and my life’s needs and wants.I believe she also advised me that for every purpose there was a counter purpose and that it was important to know the difference between the two. The differences would help me determine right from wrong. No small task, but what else was I to do for the nine months. I could either choose to listen or not to. I believe I chose to listen and even though it took me nearly forty years I was finally able to put these lessons down on paper.
I am sure that others would have had the same experience as me – If one paid close attention to what their mother was saying and if their mother was a good enough communicator and if their environment was friendly enough, they too would have been able to realize what their purposes were.
No mean feat for a fetus, however if the spirit is willing and one’s belief strong enough, an insignificant body should not present too much of an obstacle.
Let me share with you what my mother shared with me in the hope that it will rekindle your purposes, dispel the counter purposes and leave you with a sense that peace and goodwill can emerge from the turmoil currently facing all of us.
. Leads
back to a famous
Rabbi Avraham Wolfensohn (1783–1855), my paternal great-great
grandfather.I have a memory of the day the ambulance came to take my brother Matthew to hospital. My sister and I were placed in the lounge and I remember the frosted glass sliding doors between the lounge and the passage way being closed. However I can still recall seeing the gurney being wheeled passed the door.
Sang in the Yeoville Synagogue choir to earn pocket money
The principal of Yeoville Boys decided to introduce a prefect system and decided to limit the tenure to 2 terms. I was appointed a prefect for the final 2 terms and probably made more enemies than friends. Most of my prefecture was spent monitoring late comers and that was probably what miffed off a lot of people.
Sang in the Yeoville Synagogue choir to earn pocket money. All my choir and bar mitzvah money was used to buy food for my family.
I spent the whole of my school holiday writing my one and only science fiction book. I gave my only copy to my English teacher for his opinion and never got it back. I think I can still remember the plot. Something about a boy finding a flying saucer in the fields and on entering it found a ray gun (or something like that).
Auditioned for a part in the school play and got the role as the second lead (Henry Earl of Derby) in the play 'Richard of Bordeaux'
The school decided to run a cricketing competition for all the boys who were not in a school cricketing team. I was a shoe in simply because I added to the numbers. I remember well the time I faced my first ball, it was wide outside the off stump and I executed a marvelous square cut, only to see the point fieldsman (I can still remember his name today - Paul Orlando who was a height challenged) leap into the air to dismiss me for a duck. So much for my school cricketing career.
Started to play bridge in the school library.
At the end of the year I wrote my matric. Unfortunately due to unhappy circumstances that existed between my father and mother (which often culminated in loud and angry words between them) made studying very difficult for me.
Even though I tried my hardest I barely scrapped through my exams with a C average. I got an F for Afrikaans and if it was not for the D I got for Latin, I would have had to have sat a follow up Afrikaans exam. So I guess I have to openly admit that a scholar, I was not. Then again I did get a B for mathematics and a C for science, so there is another wart on my history (which I think received a C as well).
Apr - Was drafted into the army (South African Irish) and spent 8 months in uniform - Company clerk with rank of corporal. In 1965 there were numerous skirmishes on the border between Angola and South West Africa (now known as Namibia). The 1st Transvaal Scottish was sent to the border to fight the Cuban guerilla insurgents. Hence I did not see any action. In a way I was fortunate to have been born and brought up in South Africa as if I had been born in the USA or Australia, I would probably have been conscripted to fight in the Vietnam War.
I did however manage to secure a job as a lab assistant with AE&CI
Started karate. I joined the Stan Schmidt Dojo as I decided it was time to learn how to defend myself. By the end of 1966 I had managed to attain my yellow and orange belts. So I was now only 6 belts away from my 1st Dan.
I continued practicing karate and by the end of 1967 managed to attain my green belt, but when I tried out for my blue belt I was just not good enough so I only received a half blue.
I also had to abandon my karate classes as I could no longer afford the fees, I did however manage to attain my purple belt before I had to stop training. I was only 3 belts away from my 1st Dan.
Thinking back, I realised that to continue on to my 1st brown belt (one had to attain 3 brown belts before being eligible to try out for the first Dan) was going to demand a greater demand on my time. Added to this I would be expected to enter a lot more competitions and suddenly the gloss wore off. Perhaps I was not cut out so leaving was not all that difficult.
As I was driving to the dojo to terminate my karate classes, a young driver jumped a stop street and collided with my car. It was a near fatal car accident and I am fortunate to have walked away from it without too many injuries. I later discovered that the driver of the other car had been a fellow student at KES.
I sought gainful employment and found work as a shop assistant selling shoes and later watch spare parts and waterproofing products.
I sold my Triumph Herald and bough a second hand Hillman Super Minx.
Thinking back on that time, if I had married Cheryl I may never have wanted for anything financially, as her parents were very wealthy farmers. However, it would have meant me living a double life and I may never have migrated to Australia nor developed the most important idea of my life.
Through the auspices of Hilda Schneier, I Secured a position at Nissan Motor Co as a liaison officer. I earned the grand sum of R100.00 per month.
