Retired · California
A life of programming and music.
Programming and music have always run alongside each other. These days are filled with travel, live music, and the occasional idea worth programming.
Programming
Software shaped by Kaizen
Programming has been a constant since that first computer. Professionally, it began with AS/400The IBM AS/400 (Application System/400) is a line of midrange computers introduced by IBM in 1988. It became known for its reliability, security, and backward compatibility.RPGReport Program Generator (RPG) is a high-level programming language created by IBM in 1959. It was first designed to process punch cards and produce business reports, then evolved into a complete language for business systems.My experienceMy AS/400 and RPG work spanned finance, banking, higher education, manufacturing, and logistics..
Early professional work was with a company deeply committed to Kaizen—the idea of constant improvement. It left behind a lesson that still guides my work: understand both the business and the technology, then keep refining the solution over time.
Clarion by SoftVelocityClarion is a rapid application development (RAD) environment and proprietary fourth-generation programming language built specifically for quickly creating data-centric Windows database applications.It provides code generation, database-agnostic development, object-oriented programming, and support for Clarion 4GL, C++, JavaScript, and Modula-2. came next, first for a retreat-center project. Its rapid development approach fit naturally with Kaizen, making it the right choice when I started InnQuest. That combination made it possible to remain hands-on in development while also leading the business.
InnQuest
Building a company
With a degree in Hospitality Management and years of software development, I understood both the hotel business and how to build software for it. That led to roomMaster, a property management system (PMS), and InnQuest Software.
By the time InnQuest was sold, more than 75 people worked across three franchise offices and seven reseller offices around the world. More meaningful than the scale were the relationships, friendships, experiences, and lessons that came from the people involved.
Programming continues—usually to solve a practical problem and sometimes to share the result.
Life now
Music, travel, and still programming
Music and travel now set the pace: live shows, trips, and plenty of music while working at the computer.
MM-Tweaks is one of those projects. What began as a personal Monarch Money workflow became a free browser extension shared with others. It brings the story back to what has always made programming satisfying: understanding how something works, improving it, and building something useful.
I’m always open to conversations about business and programming opportunities focused on finance and hospitality—or opening a coffee shop.