After graduating from Carleton I found out that Concordia University in Montreal was starting a Masters program in Computer Science. Together with a friend from Ottawa, I applied — and we were both offered a full scholarship which even covered out of town living expenses… so we both went.
We were each also offered the opportunity to teach an undergrad course in computer science, which we accepted. I found the experience of teaching a Fortran language programming class to 50 undergrad commerce students very enjoyable even though it required a lot of work.
I was rated by the class as part of the University’s policy of student appraisals, and was happy to receive a pretty positive rating as teacher.
In 1996 IRI decided that to help improve morale they would hire a team building company to help with interpersonal and interdepartmental relationships. Anyone with any management responsibility had to attend their training sessions, which I found somewhat common sense and, at least for me, a waste of time.
After these training sessions, the company (Malandro Consulting) would schedule a 4-day retreat with all the managers. Working with IRI, they identified a nice lodge in southern Wisconsin, about an hour drive from Chicago. Of course, being one of the company VPs, I was expected to attend.
The problem was the date: It was during chol-ha’moed Sukkos, a time when I would only eat or drink in a sukkah! So I politely told management that I would not be able to attend. They were upset because I was such a key player. They asked me all sorts of questions to try to understand. I explained the concept of the sukkah. They asked how I was managing to eat while at work, and I explained that there was a kosher restaurant less than a mile away that had a sukkah, and I went there for lunch.
A few days later, they came by to say that they had moved the entire event to a small hotel in the area — so that I could go to that restaurant for my meals! I was astounded that they would change the plans for about 50 people, and from a beautiful resort to a cheap hotel, just for me!
One of their “rules” was that everyone stay for the full 4 days. This, I explained was also a problem because the restaurant was closed at night and early morning, and I did not even drink outside of a sukkah. I told them that if I was going to attend, I had to go home at night and return the next morning. Certain that this would be the final straw, I was surprised when they agreed — I would be the only one allowed to go home each night!
This turned into an interesting lesson in Judaism for a lot of people in that group, many of whom had never heard of Sukkos.
On the second afternoon, in a group session, we went around the room with the instruction to share something of a personal nature — I guess a way to make everyone seem less of just a business colleague. I have no recollection what I shared, but there was a young woman there who shared that she had a major falling out with her mother and they hadn’t even talked in over five years. Different people then responded in turn, some trying to offer suggestions or just emotional support. When my turn came, I explained the Jewish concept of honoring one’s parents, and that my advice was that she should push past whatever negative feelings she had and call her mother! This was a radical answer to most in the room — that she should be the one to break the barrier.
The next morning there was another group session. This same woman asked if she could say something. She said that she thought hard about what I said, and she actually called her mother! In that single lengthy phone call, they managed to break down a lot of barriers and begin to mend fences. She thanked me profusely for giving her my advice. The room was stunned. After that, I felt like this was my entire purpose for being there — why the retreat was moved to accommodate my Sukkos observance.
After 911 (Sept 2001) many businesses suffered as the economy sank. IRI was already in some business trouble versus its competitors before that, but this made it much worse. Everyone could see that we were in for some significant layoff, although we didn’t know exactly when or how bad it might be.
In mid-2001 I was “offered” a different role in IRI — still a VP, but as an “Internal technical consultant.” There were two reasons for this — 1) The poor business results caused the board of directors to toss out some senior management (including the brilliant founder, Gian Fulgoni) and replace them with their old cronies. To some of these stodgy managers, I was a “threat” because I was outspoken and known to be very innovative. 2) Although never confirmed, I believe that they were preparing for the layoffs that they knew would be coming, and it would be easier to retain a lower-paid younger worker in charge of the Unix groups, and would be easier to “justify” laying off an older manager in a “consultant” role.
Be that as it may, I accepted the change, because it actually allowed me to do more of the sorts of things I was interested in. I spent more time expanding and enhancing the EDT product, and also took a lead role in charting a course for replacing IRI’s “Load balancer” — software to move batch jobs around to various servers to make best use of the total computing power. We had a legacy load balancer that was no longer supported and did a poor job. I was charged with finding a new product and working out the migration path. After sourcing the best product, I worked with the software vendor to make a number of changes that I was able to demonstrate would vastly improve their product, changes that they actually implemented.