I no longer regard myself as a Scientologist.
I joined the Foundation Wing of the Church of Scientology (Foundation ran evening and week end services). I taught the Hubbard Amateur Scientology course, which was a basic course that taught confront and communication.
Saw an advert for a computer programming course at
Two months into the course I saw an advert for job as a trainee programmer, I approached my lecturer and showed him the advert and asked if he thought I should apply – he said yes, so I did and I got the job with Automated Business Systems (ABS)
I learnt to program in COBOL on a Burroughs B3500. In those 'good old days' all the coding was done on coding sheets using pencil and erasers. The code was then sent to a secretarial service where the code was transferred onto punch cards. This action could take between 3 to 5 working days, depending on the size of the program and the workload.
Once the cards were returned to me, it would then be sent to the computer room where computer operators had to schedule the work, feed the cards into a card reader hopper and compile the program. More often enough the first compile would fail due to a misplaced full stop or spelling error. It would sometimes take 3 or 4 attempts to get a clean compile and this could take anything up to a week to achieve.
Once a clean compile was achieved, it could take a further5 to 10 attempts to fully test the program. It was not uncommon for a medium sized program (about 500 - 1,000 punch cards) to take 4 to 6 weeks to ready it for system testing.
With todays technology the time has been dramatically reduced, however the quality of the programming these days still leaves a lot to be desired.
I was promoted to the position of Public Executive Services head in the Church of Scientology (Foundation).
I wrote a number of programs for several clients of ABS. I was sent to Cape Town to work on a project for a major client. Unfortunately due to a program specification error (written by a director of the company) I was blamed for the the resulting loss of data and was fired. There was not much that I could have done about it as I was too inexperienced to have noticed the mistake and the software that we were using produced no warning messages.
I guess I just had to chalk this one up to experience and move on.
I thought that this was an ideal time to try my hand at the only other thing I wanted to do and acting seemed to be the solution.
However on approaching a casting agent he told me that I would never make it as an actor. Apparently I had a nervous twitch which involved me continuously licking my lips. Naturally I was devastated as I saw my future slipping away.
Then out of the blue the agent threw me a life line. He asked me what work I did, I told him I was a computer programmer. He then told me he had a friend who was looking for a programmer, He phoned his friend (a man by the name of Gary Russack at Nixdorf Computers) and arranged an interview for me.
I was interviewed and got a job at Nixdorf. I had to learn a whole new programming language (Nixdorf assembler) for a very strange looking computer. It had hardly any random access memory, very limited code space and had to use hard wired instruction boards to store the computer code. But I learnt to do more with less, a lesson that has served me very well.
I resigned my position in the Church of Scientology as I was about to be transferred to Durban. My daytime job paid me a great deal more than the Church so it was a no brainer.
I was told I was in in line for the role of project manager, however I was passed over by a German employee. I was a bit downtrodden but as my prime objective was to get the system to work, I overcame my disappointment by delivering the best work I could possibly do.
I traded in my Nissan SSS and bought a second hand Nissan 1800 Coupe.
Relationship link (to be completed).
He and I developed a friendship that would go on from this time forth.
I had to learn IBM assembler and wrote a few programs in it. This is where I learnt a salient lesson from and IBM systems programmer which I again taught me very well. Lesson learnt: ‘never believe what you read’
My manager decided to throw me into the 'deep end' as the bank had invested a fair amount of money on a new data base engine called VanD/L1 (short for Vancouver data language) and they wanted to develop a general ledger system using this technology. So I became an analyst programmer.
Due to the fact that I felt as business operatives seemed unable to describe their needs to me (or perhaps I was just not skilled enough to ask the right question at the right time) I decided to withdraw into a world that I felt I had a bit more control of, namely programming systems for a smaller sized enterprise. I saw an advertised job from Castrol that was embarking on a new system that was going to use a relatively new data base engine called - Total. I applied for the position, had an interview and secured the job, so I resigned from the bank. Perhaps if I had stayed at the bank I may have retired as their CEO (joke).
As soon as I joined Castrol I was again thrown into the world of 'the blind (data base designers) leading the blind (code cutters)'. The entire edp staff were sent on a data base design course, to learn how to design data bases using a technique called 'Normalisation'. I soon discovered that 'normalised data' depends very much on who is looking at the data. In fact if 5 data base designers were given the same set of data to normalise, one would probably end up with 5 different data base designs. So once again my 'perfect' world was shattered. How could known facts (namely data) treat intelligent people so badly. I had to wait another 15 years to uncover the solution to this conundrum.
I sold my Nissan 1800 to my brother-in-law's brother.
Oct - flew to
My initial application to migrate to Australia was rejected on the grounds that I did not have the relevant experience (even though my 5 years of working in the data processing industry was the requirement). I was able to apply for a number of jobs in Australia but somehow none of the organisations would commit to offering me a job. All they basically told me that if I was in Australia I would have no difficulty in securing a position with their organisation. Talk about a catch 22 situation.
