Hi, I’m @RalphHightower.

I freeze time; I photograph. I have 50++ years of computer programming and software development; most recently using C# and .Net. Athough I am retired from software development as a vocation, I am still active for personal projects. I have witnessed two final space flights: the US half of the Apollo/Soyuz Test Project, and Space Shuttle STS-135 Atlantis with the Final Four [CDR Chris Ferguson, PLT Doug Hurley, MS1 Sandra Magnus, MS2 Rex Walheim], as well as the final landing next to the control tower of the Shuttle Landing Facility (200 yards from the runway).

Photography is another creative endeavor that I have enjoyed almost as long as I've used computers. I started with film photography in 1980 with the Canon A-1. I added one of my bucket list cameras in July 2013 with the Canon New F-1 with the AE Finder FN and the AE Motor Drive FN. December 2013, I added digital to the mix with the Canon 5D Mark III and the Canon EF 24-105mm f4L.

About me

Various Places Where I May Be

Bucket Lists

I, along with a few other coworkers, were huddled around a portable B&W TV on April 12, 1981 to watch NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia make her maiden voyage. It was then that I, as a 20-something, put seeing a Space Shuttle launch in person on my bucket list. After that was checked ✔️ off, I thought "What's next?", so I added more items.

I also have different categories of bucket lists.

1. Before I Die

• ✓ Space Shuttle Photos: Launch July 8, 2011. Photos: Landing July 21, 2011.
• ✓ The Masters Golf Tournament Photos: Practice Round: Wednesday April 4, 2015.
• Arecibo Observatory⁸
• ✓ Total Solar Eclipse: August 17, 2017 — Chapin, South Carolina, United States of America
• Slot Canyon (color & B&W photographs)
• Aurora Borealis
• Total Solar Eclipse: April 8, 2024
• Indianapolis 500
• ManhattanHenge — New York City, New York
• B&H Photo Video, 420 9th Avenue, New York, NY 10001
• Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (Ayers Rock), Northern Territory, Australia
• Very Large Array – National Radio Astronomy Observatory Two hour drive from Albuquerque, 50 miles west of Socorro, New Mexico
• Hawaii
• Japan (primarily Tokyo)

2. Cars

• Corvette (mid-engine)⁹
• El Camino (65-67)¹⁰
• Mustang (64-67)¹¹
• HHR (2009-2011)¹²
• 55 Chevy Stepside pickup¹³

3. Cameras

• ✓ Canon New F-1 (July 2013, with AE Motor Drive FN, AE Finder FN)¹⁴
• Mamiya 645
• Mamiya RB67 or RZ 67
• 4×5 monorail view camera

4. Computers

• DEC VAX11-780¹⁵
• DEC PDP-11/70¹⁶ or PDP-11/45¹⁶
• Cray 1¹⁷
• Cray 2¹⁷
• DEC PDP-8¹⁸

5. Space Shuttles

• ✓ Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex. Photos: November 2016
• ✓ Discovery at Smithsonian Air Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center. Photos: August 2012
• Endeavour at California Science Center¹⁹

Dewar's Profile

Interests

As an INTP on the Myers-Briggs Personality Assessment, my career in software development was a natural match; I have enjoyed computer programming and software development since my introduction to computer programming in my first engineering class at the University of South Carolina College of Engineering. Our class chose to use the department's Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) PDP-8 minicomputer programming in FOCAL (similar to Dartmouth BASIC). In the next class, we learned to program using the PDP-8 assembly language; which provided the basis for learning other computers instruction sets: Intel 8080/8085, DEC PDP-8 and PDP-11, Motorola 68000, and IBM 360/370. Computer high-level languages: C, C++, C# & .Net, Fortran IV, Java, PL/1, SNOBOL, Algol, Pascal, Visual Basic, Dartmouth BASIC, APL, and Delphi. Operating Systems: Windows, Unix, and Linux. Web markup languages: HTML, JavaScript, and XML.

Photography

Photography is another creative endeavor that I have enjoyed almost as long as I've used computers. My first 35mm SLR is the Canon A-1, which I still own and use is the Canon A-1, an innovative camera in 1980 with its shutter priority, aperture priority, program, stoped-down metering, and manual control; I added a few accessories, and a few lenses. I added digital to the mix with the Canon 5D Mark III and the Canon EF 24-105mm f4L.

My Y2K12 project: Photograph the year exclusively using B&W film. I rediscovered the classic look of B&W film when I photographed the final Space Shuttle landing. Since it was a pre-dawn landing, color would have been wasted. For that year, I had two photography projects:

1. Photograph the sunrise over Columbia, South Carolina from the Lake Murray dam on the equinoxes and solstices;
2. Photograph the full moon rising and setting (started in February and carried over to January).

Camera equipment

Camera Manuals, Software, Firmware: Updates/References

Preferred Photography Retailers

Software Development

In between my employment at NCR E&M-Columbia and SC DHEC, I had a brief tour of duty at Policy Management System (Stock Symbol: PMS). This was during the time when they were fined by the Securities and Exchange Commission because its executive and senior management booked revenue on December 32^nd. I have also worked for a few DOT-COM'S 🎆 that became DOT-BOMB'S 💣 .

