User:Phelonius Friar

Professional
Through over 20 years of domestic and international experience, I have gained knowledge of almost every facet of the information technology, software development, and electronics industries – including technical (architecture through implementation and deployment), management (project, business, and administrative), process development and application, and as a contributing member of an international standards organization (ANSI/VITA). I have successfully initiated and delivered projects that have ranged in complexity from mission-critical short-term single-person efforts through a $20M multi-company international program to develop a NEBS Level 3 compliant scalable supercomputer for ATM network traffic control, and numerous permutations in between. On September 2nd, 2008 I was granted my first patent: US 7,421,489 “Network Protocols for Distributing Functions Within A Network”. I have lived and worked in Canada (I'm Canadian), the USA, and France and have traveled to India to set up business relationships which I subsequently managed from Canada. I have also worked effectively with teams in all of those countries as well as in the UK, Germany, Israel, Sweden, Singapore, South Africa, and Switzerland. I am a native English speaker and am functional in French (very good reading and understanding, but my speaking and writing skills are rusty). I am in the process of learning Russian.

Personal
In August 2001 I was issued my Private Pilot license and have gone on to get my Night and VFR-OTT ratings, and my Complex and High-Altitude Endorsements. I am halfway through getting my Instrument Rating and hope to have it in 2010. I hold valid pilot licenses in both Canada and the USA. I have had a long interest in aerospace pursuits, specializing in human factors, and in 2006 and 2008 underwent high-altitude (including a hypobaric chamber “flight”) and spacial disorientation training at the Shaw AFB in South Carolina. In 2003, I was selected as a finalist (one of 30 out of 500 applicants) and interviewed for one of six pilot/astronaut position for the Canadian Arrow private space program (which I was obviously not selected for). Through the 1990s through the early 2000s, I was Chairperson of the Conference on Canadian Content in Speculative Arts and Literature (aka Can·Con) for 6 of its 7 years, was co-founder of the Academic Conference on Canadian Speculative Literature, and was Editor-In-Chief for Northwords, a quarterly Canadian magazine for professional and amateur writers and artists. My hobbies also include yoga, hiking, camping, creating music (tending to folk and electronic and recording as "Tin Ape"), Linux (since kernel v0.11), and “tinkering”.