Fortunately the agent that had placed me in gainful employment and who was endeavoring to establish a mutual placement of personnel between the UK and Australia and vice versa, met with the Australian advisor on professions in the UK and discussed my case and within 2 weeks I was considered eligible for migration.
Roy applied for Australian permanent residency whilst still living in South Africa and later that year I drove him to Durban, where he boarded a boat and sailed off to his new life.
Applied to CIG for their data base administrator (dba). I fell ill 3 months after joining the company and had to undergo my first ever operation.
When I returned to work, my position had been filled by another dba so I was offered the position of that of a business analyst. CIG contracted a American consultant to head up the cylinder recording system as CIG had a huge problem monitoring their gas cylinders. This was my first exposure to business operatives who really had no idea as to what they wanted in a system and it was a matter of the 'blind (the electronic data processing department) leading the blind (the business operatives)'.
It was at this time that my sister (who was living in Johannesburg, South Africa) informed me that her husband had been arrested for brandishing a fire arm whilst intoxicated. He was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment and I had to seek leave from CIG in order to try to help my family. My manager managed to get me a post as a business analyst with Afrox so I would at least be earning a salary whilst in South Africa. Whilst I was in South Africa I bought a VW Beetle.
When my brother-in-law was released I decided to take a quick holiday and spent a few weeks in London and Israel. While in Israel I managed to see Jerusalem (where I walked the 14 Stations of the Cross - the Via Dolorosa and got to place a message in the Wailing Wall), Masada, The Dead Sea, Tel Aviv, Jericho, Bethlehem, the Golan Heights and Jaffa (the birth place of my father). It was to say the lease a very interesting and enjoyable trip
When I returned to Australia, I was then asked to develop a program design course based on the work carried out by a British computer scientist (Michael A Jackson) called the Jackson application development (JAD) approach. Basically the idea was that the data structure of the files and reports used by the program actually provided the outline for the program structure. This made perfect sense to me and I took to the task with great enthusiasm.
I bought a second hand Nissan 120Y automatic.
I produced the course but due to the restructuring of the organisation, I was made redundant and asked to leave.
I attested to the State of Clear in the Church of Scientology, If you really want to know more about this please follow this link.
I then joined ICL as an Analyst and team leader.
I traded in my Nissan 120Y and bought a new Alfa Romeo Giulietta.
Relationship link (to be completed).
I used JAD approach to design the required programs for a client that ICL had not been able to satisfy for some time. I produced the pseudo code for the programs and ICL hired a contract programmer to write the program. When I requested a program walk through with the programmer, I found that he had not followed the pseudo code and when I asked him why not, he said my code would not work. I then led him through my pseudo code and demonstrated that my code did indeed work and that it was more efficient than his.
I then realised that I could make more money as a contract programmer than as a team leader so I decided to leave ICL
May - Heyile Pty Limited was bought to enable me to work as an independent contractor.
I bought my first home (a 2 bedroom unit in an older style block) in Bellevue Hill in Sydney for $87,000. As I was not able to afford the deposit, Roy and I bought the unit together. I was to live in it and pay an additional amount of the mortgage equivalent to the going rate of rent at that time.
Jun - The Theta Superannuation Fund was established.
I transferred ownership of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta to Roy and bought a new Alfa Romeo Sprint
On completion of this contract I was given the position of Timeshare project leader, which I carried out to the best of my ability.
It was during this time that I decided I needed a personal computer and found the Apple IIe. I also discovered the Pascal programming language and decided to develop my own general ledger system.
I bought the Apple IIe computer from a company called ComputerLand and owned and run by a South African called David Saul. David interested me in a project to develop a computer system for a chain of video stores called Dr What.
It was at this time that I designed and developed the video recording system using the Apple IIe and Pascal. Unfortunately the owner of the video store had a friend in the EDP industry and after I demonstrated the prototype, the client's associate said that he could develop the system just as well, so David and I lost the opportunity to pioneer the video store system. This also had the effect of terminating any future I may have had with ComputerLand.
Naturally I was dejected and after 3 months I was passing the store and decided to call in to see how the system had progressed only to find that the project had been scrapped. My first lost opportunity brought about by the interference of another consultant.
As CitiCorp had no further work for me, I left.
I managed to get a contract with British Leyland
In Apr I saw an advert for an information Engineering consultant and decided to apply for the position. I was not interviewed but my application was not accepted.
By June IE were unable to find a suitable person so they re-advertised. I decided to re-apply and this time I was successful and secured the position of of a junior consultant to redesign their data analysis course.
I attended their Information Architecture course and realisation IE had a lot of weaknesses.
IE promoted a tour of
Worked with joint MD Adrian Tidswell (AT) – CF in Aussie data dictionary design - AT asked to resign – CF returned to the States - PH, RP & SA walked out of IEW and took all the clients with them and agree to pay IE a commission
Apr - Stephen and I parted company
Jun - IE - At the time when the '3' amigos' walked out of IE, CF asked me if I was going too. I replied I had no idea what they were up to at the time and that I would be staying on. CF asked me to 'hold the fort' until he could get back to Australia.
