Personal History of Stephen N. James

Arrival and school years.

I arrived in the world two score plus a few years ago in Ft. Worth, Texas. Spending only one month there didn't faze me at all but growing up in Houston did. After high school at Memorial in Spring Branch I was off to UT Austin as quickly as possible for a couple of science degrees ( BA 1970, MA 1974 - Zoology). Rather than attend graduation ceremonies on May 31 of 1969, Trisha and I attended our wedding.

Work fun.

Between 1973 and 1981 I worked for Tracor's environmental consulting group, the University of Texas Marine Science Institute, Environmental Management Associates (myself), the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's coastal fisheries branch, Radian Corporation's environmental consulting group, and Oikos, Inc.'s environmental consulting group performing environmental field surveys and writing environmental impact statements. From 1969 through 1975 I served in the Texas National Guard where I got to jump out of perfectly good airplanes, fall through the air and land "softly" on the ground. The parachute helped to "soften" the landing somewhat. I was company training sergeant for the last two years of my tour of duty.

In 1981 I founded FYI, Inc. to develop and market text indexing and retrieval software for "microcomputers." We developed SuperFile for CP/M computers then FYI 3000 Plus for IBM PC's. We then branched out into multi-line BBS software with e-mail, chat and the full text database software built into the product, called "MCD" (Mail-Chat-Database). Our products were technically superior to their competitors but as in many small technical organizations, we under estimated the size of the market and weren't able to sell enough product to make us millionaires.

In 1991 I stopped selling FYI, Inc. products and accepted a project management position at The Psychological Corporation's small PC development office here in Austin. During the next three years we developed seven PC based software products written in C and finally Visual Basic/C++. The packages were primarily scoring and reporting programs for psychological tests that Psyc. Corp. published in paper form. The final two projects I managed were computer administered tests with built-in scoring and reporting. I derived a great deal of satisfaction from managing these projects to their on-time and within budget completion. In addition to managing the projects from the design and programming standpoint, I directed the QA and wrote much of the User's Manual text for the software.

In February of 1994 I was asked to become the VP of a start-up software/hardware development company in Austin. Little did I know where this would lead me when I accepted. During the next two months we completed the initial development of a networked server/point-of-sale hardware and software system, and installed one server and two POS units in several double-drive through hamburger restaurants in San Antonio. I had fun teaching the restaurant managers and their staff how to use the new touch-pad systems we installed, and their burgers were quite good too. Unfortunately, the burger chain ran short of cash and put our project on hold....thereby putting me out of work in April.

Rebirth

The timing was pretty good since the Golden Cheeked Warblers are nesting in the Austin area between March and June. My old friend Rusty Mase, owner of Environmental Technical Services Co., hired me to survey several tracts of land for Golden Cheeks, thereby keeping me from starving. Getting out in the Texas hill country during the spring time and walking through the peaceful Juniper covered canyons was just what I needed to clear my mind of the hustle and bustle of the previous few months. It was during those days that I decided to concentrate on being an independent environmental consultant and freelance writer.

The NET

I have been "on" the Internet for a year and now have had the opportunity to greatly expand my on-line horizons. I also returned to what is really my first love, writing. I'm not so much a creative writer as a creative explainer. My thought processes tend toward ways to explain rather complex process to people, hence my success in writing software user's manuals and "How To" books. In April of 1995, I had the great fortune to be noticed by Ed Tittel, author of numerous books and magazine articles in the Netware and computing area. Long story short, I became the co-author of "HTML for Dummies", shortly followed by "ISDN Network Essentials" and "Computer Telephony Essentials." As 1996 commences, we have just finished revising "HTML for Dummies" for its second edition and are preparing to write "More HTML for Dummies." I seem to have become an overnight "semi-success" in the technical writing field, all thanks to Ed. I still consult and provide technical writing services to individuals and businesses. I also really enjoy creating dynamic Web sites with the appropriate mix of graphic and text elements for maximum effect.

Bicycling

I race bicycles for fun and exercise. It all started with a Trek 850 mountain bike in 1985. That was back in the days when a few of us could ride the Greenbelt hike and bike trail from Barton Springs to the Lost Creek Hill and not see another person....on a Saturday morning in June. After going to Fat Tire Bike Week in Crested Butte, CO. for five years in the late 1980's I began to slowly change into a road weenie. I put slick tires on my Mt. bike and rode it in century rides. I rode the Austin Cycle Association weekend fifty mile rides religiously. Well, to some, bicycling is a religion. Finally I sold the Mt. bike and bought a real road bike (Panasonic Team America).

I began my racing career with a good friend in the Gruene Team Time Trial in November of 1989. We entered the Public 69+ category (combined ages) and amazingly enough, we won. We joined the Violet Crown Sports Association (bicycle racing club/team) in 1990 and began to learn about real racing. Since then I have belonged to two other bicycle racing clubs in Austin and am back with Violet Crown in 1995. During 1995 I finished 6th in the State Championship road race (45-49 year olds), 2nd in the cat 3/4 7 race Crit series this fall, 2nd in the 40+ category in a 54 mi road race, and capped off the season with a 1st place in the Gruene TTT (with John Schreffler) in the 79+ category. I've ridden over 6,500 miles this year and loved nearly every minute of it.

The down side has been crashing three times. Hey, all racers crash. One crash every two years isn't a bad average for a racer, especially when two of them weren't my fault. They are a little tough on the old body though. The last crash was in January of 1995. I was taken down by a kamikaze dog that ran directly into the side of my front wheel. As you can see from my race results at the end of 1995, I healed without any problems. Now if I can manage to keep the dogs at bay in 1996, who knows?

I have been a member of the Austin Cycling Association (touring club) since 1987. I ride the ACA 50 mile rides most Saturday's and Sunday's when I'm not racing. The ACA folks are really a bunch of fun. During the week, I train in the afternoons on Parmer Lane, Hwy.1431, and loop 360. I try to smile and wave at all other bicyclists but sometimes I may be "lost in thought" and miss seeing you on the other side of the road; sorry.

US Swimming Official

In addition to bicycling, I officiate swimming meets as a Referee certified by the United States Swimming organization. My children currently swim for the University of Pennsylvania and Texas Aquatics at the Texas Swim Center on the UT Austin campus. You really haven't lived until you've stood around a swimming pool from 7:00 am until 9:00 pm both Saturday and Sunday while keeping 750 swimmers between the ages of 6 and 18 moving smoothly through up to 15 heats (8 swimmers per heat) of 10 events per day. Why do I do it? Hey....someone has to, or there wouldn't be a swimming meet. I'm just doing my small part to help what I believe is one of the best sports for people of all ages, especially kids. Think about it. What else can and will a 6 year old do on a regular basis, all year long, that works all major muscle groups (including the brain) without the fear of injury? In case you're wondering, yes I used to swim but I find bicycling more exciting now days.

Other Sports and Pastimes

In the past I have been an avid golfer, tennis player, fisherman (bass, salt water, and trout), and rescue certified SCUBA diver. I still read as much good science fiction as I can find. When I can't find "good" SF, I'll even read a bit of cyberpunk. My recent favorites are, "Islands in the Net", "Heavy Weather", "Snow Crash", "Diamond Age, and The Hacker and the Ants." My all time favorite is "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card.

Go to the front door.