Personal Profile

Rick Swenton

Bristol, CT

I am married to to Gail (Planchard) for 35 years and have two wonderful adult daughters, Cathy and Rachel. Cathy graduated from Northeastern University in Boston in 2005. She is living in Seattle and working as a Program Manager for Microsoft. In September 2009 Cathy married Kevin Sullivan (also a Northeastern alumnus and Microsoft employee). Rachel graduated from Northeastern University in 2009.  She moved to Seattle to begin her new career at Microsoft.  She just completed her two year assignment in the APEX Program and started in a new position.  In September 2011 she became engaged to Mike O'Connor.

My primary career was electrical engineering. I worked for Eastman Kodak Company for 23 years having various assignments from Field Engineer to Field Specialist to Service Manager. When our entire division was sold to Danka Office Imaging I continued with Danka for 3 more years where I managed on-site customer service in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Working for Kodak as a Field Engineer was one of the most rewarding positions in the world.  See my Kodak Images of the Past page.

I was a Regional Technical Support Manager and a Strategic Account Manager with Sun Microsystems working from the Connecticut office for 10 years. I was responsible for customer service hardware and software support for several large national accounts in the enterprise computing environment. Chances are that many of the web pages you see over the internet are still coming from Sun computers.  When Sun acquired StorageTek I began to support those customers and products as well.

  In the beginning of 2010 Sun Microsystems was acquired by Oracle.  My posiiton was retained and I continue at Oracle as a Systems Service Delivery Manager.  My peers and I continue to support a wide variety of hardware and software platforms from high-end servers, mainframe and open systems storage, and software from Solaris and Linux through all the Oracle database and applications products.

I am very involved in my parish at St. Joseph Church in Bristol CT:

• Catechist, Confirmation teacher, Adult and Youth education, workshop and seminar presenter.
• Liturgist.
  
• Cantor, Vocal Choir and Handbell Choir member.
• Completed the 2006-2008 Archdiocesan Lay Ministry Formation Program, Class #33.
• Published church music composer.
• Member emeritus, Pastoral Council and past chair for nine years.
• Parish webmaster.
• Parish and School Technology and Computer IT administrator.

I have presented numerous workshops and seminars on music, the sacraments, worship and liturgy within the parish and the central Connecticut area. I am a member of the Hartford Chapter of the National Pastoral Musicians (NPM) and have moderated discussion panels on church music. Some of my original music compositions appear on CDs available from the Holy Family Monastery and Retreat Center in West Hartford CT., run by the Passionist Community, and on CDs that accompany the Quest program for Small Christian Communities from the Archdiocese of Hartford. I have a piece published by Oregon Catholic Press.  My music is also used within our parish liturgies and in several churches in the Northeast.

I teach classes on liturgy for the Archdioce of Hartford Lay Ministry Formation Program.

I am a hard core computer hobbyist with a focus on home automation and remote control of houses and radio equipment over the internet. I was an expert hacker of the Motorola Razr V3c and the Palm Treo 655p. I was a power user of the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet.  I currently push the limits of the Morotola Droid smartphone and I hacked the Barnes  Noble Nook Color reader into a full blown tablet computer running Android.  I was a Linux user since 1993 having installed the Slackware distro as my first. My very first computer was a homemade 8080 system with a 2K EPROM and 256 bytes of RAM.  I programmed it in machine language using programs from reference books using an EPROM Programmer.  I had it interfaced to a Model 35ASR Teletype.  The software had an editor and assembler.  I could write programs on the Teletype and save them on paper tape!   My first real computer was the Heathkit H89 which I built in 1983. Although I no longer have any H89's I do have a fully operational Kaypro-10!

My friends and I re-wrote the Heath BIOS for the H89. We converted it to Z80 instructions, improved efficiency and functionality, reduced its size and added ZCPR3/Z-System support. We eventually built Ampro and Micromint SB180 systems and modified hardware and software on those systems with a passion. Before the internet we used modems and the nationwide telephone network to connect to each others computers through what was called Bulletin Board Systems. I authored many magazine articles published in REMark, the journal of the Heath/Zenith Users Group. (Bill Gates also had articles published there although we did not appear in any of the same issues.) I also authored articles for The Computer Journal and I was associate editor of the SEBHC Journal and a regular contributor.

I created an X10 home control software package for CP/M that used the X10 CP290 interface. This program used the standard IMP/MEX serial port overlays which allowed the program to run on all the popular CP/M computers of the day.  All these programming initiatives were accomplished in Z80 assembly language. In modern times my homes are controlled by computers and accessed over the internet including by smartphone.  Lights, heating, air conditioning, security and environment are monitored and controlled.  See my Home Automation Page.

In modern times I have created and administer several web sites for my parish, parish school and other organizations.  I have recently started learning the Parallax Propeller controller to start developing hardware and software again.

I am a licensed Amateur Radio Operator and repeater builder, call sign WA1LMV, since 1969, with an Advanced Class license. My first Teletype was a Model 15.  I also had Models 19, 28ASR and 35ASR machines.  I have built and operated several VHF and UHF repeater systems throughout central Connecticut. I was one of the 6 Meter repeater pioneers in Connecticut with WR1AIB on the air in 1978. I developed custom repeater control logic that evolved into a personally designed microprocessor based controller. I wrote the software myself which consisted of 170 pages of Z80 assembly language instructions. See my Ham Radio Page.