When CF met with me he asked me what position I wanted to take up and I replied to be appointed as the Technical director. He agreed and I undertook the tasks of not only redesigning the IE methodology (content and courses), but also designed the data bases for the data dictionary, as well as consulted and lectured;.
At that time besides the Apple Macintosh, IBM introduced the pc. I used Pascal to write User:Data which took me 6 months to install the first working version.
Jul - I was granted Australian Citizenship.
I sold the Alfa Romeo Sprint and took over a BMW 3 from Roy.
CF hired a consultant by the name of Eric Beeby who was purported to be well versed in IE. However after a near fatal consulting exercise with a client in Adelaide, it was left up to me to save the contract. Thankfully I had enough nous to do so. The manager of the client ( EWS) gave me a week to rectify the problem and later added that if is was not for the work I subsequently did, he would have terminated the contract.
CF hired a Prof Birkett from a Sydney university to provide the strategic planning component of the IE methodology. When I spoke to the professor and asked him as to what output I could expect from his approach in order to feed the data analysis component, I was informed that he would not provide me with anything. I soon discovered that his approach to strategic planning comprised of doing a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunity and threat) analysis to uncover the business strategies. After time I discovered that this approach was next to useless.
It was at this time that we discovered that the '3 amigos' who walked out of IE had formed the company called Doll-Martin (owned by a man called Dixon Doll and the person that CF had co-authored the IE book, namely James Martin)
CF appointed Robert Smith (RS) as the R&D manager
CF appointed Jonathan Farrell (JF) as a salesman given the task of marketing and selling IE in the market place.
It was at this time that
Justice Information Services (Adelaide) - Undertook a major consulting assignment
Australian Department of Defense
I bought Roy out of his share of the Bellevue Hill unit as he needed the funds to purchase his own home.
I sold the BMW and bought a new Renault Fuego.
RS hired Chris Mrakas (CM) as technical support
Undertook a major consulting assignment with BHP.
I attested to the State of Clear OT in the Church of Scientology. According to the Scientology dictionary, a Clear OT is a being that "will not slip on the banana peel". To me this meant that I was as stable as a human being as I could be and as far as I was concerned this was the end of my journey into the subject of Scientology.
As a side private exercise, I wrote a repossession system for a colleague of mine using Omnis 5 and on an Apple Mac.
I realised that Australia was too small a market for a product like information engineering and User:Data so I took the opportunity to 'make my fortune' by selling the Bellevue Hill unit. My timing could not have been worse as the property market was in a slump and I had to settle for a sale price $89,000. Looking back, if I had kept the unit, it would probably have been worth well over $250,000 by 2003. Still it was a lesson I had to learn.
I sold the Renault Fuego.
CF and JF worked on US Navy contract tender - IE told their application was unsuccessful - DB spoke to the US Navy convener and IE was back in the race - IE won the lucrative $6 million US Navy contract ahead of some 35 other organisations - including Texas Instruments (IEF – A COBOL program generator); James Martin (IEW); Andersen's (Foundation & Method/1) to name but a few.
IESC was set up in the USA and a few Australian consultants sent to the USA
Apr - Sent to USA in as VP technology, but due to a visa mix up I was turned back at the airport and sent back to Australia via the UK
Sep - visa fixed and returned to the USA in - dog & pony shows - technical directive over ruled by CF - vindicated - realised the US Navy contract was only a license to market to the US Navy,
Dec - returned to Australia to specify the strategic planning component of User:Data as that was a real weakness and the cause of the problem with CF and the junior consultant
Nov - The Theta Superannuation Fund was closed
I bought a second had Mazda RX7
DB approached Andersens and managed to persuade them to engage us to approach their developers in the USA to see if there was a fit between what I was doing and what they had.
The trip to San Francisco, where I was asked by DB to buy him a leather jacket for himself and a handbag for his wife on my Amex with a promise that he would pay me back once we were paid by Andersen. (This loan has never been repaid).
We returned to
I made one more attempt to secure funding from Andersens - I prepared a presentation with full financials forecasts and cash flow analysis and presented it to a senior partner at Andersens - I was told that as I thought the venture would make a lot of money in the second year, why did I need them! Another bitter lesson learnt.
IE went into receivership in June 1988 I lost my investment, - JF bought the debt and the rights to User:Data - CM and the ex IE development team form Infonetics and launch their Unix based data dictionary called Metadata.
He flew me to
I carried out 2 significant contracts while at Cortex. One with Alco Steel (where I learnt how to identify the difference between a critical success factor and a performance indicator) and the other with Beneficial finance.
I saw an advert on TV for Mind Powers as taught by Kerry Riley. I signed up and started the course which ran for about 6 weeks. It was an interesting concept, but once Kerry decided to pursue the path of relationships and sex, I decided that this subject was not for me.