• Affinity Technology Group (Stock Symbol: AFFI)
• HealthMagic
• Global Health Technology (bought by CBSI aka Covansys)

As a Software Developer at the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, I developed web applications using C# and .Net using Microsoft Visual Studio and Microsoft SQL Server and IBM DB/2 databases. I have also written Windows services to monitor the health of web applications, their associated databases, SSL certificate expiration and network connectivity to alert the appropriate teams. Besides developing Windows services to monitor web applications and their associated databases, I have developed services to extract data for SFTP file exports on a monthly basis, update SCSERV hospitals and clinics in Microsoft SQL Server with reference data from the EFIS Oracle database.

One large scale Windows application that I developed using C# and .Net for my personal use read the NASA mission schedules for the Space Shuttle missions that they published as Excel spreadsheets and created events in the calendar of Microsoft Outlook using Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Office. I thought that others would be interested in using the application also, so I published the installation executable with the source code on Microsoft’s now decommissioned source code publishing site, Codeplex; I migrated it over to GitHub although support of the application officially ended with wheelstop of Atlantis on mission STS-135 with the Final Four, CDR Chris Ferguson, PLT Doug Hurley, MS1 Sandy Magnus, and MS2 Rex Walheim.

NASA Spaceflight

On July 8, 2011, I was able to check off a 30 year old bucket list item: witness a Space Shuttle launch in person.. I also had the opportunity that few people have seen; I, as well as forty-nine other people by the Shuttle Landing Facility Control Tower, got to see Atlantis land for the final time on July 21, 2011. I have witnessed two final manned spaceflights in person, Atlantis and the US half of Apollo/Soyuz Test Project on July 15, 1975. Atlantis was the second final manned spaceflight that I witnessed in person.

Watching the Space Shuttle land on television, the twin sonic booms sound like a muffled boom.boom. In person, the twin sonic booms that Space Shuttles announce that they are returning home is loud, sharp, and crisp: BANG! BANG!

NASA Spaceflight Replicas

CONCORD AEROSPACE / FULLY OPERABLE SPACECRAFT PANELS – Concord Aerospace

NASA Space Patches / Emblems

Tim Gagnon — kscartist

Personal Projects

Now that I am retired, I am getting into the Arduino, Raspberry Pi(π), and RISC-V ecosystem.

Publications

Authored Websites, Software Applications

Obsolete Computer Collection

My wife bought me a Sun SparcStation IPX at a company salvage sale so I could keep my UNIX skills active. I had Apache Web Server with OpenSSL installed from source code, and OpenLDAP also installed from source code using gcc. I installed Apache web server installed on my Windows NT Workstation as a proxy server so the SparcStation and Linux server could share internet access, first using dial-up and later with cable.

A technology company had shut down and one of the Affinity Technology Group former coworkers rescued a DEC VAXStation II/GPX from being trashed. He was moving from South Carolina to Washington (home of Microsoft) and he was going to toss it in the dumpster. He asked if I wanted it. "Sure!" That is a heavy sucka!

HP (Hewlett-Packard) Calculators²⁷

The Museum of HP Calculators

SwissMicros - RPN Calculators RPN Calculators

SwissMicros - Product Line

Beagles

Paula and I have had and raised Beagles since 1979 when someone dropped a Beagle off in our neighborhood, who we named Sport. We have put the obedience title, Companion Dog (CD) on Ranger and Runner. We got Writer and Rebecca from conformation breeder and they have earned Championships along with the CD obedience titles.

We have bred and raised a few litters.

Show Beagles Worldwide Magazine

Water-skiing

I enjoy water-skiing. I learned on Lake Greenwood, South Carolina. I consider Lake Murray, South Carolina to be my "home lake" since I live nearby. My wife, Paula, and I would camp at Hamilton Branch State Park on Clark Hill Lake, South Carolina and Georgia.

Bodies of Water That I Have Skiied:

• South Carolina Lakes
  • Lake Greenwood
  • Lake Murray
  • Clark Hill Lake
• Midwestern Rivers
  • Cedar River (Cedar Rapids, Iowa)
  • Mississippi River (between the Quad Cities of Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline, Illinois)

Craft Beer Breweries in South Carolina

• 12 Mistakes You're Making When Visiting A Brewery

South Carolina has a number of craft beer breweries. The heading links to a list of the current active breweries. Below are my favorite brews:

1. River Rat Broad River Red Ale
2. River Rat Mourning Stout
3. Steelhands Coffee Lager
4. Palmetto Brewing Expresso
5. Palmetto Brewing GhostRider
6. Holy City Brewing Bowens Island Oyster Stout
7. Legal Remedy World Court Mocha Blonde Stout.
8. Steelhands Pecan Brown Ale

Television Series Reboots and Spinoffs (Worth Watching)

I enjoy television 📺 series that have been rebooted or spun off from my favorite series. Below is a link to the series that have been rebooted or spun off that actually have a plot and worth watching.

Television Series Reboots and Spinoffs

Tabasco Sauce Scoville Ratings

Tabasco Sauce Scoville Ratings

USC — University of South Carolina

University of South Carolina Athletics

Sky Above, Events, Weather

Microsoft

Preferred Photography Vendors

I have bought new and used equipment from B&H²¹ and used equipment from KEH²⁰, including a complete Canon New F-1 system. KEH also does camera repairs. I have rented lenses from lensrentals.com²² for use at The Masters and for the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse.

Sports

Golf

South Carolina Electric Cooperatives Outages Map