralized.

The system was successfully ported to the web and to my knowledge is still being used today.

The technology used to create this system was kept fairly simple for maximum compatibility. The only technology used was HTML, JavaScript, Cold Fusion, with MS SQL Server as the DBMS.

Learning to Write is a web based instructional system allowing students to learn the finer points of writing skills either at their own pace or in a structured learning environment.

Learning to Write is also a teacher management system allowing instructors to guide students toward strategic goals with a built in WYSIWYG essay writer with customizable markups so that teachers can electronically grade essays within the system.

LTW also allows for teacher student collaboration with a built in messaging system. This is a truly robust and useable system that has been in production since around 2002.

I oversaw the development of this project as well as contributing my expertise to its construction. It is very much still in use today and a proud talking piece of my former employer, MEIER Enterprises, Inc.

Learningtowrite.net is the application portion of the system, while learningtowrite.com is the marketing and sign up portion of the system.

The systems have been used with a great deal of success with students ranging from middle school level through college level. Home-schooled students have also used and benefited from this system.

A forward thinking businessman from the East coast commissioned Talk of the Trade. His vision was of a web site where people could come and see professional stock traders exercising the past time of day trading in real time.

There was to be a twist; a panel of four “professionals” would be executing trades during daily broadcasts, and a trained chimpanzee would also be making trades with a special control panel.

The goal was to see if the strategies used by the real people would be able to beat a trained chimp.

At the time, audio and video streaming was in its infancy. Couple that with much smaller bandwidth and lots of browser compatibility considerations and you ended up with a real challenge.

My team and I were able to overcome all these challenges as elegantly as could be expected considering the technology available at the time. The project was a success but ironically, the funding agent ran dry due to a decline in the stock market. In short, this was when the “bubble burst”.

In 1997 I was the lead developer of a system originally created for the Department of Energy regarding the best basis inventory of nuclear waste contained in large tanks buried in the ground.

The tanks ranged in size between several hundred thousand gallons to 1 million gallons. Many of the tanks contained large quantities of radioactive waste that had to be constantly monitored due to chemical reactions causing heat in excess of 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

This constant heating and cooling ultimately caused the welds in some of the tanks to fail, resulting in ground, and potentially ground water, contaminations.

Several challenges were brought up for us to work out, the system had to be:

• Easy to use - Scientists weren’t the end users, the end users would consist of management and political leaders.
• Easy to understand
• Low cost
• Be viewable over the Internet

This presented a variety of technology challenges. How do you create an application that is low cost (to the end user), presented over the Internet, that can be compatibly and reliably viewed and operated by virtually anyone?

We chose to use VRML (Virtual Reality Markup Language) for the interface, which was somewhat difficult to say the least. Everything needed to be as accurately depicted as possible in a true coordinate system.  This meant that electronic and hard copy drawing cooridinates using several coordinate systems had to be aggregated and converted to a common format, stored in a database, and then scaled to suitable navigable dimensions losing as little accuracy as possible along the way.

This user interface was set on top of a Cold Fusion backend that tapped into MS SQL Server for the data.

This system proved to be a huge success and was as low cost as you could get to the end user…free. The only caveat was that the end user had to download and install one particular type of free VRML Internet Explorer plug-in to view the 3-D aspects.

This system not only displayed the tanks in three dimensional space, it also showed all the underground and above ground elements like drilled wells, buildings, contamination points from leaks (which were linked to scientific analysis produced by scientists, not us), and even ground strata. The system also allowed users to move through the tank farm in real time resulting in completely flexible views from any perspective. Couple this with the ability to turn on and off all elements, and insert proposed structures (again in real time) and you have an extremely powerful application.

Unfortunately, as is likely to happen with government contracts, budget cuts stopped development of this project and security concerns took it off the Internet. I am currently trying to locate and request clearance to display some static images of the system.

I am happy to report that the concept continued and has evolved to use a modern gaming engine to produce “like-type” systems. The system is no longer useable over the Internet in real time however.

The technology included, and married together in this system included:

1. Internet Explorer (HTML, JavaScript, Flash)
2. Cosmo Player (VRML Plug in for IE)
3. Java (certain client applications, and applets)
4. Cold Fusion (Server Side)
5. MS SQL Server (Data Storage)