The CorRect project was put on hold and I had no alternative but to resign as I had no other work to do.
I managed to get a job at Australian Stock Exchange to developed a data analysis course.
I traded in the Mazda RX7 and bought a new Ford Capri convertible.
Testimonial 1 Testimonial 2
Unfortunately, due to technical reasons, the conversion of CorVision from the Vax to the AS/400 was halted.
Peter Eburne interviewed me for the potion at the ASX and hired me.
I was approached by CM to form Infonetics Consulting and offered a 50% shareholding and the position of MD with a salary and commission. As I felt that I could work well with CM I accepted. I undertook a major consulting assignment with Telstra in
I found a problem with the software and when I returned to
Work was drying up; I approached MLC and secured a contract. At the same time Telstra awarded Infonetics Consulting a short contract. During a session with the client’s stakeholders, I was accused by an Infonetics consultant (a director) of wasting the client’s time by trying to uncover their performance indicators (and this in front of the client). He terminated the session and I was hauled over the coals by CM and 3 of the Infonetics directors and asked to resign.
I managed to retain the MLC contract personally, as Infonetics Consulting could not provide a consultant with my experience. This of course did not sit well with either MLC or Infonetics as I was made to look like the ‘bad guy’. Once the work at MLC was completed, I decided to fund the development of my information architect workbench and software product as I could not get anyone interested. I thought if I could at least get the product to a demonstrable stage, someone would come along and help fund it (as I did not have enough funds to do the full job).
Contract with MLC in Sydney. Testimonial
Wrote the auctioneering system.
I managed to secure a business analyst position with the RTA in
I started to use and sell Herbalife products. This venture lasted for a few months and after spending a lot of time placing leaflets in letter boxes, I soon found out that as I was not the only Herbalife distributor in the area, it soon dawned on me that I was probably wasting my time and money, so I gave this up.
Contract with the RTA in Sydney. Testimonial
AIIA trade show – I presented the Ripose compilers at the trade show at Circular Quay.
I sold the Ford Capri and bought a new Eunos
My family - bar and bat mitzvah of Marc & Megan
Still working for RTA.
Wrote the Debt recovery system
After signing a 1 year extension to my contract, the RTA appointed a new CEO. His first order of the day was to cut 2 positions in the IT Dept, mine being one of them. 3 months later I read a report in a newspaper that the CEO was spending $800,000 revamping his office.
I managed to secure a contract with Megatech and consulted with CSR. I developed a generic knowledge model for the client. Three of Megatech’s consultants came up from
I wrote my first (and possibly my last) book called 'Breaking the systems barrier' as an attempt to briefly explain the Ripose Technique. As I was unable secure a publisher, I had to self publish and as I was not flush with funds, could only afford to print 99 copies. I gave away most of the copies and currently have 3 left. I have however produced a pdf of the book which is available should anyone want a copy ( a small donation would be appreciated). The précis of the pdf can be found by following this link
Sep - I applied for a business analyst’s position with WorkCover but was unsuccessful.
Nov - I was contacted again and advised that as the consultant who had been awarded the contract decided he was unable to fulfill the task and I was offered the position.
Rather than clutter up my autobiography with the rather dry details of what occurred, I have created a pdf of the debriefing report I wrote when I left WorkCover. If you would like to read this report, please follow this link
.Aug - I terminated my contract with WorkCover and returned to South Africa.
I sold my Eunos at a substantial loss.
I worked with a colleague of my father who seemed eager to help me introduce the Ripose Technique to South African companies. We presented to a number of organisations and found a University that was interested in the Ripose Technique.
However on finding out that they were only really interested i undertaking the venture by using the project as a junket whereby a number of their employees would go to Australia to further the contract (despite the fact that I was in South Africa), I decided not to go ahead with the project. Needless to say my colleague was not impressed and that spelt the death knell of our relationship.
During this time I was staying with a friend of mine who was a Queens Council and I decided to write a barrister system. I completed the system and after installing it on one of his machines, discovered that the operating system would not accommodate the system and the Word Perfect program that they were using and the venture was brought to an end. Yet another good idea down the drain!
Feb - I returned to
Dr Con Costa – Proof of concept of a medical system. I was not all that adept at writing a professional looking document, however I produced my prototype version of the 'proof of concept' for the medical system. This document can be viewed by following this link
. This project, if it went ahead would have
provided enormous benefits for both the medical sector and patients,
however (once again) the interference of another external consultant
threw the proverbial 'spanner in the works' and nothing further came
from my (or my colleagues) effort. I had to once again 'chalk one up to
experience'.I was introduced to an ex-patriot South African living in Australia and discovered that they had the need for a car pooling system. I undertook this project and designed and wrote the programs. The understanding was that the proprietors of the business would seek out investors to further the development of the system. A few months later I discovered that the proprietors had held talks with a major motoring organisation in New South Wales and that the idea was pilfered and rewritten by their developers. I subsequently learnt that the project was terminated due to the failure to deliver a working system. So once again I lost out.
