Resume for Gregory Boote

Dora Creek, NSW, Australia

Email: jobs@gregboote.com

Profile

A senior Analyst Programmer with strong analytical skills and a broad range of computer expertise. An excellent problem-solver, able to quickly grasp complex systems and identify opportunities for improvements and resolution of critical issues. Solid twelve years experience in data and system integration with Qantas and Intersystems.

Skill Set

Integration

Twelve years integration experience in the Airline industry with Qantas and Intersystems. Designed and built applications to service data requests between disparate systems using the languages and utilities listed below.

C/C++, Java, Perl and Visual Studio

Extensive knowledge of C and C++ programming in client/server and embedded systems as I have used C/C++ for 15 years. Designed and implemented interfaces in Perl which parsed and formatted data between customer and database using the DBI and Event modules. Have studied and used Java for my own projects.

Cold Fusion, Crystal Reports

Used Cold Fusion and Crystal Reports for a Medical Billing System.

UNIX (AIX, Linux, SCO, Solaris)

Have been developing client/server applications in the Unix environment for fourteen years using AIX, Linux, Sco and Solaris. Have used scripting, AWK, YACC and LEX on Unix.

BEA Weblogic Integrator and ALSB

Completed courses on Weblogic Integrator and ALSB. These courses run by BEA.

Oracle, SQL Server and Igres Databases, SQL and Embedded SQL

Used SQL and embedded SQL with Oracle, SQL Server and Ingres databases to update and maintain large data sets.

TCP/IP, X25, PPP, IBM MQSeries

Used TCP/IP for data transfer between server and clients. TCP and X25 comms links were used with Network Express. Implemented and used MQSeries messaging system for data exchange.

Network Express and Mercator

Used Network Express middleware platform as a gateway between host system and customer systems. Parsed data of many formats such as EDIFACT. Analysed data format problems using the Mercator log

Hardware and Firmware Embedded Design

Microprocessor hardware design with Motorola 6800, 6809 and 68000 microprocessors. Designed and wrote applications, drivers and task managers for embedded systems.

Training

• Five day course on BEA Weblogic Integrator.

• Four day course on BEA ALSB.

• Course on communications by Insearch.

• Course on 'C' by Insearch.

• 8086 programming course by Intel.

Experience

September 2010 to July 2011 and January 2012 to June 2012

I have been caring for my Mother-In-Law but I no longer have this responsibility. I have also been working on various projects with the aim of improving and maintaining my knowledge, and developing new skills. In these projects I used C++ and Objective-C on Visual Studio, QT, Linux and Apple platforms.

August 2011 to December 2011

Hunter New England Health Services Analyst Programmer and Support

Supported the HNEHS Billing application for two months while the application specialist was on leave. This required monitoring the billing application environment and correcting problems when required. The application sends invoices to Medicare and Hospital Funds using Medicare’s Eclipse interface for validation and payment. The application uses Cold Fusion for the web interface frontend and MS SQL Server as the backend which runs on MS Server OS. Reports are created using Crystal Reports. After the support I developed new reports for the application using Crystal Reports and MS SQL Stored procedures.

December 2009 to August 2010

TCS at Commonwealth Bank Analyst Programmer

Designed and developed a Proxy Server for the Commonwealth Bank’s interchange system which communicates with other financial institutions and POS terminals. This project was a result of CBA retiring their X25 communications protocol and replacing it with TCP/IP. The application is coded in C++ and runs on a Sun server under Solaris OS but it was partially developed on a PC using Visual Studio as the Sun server was not immediately available. The application has to handle thousands of concurrent connections and a high transaction throughput. To do this I used the Solaris OS Event Completion Framework to handle the high volume of connections and messages, and implemented multithreading so transactions from different sockets are processed in parallel. The application validates the AS2805 financial messages before passing them on to CBA via MQ messaging or TCP.

April 2008 to March 2009

QANTAS IT, Mascot Contracting as an Analyst Programmer

Designed, developed and tested new interface for the crew rostering system. Qantas are installing a new Jeppersen crew roster bidding system and my application loads the completed roster into the operational database. The application used embedded SQL and C running on Solaris servers using the Ingres database. The application checks the new data for conflicts such as flight and cabin crew awards conflicts before being written to the database.

July 2001 to April 2003, January 2004 to December 2007

(Intervening period spent at Jupiters mentioned below)

QANTAS IT, Mascot Contracting as an Analyst Programmer

Contracted to Integration Systems group to develop and support Network Express based applications in an airline reservations backend gateway environment. The system comprises four IBM HCMP servers running AIX. The applications are developed using C as the application language and S2 Network Express as the middleware communications platform and TSI Mercator as the Data Mapping Tool. The network and data protocols used are TCP/IP, IBM MQSeries, X25, EDIFACT and the IATA Host To Host extensions.

• Team member of the Lido project. Qantas is migrating to a new Lido flight system. Developed applications for integration of data between Lido flight system and Qantas servers for interim and final solution. Worked closely with business owners for solution design. Used C, MQ Queues, Mercator and Unix scripts.

• Successfully completed BEA Weblogic Integrator and ALSB course.

• Added new carriers to Qantas Through Checkin hub. This hub allowed carriers to through check-in to other hosted carriers. Developed new comms frontend for these carriers and configured the Host to Host protocol. Used TCP, Netx, C and Mercator.

• In team to migrate the Integration server applications to new servers at IBM Data Centre. Extensive testing and organising was required as the servers are critical and the down time had to be minimised.

