My History

Early Flight Simulation (1993–1996)

• 1993: Father brings home Microsoft Flight Simulator 5.0 (MSFS 5.0). Fascinated by 256-color graphics; self-taught basics of flight, navigation and radio communications.
• 1993–1994: Focused on building local scenery (Winnipeg YWG) after mastering major airports.
• 1994–1995: Active on CompuServe forums; created runway scenery and learned early community content workflows.
• 1995: Wrote BASIC decompiler scripts to reverse engineer BGL files and extract navaids, runways and related data.
• 1995–1996: Built early flight-planning tools in Visual Basic 3.0 and a crude IAP designer inspired by "Final Approach".

Transition to Web Development (1996–1999)

• 1996: Discovered Mosaic in high school; began obsessing over web technologies.
• 1996–1997: Learned HTML and early web tooling — major time in computer labs learning outside class.
• 1997–1998: Experimented with PERL + CGI, then ASP (ran into platform limitations such as paid mail extensions).
• 1999: Adopted PHP — found it flexible and accessible for rapidly shipping web projects.

Professional Development & Community (1999–2002)

• 1999–2000: Built the first professional site (uncle's water purification business) using PHP.
• 1999–2002: Active contributor to developer communities (CodeProject); published articles and shared code. See CodeProject contributions.

Client Work & Advanced Automations (2002–2005)

• 2002: First major client — Ted Baker at Advanced Automations (Dallas). Worked on LOB software for insurance brokers; focused on consulting, efficiency and training.
• 2002–2005: Continued engagement refining consulting skills and delivering PHP-based solutions for enterprise clients.

Independent Projects & Early Social Networks (2005–2007)

• Built early social projects: TotalCanuck.ca and ThePrairieCamper.ca — community-focused platforms showcased in the Wayback Machine.

Interspire Era & TexoCMS (2007–2008)

• 2007: Built TexoCMS (pre-WordPress CMS) on SourceForge — helped secure a role at Interspire. TexoCMS on SourceForge
• 2007–2008: Worked at Interspire (Australia) on WebEdit/DevEdit and later SendStudio.
• 2008: Left Interspire and continued independent work.

Local Companies & Cadorath (2008–2021)

• 2008–2009: Short stints at Terracor and Tactica.
• 2009 onward: Joined Cadorath — modernized MS Access LOB apps, replaced legacy systems with LAMP-driven ERP solutions across divisions (aerospace, coatings, agriculture).
• 2009–2021: Served as architect, lead developer, analyst and integration specialist; delivered systems still in use today.

Wawanesa Life (2021–2025)

• 2021: Joined Wawanesa Life as Developer II.
• 2021–2025: Delivered projects that improved development practices and operational tooling.
• June 2025: Departed Wawanesa Life.

Present & Future (2025 onward)

Ready to build the future: bringing experience in aviation-inspired tinkering, open-source development, ERP modernization, and insurance systems to new projects and collaborations.