Dec - I joined Optus as a business analyst
I bought a second hand Nissan NX.
Optus decided to outsource their IT functions. The contract was awarded to IBM. The position that I held was not going to outsourced and I was offered the position at a 50% cut in salary. In May 1999 I took my leave from Optus. I managed to find a 2 month contract with the ABC.
I established the Ripose web site as my 'shop window' to the world. As Ripose is a fully functioning 'business end to end' technique' it is very extensive. For those of you who want to explore the site please follow this link and then return to my autobiography later.
eLysium. Peter Eburne had a contract with eLysium and managed to persuade the then CEO to investigate the Ripose Technique as a means to document her corporate objectives. She flew to Sydney where we held a number of Ripose sessions. Unfortunately this did not progress any further as on her return to the USA, she was laid off as CEO and nothing further materialised from this venture.
July - FoxKids – Proof of concept and proof of logical.
Ken Wild - CSR, David Jones, Sanitarium.
.Peter Eburne tried to encourage the CEO of eLyseum to use the Ripose Technique but unfortunately she was on her way out of the organisation so the venture failed..
Michael Douglas who was my manager at Workcover contacted me and offered me a contract with ForKids in
Peter Eburne and I managed to secure the services of Ken Wild who was assigned the task of selling Ripose to the Market place. Ken managed to open some doors and we gave a number of presentations. Unfortunately we were never able to secure any work.
I published the mind map protocol article in an attempt to demonstrate how communication between the 4 levels of thinking/competencies can very often lead to misunderstandings and ultimately project failure. Follow this link
to view this article.I published the Ripose architect brochure in an attempt to explain the differences between the various levels and competencies of the translators I had identified in the mind map protocol article. Follow this link
to view this brochure.Oct – After the passing of my father I began to lose heart that we would ever land a sale, so I reluctantly decided to end the joint venture and applied for the unemployment benefit..
Dec - my mother passed away
I have never been a religious person, but I thought a bit about the history of mankind. Nature or nurture, or could they both exist side by side.
I delved into the bible and decided to track the history of various characters and how those that they begat, begat others and their impact on the rest of history. Well I put a web page to document this research. This can be found by following this link.
This then got me to thinking how nature and nurture could in fact be both right, so I came up with an alternative to the research I did previously. This can be found by following this link.
April - My dear friend Roy (from whom I was renting an office and bedroom in Sydney) decided that I needed a companion and one weekend he went away and brought back a 3 month old white moggie.
I have never been a cat person, nor did I ever want a cat, but when Roy placed the kitten in my arms it was like love at first sight.
May – Line Dance Association Australia. This gave me the opportunity to really test the Ripose Technique and especially the production of the deliverables.
Within 1 month of starting the project, I had completed the proof of concept documentation as well as a presentation. One month later, I had created the proof of logic, which contained the logical data base design, four subject areas as well as producing a presentation. I also produced the pseudo code for the first subject area..
Aug – The house within which I was renting a bedroom and office was sold and I had no other choice but to move out of
May - I came off social security as I was awarded the Aged FootCare contract to write a provider system (Booking and accounting system for allied health providers for aged care facilities).
I found a 2 bedroom townhouse in Yorkeys Knob (15 minutes north of Cairns) and decided to purchase it. The asking price was $137,000 and I had to establish a mortgage for $95,000. I had to close one of my 3 superannuation funds and sell all of my shares (which I was given when the NSW Automobile Association and the National Mutual Insurance Company demutualised).At least I was able to secure the $42,000 deposit and acquire a place for me and my cat. Follow this link to look at my home.
Sept - scope changed – now a booking (with packages) and accounting for allied health providers in clinics – aged care put on hold.
Nov - I released Version 1 of the prototype
As it was virtually impossible to provide anyone with a free version of the Ripose compilers I decided to create a web based version of the Goals component of the compiler. This compiler can be found by following this link. A small donation would be appreciated should you find this feature useful.
Continued to add features to the provider system.
I sold the Nissan NX and bought a new Peugeot Coupe. After only 3 months of motoring, the gear box packed up and the car was in the repair shop for nearly 2 months. Peugeot were not prepared to put in a new gear box and a reconditioned one was sent from Melbourne to Cairns. This will probably be the first and last Peugeot I will ever own.
Dec - restarted the aged care facility system
Nov – awarded the Bancer (a company in
Feb - moved to
July - first release of the provider booking and accounts receivable system.
Dec - started on the new clinic system
I bought a new Hyundai Getz two door hatchback.
Apr 2008 returned to
I developed the web site Ripose.org as I felt it expedient to separate the commercial aspect of the business from the broader philosophical nature of the Technique. This web site can be found by following this link.