• Converted current applications X25 links to TCP/IP links. This involved code changes to support TCP streaming.

• Migrated the EDI fuel script and tested the migrated fuel application. The script downloaded EDIFACT fuel invoices using FTP. The received file is then translated by the fuel application using Mercator to a format suitable for the Fuel Accounting and Management System. For testing when an invoice failed Mercator processing I then had to use the Mercator log to trace the input data format problem.

• Wrote script that calculated comm link outages and reported these outages using email. The outage times were extracted from the application log file.

• SPOC (single point of contact) for Gateway support. This involved monitoring the system and assessing problems and issues and where practicable resolving the issues or directing problems to the engineer responsible for the application.

• Enhanced and developed many other applications on the Integration server using Netx, C , Mercator and scripts.

• Migrated applications from Stratus system to the RS6000 system. This required code changes, configuring the Network Express profile for the communication links, testing and doing the cutover from Stratus to IBM RS6000 system.

July 2003 to October 2003

Jupiters Technology, North Ryde Contracting as a Software Engineer

Contracted to develop a download interface and implement the PPP communications for a lotto terminal in India.

• The terminal uses a small footprint PC board with flash RAM for the file system. The OS is embedded Linux and the application is coded in C++ and using the Adaptive Communication environment ACE.

• I implemented the PPP comms so the terminal could use GPRS to connect to the lotto system host.

• Developed the download-and-update application to update the terminal applications with a new version. The download application is written in C++ and the update application, which updates the files, is a shell script.

December 1994 to November 2000

Intersystems, Berkeley Vale, NSW. Contracting as a software engineer.

Intersystems is a global leader in airport information management and display solutions. I was on the team developing and maintaining airport flight information display system. This system is installed at airports throughout the world. The system is comprised of servers running SCO or AIX UNIX and Oracle, workstations running NT and Graphical display units, all networked using TCP/IP.

• Most projects implemented using the Software Development Life Cycle. Customer requirements, functional specifications, design specifications, code, test, document (administration guide and test plan).

• Wrote interfaces that exchanged and validated flight data between customers and the Oracle flight database. Interface data varied from well defined and complete data to unreliable data such as screen dumps. This data would be parsed into specific fields then mapped to the flight database fields and the flight record updated. Some interfaces received constant flow of data instead of just flight data changes. Flight data was cached so that there were no unnecessary flight updates as this would impact on the system performance.

• Data exchange used is TCP/IP, serial port, serial port servers and IBM MQSeries messaging system.

• Software developed using C and C++, SQL for database reads and updates, PERL, YACC and LEX.

• Developed utility library that maintained the integrity of the flights database. It did this by enforcing constraints on data entry. These were derived from the data dictionary, business rules for the flight database and other site-specific requirements. Some fields were denormalised due to legacy code in some servers.

• Used PVCS for version control of source code.

May 1992 to November 1994

AWA Wagering, North Ryde NSW. Contracting as a software engineer.

Mainly developed software for wagering terminals. Development systems were VAX VMS and PC’s for Motorola and Intel target hardware. Major activities were:

• Participated in design and coding of down line loading of program for an off course betting terminal. Wrote a master polling protocol communications driver for the terminal.

• Worked on Victorian TAB wagering terminal development. This terminal is 80386 PC based with a thermal printer, display and keyboard peripherals. I wrote drivers for the Non-volatile RAM and the I2C Bus. These drivers are stored in ROM and loaded by the BIOS. They are coded in 'C' and assembler. Wrote a diagnostics program to test all hardware and peripheral functions.

1978 to April 1992

Automatic Totalisators Pty. Ltd. Meadowbank NSW.

Designed and developed software and hardware for wagering terminals and racecourse display systems. Development systems were VAX VMS and PC’s for Motorola and Intel target hardware. Major activities were:

• Designed a 68000 controller board for a new terminal. This board contained a dual syn/async communications controller, an octal async communications controller, the ability to program flash EPROMS, Philips' "I squared C" bus and other devices such as timers and ports. This board was used in ATL’s new generation terminals.

• Designed and wrote task manager, device drivers and application for the new 68000 based betting terminal. The terminal has a small CRT, ticket printer, coupon reader and keyboard. The communications to the host computer used a special multi-dropped protocol. The program was developed on a VAX using a "C" compiler and cross assembler. The device drivers are written in assembler and the application and task manager is written in "C".

• On design team for new terminals for Victorian TAB, New Zealand TAB and Bukit Turf Club. The terminals used a PC board, thermal printer, coupon reader, keyboard and LCD or CRT display. Wrote drivers to communicate with the coupon reader and keyboard in 'C' using the Microsoft C compiler

• Wrote drivers for a fast dot matrix printers, thermal printers and LED matrix displays which used Motorola 6809 and 6800 processors.

• On the design team which developed a low cost betting terminal using a 6800 processor. I designed the hardware and software to drive a small dot matrix printer and wrote the application program. This terminal received an Australian Design Award.

1977

Travelled England and Europe.

1976

Attended Newcastle University full time.

1971 to 1976

BHP Newcastle

Worked at BHP as a trainee electrical engineer and technician. Work comprised mainly of electrical and electronic repairs and maintenance, with some installation and commissioning of electrical equipment.

EDUCATION

• One third of electrical engineering degree completed at Newcastle university.

• Electrical engineering certificate obtained in 1973 from Newcastle technical college.

• HSC completed in 1970 (matriculated).