Aresby

Newbie Swordfish and PIC programmer. PICAXE graduate (hence the desire to use a "grown up" compiler like Swordfish).

My day job (whilst I still have one during 2012) is around developing internal, intranet based tools, written mainly in SQL 2008 and ASP.net and VB (although a small amount of C# is used too):

  • a Timesheet application to record time against Projects and BAU
  • an Absence Planner/Recorder, which is linked to:
  • a business Resource Planner (with an Excel front-end but SQL back-end)

Additionally, I develop end-user computing solutions using Excel 2003 with my team, of which I am the manager.

To bring some order into the otherwise chaotic world of end-user computing with everyone writing "one-off" spreadsheets that eventually ran the company I introduced an End User Controls system that monitored and recorded all spreadsheet use, partly for SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) compliance; this also include an element of end-user education, training and risk awareness highlighting.

In my home life I've always had a keen interest in electronics, and graduated from about 1972 onwards (as a child) from simple transistor-based projects to ICs, then digital ICs and now, finally about 10 years late, PIC programming which combines my love of programming with that of creating a tangible product.

I've produced some very simple PICAXE projects that have a real-world application (in my home, at least) which gave me an easy ride into the world of PIC chips.

Now I'm starting to understand some of the complexities of PICs by using an Amicus18 board, a PIC18F25K22 chip and the Swordfish compiler, which IMHO is the closest compiler I can get that encourages dot net-like programming methodologies.

If this profile sounds a bit CV-like then so be it! I'm being made redundant towards the end of 2012 and who knows who might read this!

"Luck is where opportunity meets preparedness" or something like that.