I published the comparison article to demonstrate how 21 different frameworks attempts to provide a roadmap to assist the translators (I identified in 2001 in my mind map protocol article) interact between the 4 competencies. It also contains a history of when some of these frameworks emerged. For example:
- Trivium & quadrivium. Attributed to the Charlemagne era -
782AD
- Critique of pure reasoning. Attributed to Immanuel Kant -
1756
- Role data models. Attributed to Charles Bachman
- Normalisation technique. Attributed to Ted Codd
- Structured programming. Attributed to E Dijkstra
- Information engineering. Attributed to Clive Finklestein,
James Martin and myself
- The Jackson system development technique. Attributed to
Michael A Jackson
- Ripose (information architecture); Attributed to myself
Follow this link
to view the article.Possible 1st sale of the provider system. This never materialized due to a poor internet service at the prospects site.
I decided to create 16 YouTube presentations in an attempt to explain the competencies I mentioned in my 2001 article. Follow this link to view these presentations. You will actually get to hear my voice.
As I had now run out of options to make any impact in the Information Technology environment and as living in a backwater like Cairns offered very little chance for me to secure any form of gainful employment, I decided to retire from the IT industry and as I was eligible for the aged pension, decided to apply for it.
Apr - I am now officially an aged pensioner and will probably end my days as one, unless some enterprising person steps forward to assist me further the aims of Ripose, otherwise the idea, the Technique, the web site and the software will probably die when I pass on.
I provided the developer with my design and assistance when necessary. I exported all the data from the existing system and passed all the files to the developer. To date I have not heard from either the developer nor my 'ex' client and it saddens me to think that I have been once again duped by a person that I had remained loyal to over some 26 years. I may never realize any further money from the system that I designed and developed over nearly a decade.
Thankfully I can survive on the old age pension. The pension currently pays me just under $57.00 a day and my daily expenses amounts to just under $54.00 a day. During my working life I was able to build a small nest egg (my superannuation) which is currently netting me about $18.00 a day - this is impacted by the current interest rate of 5.1% which I was lucky enough to lock in for 3 years but will end in May 2015.
With the extremely low Reserve Bank of Australia cash rate of 2.5%, I will probably lose about $8.00 a day so unless I am fortunate enough to find a relatively safe investment (I have always been risk averse and gambling has never been part of my nature) that will improve this rate of return, I will have to tighten my financial belt. Still I cannot complain as there are probably millions (if not billions) of people doing it more tough than me.
I traded in my Hyundai Getz and bought a new Hyundai i20. This is my 17th car in 47 years and my 8th new car.
I continue to play on line role playing games as this and doing cryptic crossword puzzles keeps my brain active. Hopefully offsetting any causes of dementia
Sep - I was diagnosed as having a fatty liver and with a cholesterol level of 7.4 my doctor suggested I look very closely at my diet. Even though I was eating a lot of salads, my weight was 91kgs and my waist over 100cms. I decided to try calorie counting as a means to lose the excess weight I was carrying as a healthy weight range for my height (181cms or 6' 1") was between 64 and 85kgs. I decided to take in not more than 1,200 calories a day. .
Dec 31 - I weighed 79.7kgs having lost over 11 kgs or close to 25 lbs. and I am once again able to fit into a pair of pants with an 87cms waist.
Jan - I decided to write my autobiography, so this is it, warts and all. This will be a work in progress for some time to come, so I am at least able to make changes without the cost of having to set up another print run.
My cholesterol level has fallen to 5.3 and the liver enzyme counts show that my liver is no longer regarded as being fatty.
Apr - 6 days before my 68th birthday I decided to develop a new web based mind game call Prysms. It will take me some time to create the web pages so this too will be a work in progress. I introduced Prysms on Facebook with the following post:
Introducing Prysms
All hailing frequencies open –
Now that I have semi-web-published my autobiography,
I have decided to embark on a venture called “Prysms - viewing life's
building blocks”. It will be a sort of web interactive game (and
possibly a book) whereby the reader/viewer will be asked a number of
questions and from their answers, be presented with further explanations
and choices.
This is not dissimilar to playing a game of dungeons and dragons (without the blood & gore) or Myst and should provide a good insight into “who the reader is, what they want to achieve and how they can achieve it” and through the use of their imagination (and other steps) build a more sustainable life. The road through Prysms is relatively short or long (depending on the pathways the reader chooses to explore) but ultimately it should yield a more prosperous, perceptive, affectionate & healthy (yppah) future.
I have built the framework of Prysms and following its steps and am now starting to develop the web pages (including Javascript code) to move Prysms from my imagination into becoming a physical reality.
If anyone wants more information, please feel free to ask, I would love to have others join me and provide me with feedback via Whatsapp, Skype, Facebook or Twitter (or even assist me to speed up the development) as I journey down the wonderful game of Prysms.
I am not at this stage seeking any funding (nor able to offer
any) but once the prototype is complete, who knows what benefits may
open up for those who decide to get on board,
- all hailing frequencies closed.
I decided after nearly a year of posting articles and commenting on posts and in a number of groups on the LinkedIn site, trying one more time to promote my Ripose Technique, that I had to discontinue what was now turning out to be an almost fruitless pursuit. If anyone is interested in reading my articles, please follow this link.
