Software & IT
Need a website? I can make one that fits your needs.
Have a website already? I can improve it, perform content updates, and add an SSL certificate.
Website broken? I can bring it back to life, usually within an hour or two.
E-commerce - Online store, ticket sales, donations. Whether for a one-time event or ongoing business. I have setup online payments with PayPal, Square, Shopify, Stripe, and the Canadian Interac e-transfer system.
Retail Payments - Want to accept credit cards in person or over the phone? I will sit down with you, set up your Square account and equipment, and train you so that you never lose a sale. Not just for stores and service providers, it's great for event tickets, fundraisers, silent auctions, donations, and farmer's market vendors. With no monthly fees and little or no setup cost, it's great to have on hand and ready to go just in case an opportunity arises.
Custom software is not just for big companies. If you deal with information, you might need a better way.
Hiring me for just one hour could save you days or weeks of work.
Faced with a difficult or repetitive task? Want to offer a handy tool for internal or external use? Do you have text, data, or files that need to be searched, reformatted, fixed, cleaned, or otherwise transformed? If you ever wanted a task to go away, it's time to call in the computers.
If you can describe the problem, I can probably write a program to solve it. Programming is, in the end, merely a matter of writing recipes and rules in a manner that a computer can understand, so that the computer can do a faster, cheaper, and better job of it.
I can make desktop, web, and mobile applications as suit your needs.
My preferred working languages are Python, PHP, Javascript, HTML, and CSS, but I am flexible.
Need to do something special in Excel?
Do you have lists of information that need to be reformatted or cleaned up?
Dabbling in analytics and need a pivot table?
On-demand, quick turnaround service by phone and email is available. Get what you need in minutes, not days.
Save money - I will look at your usage and propose ways to cut costs and improve service based on your needs.
SMS text messaging - People will almost always read a text message. Automatically send convenient reminders and other notifications to your customers.
Test your marketing - Publish a different phone number for each ad campaign and see which one actually causes your phone to ring. Virtual phone numbers that forward to your usual phone line can be rented for far less than the cost of a traditional land line.
Advanced call routing - Set up an automated call dispatching system for after-hours sales and customer service. Never miss a call. Never miss a sale. Keep your customers happy.
Databases - Have you hit the limits of Excel? Are you updating the same piece of information in more than one place? You probably need a database. It need not be complicated or expensive.
Analytics - Too much information? I can develop custom tools or configure off-the-shelf software to help you find the big picture patterns and nuggets of gold to help you make decisions.
Are you or your staff losing track of customers, requests, problems, leads, sales? Is your email inbox clogged? What if there was a way to keep on top of everything?
Running a business, on any scale, is about consistently delivering on expectations. Doing so efficiently ensures profitability, customer value, job satisfaction, and long-term competitiveness.
Implementing a business process management (BPM) tool can quickly and inexpensively ensure that nothing is ever lost, that follow-ups happen, that jobs get done, and that timelines and deadlines are either met or flagged for further attention. From following up on a quote to making sure that urgent maintenance tasks are performed by a team member, a BPM system can ensure that your organization does what needs to be done.
For example:
- Vacation requests to managers can be quickly submitted, approved, and forwarded to HR without moving any paper or sending any email.
- Expense reports and reimbursement. Was it received? Has it been entered? Has a cheque been issued? Has the cheque been delivered?
- Urgent maintenance tasks can be dispatched to available team members, automatically flagged if no acknowledgement is received within a desired timeframe, and then updated online as started, in-progress, and completed.
A BPM gives everyone involved in a process a clear window into its state without needing to email or call to check in. Use email for personalized, non-routine communication rather than a catch-all that quickly becomes an unmanageable mess.
AI is a huge field. But it can be as simple as an online product selection tool that asks a series of multiple-choice questions and leads customers to the right solution. I am experimenting with machine vision using OpenCV.
