About Roger Collins

Thank you for visiting my blog.  This is the page where I indulge in talking about myself as much as I want.  Sorry, Mom, its polite just here, its my blawg!

I’ve been developing software and web applications (aka expensive websites) for over 20 years.

Formal Education

MBA from Florida Atlantic University in 2000.

MS in Computer Engineering, University of Florida, 1997, ten years after my BS in the same major from the same school.

Both my masters were earned while working full time at software development / dev management jobs. I loved school. I’d love to get a PhD in Economics but there’s no program where I live.

Software Dev History

I’ve immensely enjoyed working on some fascinating projects for some interesting companies.  Some highlights:

• In the summer of 1985, I worked for NASA, Kennedy Space Center.  Developed a program to determine the risk of an orbiter (Space Shuttle) braking failure from real-time telemetry data. Received an award from the Director for that work.  The Challenger disaster occurred before I could return the next summer, one of those news events where you never forget when you heard it, for me.
• Developed multi-processing operating systems (ports of UNIX System V) for the NCR Tower product line in Columbia, SC.
• Developed same (but using two different OS bases) for IBM mainframes in Kingston, NY.
• Developed tools to make Windows applications run on UNIX/X Windows platforms in my first startup experience, Bristol Technology, in Danbury, CT.
• Developed real-time operating system upgrades and some LVM software for a mainframe storage product for Encore Computer in Sunrise, FL.  The latter was later sold to Sun Microsystems.
• Developed Internet firewall software for Harris Computer and the spin-off company from that project: CyberGuard.
• Managed an engineering team developing the software for cryptographic security products (PIN encryption for bank systems and secure network communication for laptops) for Racal Datacom in Sunrise, FL, while that company was being split up and sold off by its British parent. One of our products, the HSM, might should win an award for longest life in the IT industry.
• Developed all the software for an embedded Linux module that simply provided a USB port for commercial aircraft, for loading and storing flight data, flight plans, maps, etc.  This was a contract for Gables Engineering in Coral Gables, FL. Fun place to work there. Music studio. My only regret was not learning Spanish when I had my best chance to do it.

Internet Dev History

I started developing my own web apps in about 2000.  First project was ProProject.com, now defunct.  It managed time accounting work-flow for consulting groups (timesheet submission, manager approval, administration roll-up reporting, etc.) Worked very well, and had one loyal customer for years (Thank you, Greg Martin at Technisource), but I couldn’t figure out how to expand its customer base before more promising projects came up.

Another project was ChangeNotes.com.  It tracked changes to any pages you wanted to follow on the Internet.  I still think there is a need for this.  Got great user feedback.  Its biggest fans were job hunters who would use it to monitor the career/jobs pages of the many companies they were interested in. We included it in the assets sold to NameMedia and its basically defunct now. Its still on a server but with the disk full or some such problem. If you visit the site now, it just times out. I offered to buy it back, but NM wouldn’t accept a reasonable offer. Sad but true.

Then there was NameBuySell.com which became the new Afternic.com.  Read about how that started here.

My brother and I sold Afternic.com to NameMedia in 2006 and I became a dot com millionaire.  However, it was not a good time to start investing in high risk securities, real estate, a retail business, or almost anything, as I did. So now I still have to work for a living.  I even had to talk to the FBI about some oil projects I invested in because apparently the whole operation was a complete fraud.  On the plus side, having to work is not such a bad thing.  I enjoy my work.

Now

After working in a couple management positions related to Afternic, I’m back to consulting and developing my own products, and honestly, looking my next exciting “corporate” job.