I purchased a few more role playing games (The Witcher 3 amongst them), had to buy a new i5 computer and a 750 video card in order to be able to play it.
My weight plateaued at 78Kgs and after finding a YouTube presentation on GetAbsAfter40.com, I set myself a goal to lose a bit more weight to bring my BMI down to the level where developing a '6 pack' was more realistic. The presenter confirmed my view that taking drugs (smoking any form of leaf such as tobacco and marijuana, drinking alcohol, injecting or snorting recreational drugs such as ice, cocaine and heroine) only served to counter the body's ability to bum fat.
According to the presenter of GetAbsAt40.com the male body needs a high level of testosterone in order to burn fat. The lower the testosterone level the lower the ability of the body to burn fat and the higher the risk of the male body producing the estrogen hormone. For a male the best food to eat in order to raise the testosterone level are, fish (especially salmon and tune), avocados, olive oil and eggs.
I incorporated those 4 foods into my diet and I achieved a further loss of of 2 kgs. I also achieved my lowest weight at 75.6kgs. Not too bad for a 69 year old. The 6 pack is still elusive and I may have to lose another 3 or 4 kgs before they will be able to form.
I also decided to try to reverse the aging process, especially grey hair and discovered the food that helps replenish the melanin level in the body. These foods include carrots, avocados, grapes, melon, olives, mangoes, plums and chicken and hence I am ensuring I get to eat a number of these every day.
This year (24 April) I reached the age of 3 score and 10 and celebrated the event with my sister (whose birthday was on the 27 April), her husband (whose birthday was on the 20th April) and my beautiful niece (pictured with me). It was a very happy time and we got to see so much. I was grateful for them being with me as on the 26th April my beautiful cat suffered a massive hypoglycemic seizure. He passed away on the 5th May. I must now learn to live with him being apart from me.
I am now free (reluctantly) to travel and to try to concentrate on my 2 other mental off-springs (Ripose and Caspar). On the 23rd May I will be attending CEBIT Australia 2017 to see if I can kick start my professional life again.
On the 11th June I undertook a 7 week trip to visit friends and relatives , some of whom I had not seen for over 50 years. I visited Thailand (Chiang Mai), the USA (Orlando & LA) and Canada (Toronto).
On the 28th June I returned home to an empty townhouse, knowing I had to face the rest of my life without my little man.
On the 31st June I traded in my 2012 Hyundai i20 and treated myself to a 2012 Hyundai Veloster.
On the 10th December I began to write my book 'Dream: Plan: Experience'. It is the end product of the journey I started in 1989 when I decided to reject the mainstream approaches to planning and developed my own.
5 May 2017. The saddest day of my life. My beautiful 15yo (74 in human years) diabetic cat was put to sleep after the vet diagnosed him as having a brain tumor that was affecting his pancreas manage his insulin level. He was a part of my life for nearly 15 years and I will miss him as long as I live. I will see him again. I created a tribute to him, a slide show that I can run on my phone, desktop, laptop and tablet. If anyone wants to view it please contact me.
These hypotheses include the following
• Role playing - child>adolescence>adult
• Creation - big bang or God
• Objectives
- benefits
& values
-
A simple value system
• Desires - needs and wants - see page 57 of my book
• Schools of thought
- secular;
religious
;
philosophy
• Forms of government
- an
improved organisation
structure• Structure of knowledge - see page 79 of my book
• Strategies
- S=OK2• Business simulator
- pretend
before you build• Ripose periodic table
- tabular
form of the Ripose Technique• Gene theory
- the XY conundrum• String theory
- how long is a piece of string• Mathematics
- mathematics of Ripose• Grammar
- grammar
of Ripose• The 10 Commandments
- mapping
benefits and hardships• HIPO
-
hierarchical inputs processes outputs of Ripose• Savings
- how
much it costs & what you can save!• Minorities - why I may never make it big
• My life's value - work in progress
• Taxation
-
satisfying both needs and wants• Sliding doors - if i zagged instead of zigged
To read more, please follow each link
For a list of software that I wrote and am able to demonstrate, please follow this link,
My finest hour was writing software to suit my own purpose, namely the Ripose compilers - aka as the Caspar (computer assisted strategic planning and reasoning) engine. I included a project management tool in order to help me manage the vast number of information technology projects uncovered by identifying the knowledge an enterprise needed in order to survive.
*L = Logical phase
For a detailed discussion on this work please follow this link
.Perhaps this is a good time to summarise my life and then to predict as to what my future holds. As these two viewpoints are not really date related, I will end my time line here for the time being and request that you read my summary (by following this link) and then possibly my future predictions (by following this link).
Whatever the future may hold, I can only wish for two things for you and me
Please
Everyone
Align
Common
Elements
and a
Health
Affection
Perceptive
Prosperous
Yielding life
And finally, in the immortal words of the great late Irish comedian Dave Allen (1936 - 2005) 'May your God go with you'.