Electronics & Automation
Display live information from the internet, text messages, PLCs, sensors, and pretty much anything else on inexpensive flat-screen TV screens using a $40 mini-computer. For example, a production status display for an egg processing plant.
Keep an eye on production totals, temperatures, or anything else that can be measured from across the room or across the world. Record the information for further analysis using Excel or more advanced tools.
Smoke alarms save lives. How? They make sure you know of a serious problem in time for you to do something about it.
Wouldn't it be nice to know about other serious problems? From engine overheating to faulty refrigeration systems, the occasional failure still costs real money, time, and, sometimes, reputation.
With an electronic sensor connected to audible, visual, telephone, SMS text, or email notification systems, you or your staff will be able to respond quickly and effectively.
The cost of this equipment has fallen dramatically. Sensors can cost as little as a $1 and control units less than $50. You just need someone to find the right parts, connect them together, and write a bit of software. And I’ve been doing just that for close to a decade.
Want something to happen automatically or by remote control? The future is here and the equipment needed is getting more economical every day.
The following sensors are commercially available and typically cost within the $1 to $100 range. They can be connected to alarms, displays, monitors, loggers, automatic control systems, USB stick, SD card, computer, internet server, or mobile device as per your needs. I can also connect with existing sensors you have in your facility.
Position (1 cm accuracy over km-level ranges using multiband GNSS)
Vibration
Touch
Force
Compression
Shock
Tilt
Proximity
Motion
Movement (see through walls)
FLIR (forward looking infrared) cameras
LIDAR (laser rangefinding, room surveying)
Depth-sensing cameras
Light level
Color/Spectroscopy
Obstruction
Flex
Angle
Acceleration
Spin/Gyroscope
Orientation/Heading
Speed
Location (GPS)
Distance
Altitude
Barometric pressure
Humidity
Soil moisture
Temperature (contact & non-contact)
Sound
CO2
CO
LPG/Propane
CNG/Methane/Natural gas
Alcohol vapor
Hydrogen gas
pH
Dissolved oxygen
Liquid conductivity
Voltage
Current
Power
RFID
Magstripe card
Wind speed
Particulate matter
Dust
Liquid level
Magnetic field / Hall effect
Geiger counter (gamma and beta radiation)
UV
Geophone (Seismic)
Fingerprint
Fluid pressure (air, gas, water, liquid)
Airflow
Water depth
Weight/mass (load cells)
Pulse
ECG
EEG / brainwaves (experimental)
Myoelectric / muscle movement (experimental)
Track inventory, vehicles, equipment, tools, parts, livestock, and more using the latest electronic sensors, GPS, Wi-Fi, RFID, barcode scanners, mobile phones, cellular networks, inexpensive radio links, and the internet.
If you need to get any piece of equipment to communicate with another thing, a human, a phone, the internet, or your dog, I can probably figure out a way.
Want your lights to turn on when somebody sends you a Paypal payment? Your toaster to text you when your toast is ready? A guidance system to help a dementia patient find his way around? A system to nag your teenager when he's driving aggressively? I'd love to help and have set up a nice little R&D lab right here in town to bring customized high tech solutions to whoever needs them.
Among other things, I have personal experience making all of these talk with each other: Modbus TCP, RS-485, RS-422, RS-232, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, OBDII, TTL, CMOS, I2C, SPI, serial, web APIs, GPIO, Linux, Windows, Mac, Android, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Atmel MCU, Apache web servers, barcode scanners, RFID readers, XBee wireless, Bluetooth, OLE/DDE, MySQL, SQLite, PHP, Python, Javascript, C++, command-line, and connecting to proprietary protocols.
I have a small R&D lab ready to prototype a wide array of Internet-of-Things (IoT) type devices. I am learning printed circuit board (PCB) design in order to produce more reliable and compact devices. I have identified a number of very cost-effective USA-based PCB fabrication plants in order to maximize domestic content and ensure quick turn-around.