Small anecdote: When we were still about two months away from making the load balancer move, we suddenly had a serious failure of the old existing product, and it was significantly hurting the business. Since a young guy was now in charge of the Unix systems, I left it to him to solve the problem. He poked around a bit and declared that it was not able to be fixed, and that we needed to move to the new system. Senior management asked me if we could switch, and I told them we were not ready to make that move yet, still waiting on some of the software vendor’s changes and full testing. So there was a meeting with the group president (the same one who did my second interview and hired me). At the meeting, when it was strongly stated that the current system couldn’t be fixed, he looked at me and asked me directly if I agreed with that opinion. I said I did not; it seemed to me that whatever the problem was could be discovered and corrected, allowing us the time to get the new system ready. My answer infuriated the new guys, but the president simply asked me “How long do you think it would take to get it fixed?” Not knowing anything about the problems, I replied “48 hours.” I remember there were chuckles and a few gasps — they had already been dealing with it for over a week. I simply trusted my diagnostic skills and felt that I could do it. They gave me the green light to take over, and I locked myself away in my office and started examining the system, logs, files… anything that might give me a clue. I got to a point where my intuition told me that there must be corruption in a certain key file, and further, that if I removed it, the software should re-build it. I had no proof of this, just a strong technical intuition. So I removed the file and fired up the system — and we were back in business. Total time: about 12 hours, much to the astonishment of many (and the chagrin of those who said it couldn’t be done.)
By January 2022 the company did its first massive round of layoffs — between 150-200 people, many middle managers. I was one of them. Over the next year, they laid off many more, and outsourced all the computer work to India. They then took the company private (had been traded), and within another year they were a shadow of what they had been. When I joined IRI they had about 55% of their market; that steadily dwindled staring in 2001, and today they are less that 15%.
I’ve attached a couple of documents just as an example of the complexity of the projects I was leading, and maybe to show off my communications skills (I was known at IRI to be excellent in both written and verbal presentation skills. Several times I addressed groups of 20-50 people to present and explain a new technology project… the teacher in me I guess.)
When the new girls’ high school was started, I felt obligated to help with it. So I got as involved as I could on a very part-time basis. In the very early years, I would have all email that was sent to the students directed to my computer and automatically printer so I could drop it off at the school each morning. (Students didn’t have email of internet access, and phones were still pretty rudimentary and were not allowed to have data plans)
I also took on the role of helping with the physical aspects of the student dorm — mostly safety, including locks, keycode entry system, stove gas line shutoff lock boxes, light bulb changing, electrical, air conditioners, laundry equipment, … you name it! Given that these kids were away from home with no one really looking after their day-to-day needs, and knowing that I’d want such care if my own kids were out of town, it felt right to provide this needed help.
Eventually I also started teaching one course per week to grades 11&12 — at first photography, then later a physics course that I really enjoyed. I found a great book call ” How Things Work” that was used as a basic physics course in some university arts streams, but I wanted it to be even simpler. In consultation with the author, I modified the course to remove all the math — creating a “conceptual” physics course. Wherever I could I’d merge Torah concepts or at least the amazing symmetries and workings of physics that could not be considered accidental.
I thoroughly enjoyed teaching (as I had enjoyed teaching in University), and got special satisfaction from interacting with these young people and feeling like I was perhaps making a bit of a difference in their lives. Many of these kids were from difficult family situations, including broken homes, abusive homes, poverty, etc.
Teaching — even though it required a lot of preparation (I used to go to Starbucks for a few hours on Sunday to prepare my upcoming classes) — was a great source of satisfaction for me at a time when my career had taken a back seat due to being laid off and unable to get back into my field due to my age.
In the last few years, I taught a basic computer course, introducing such things as Word, Excel, and basic computer literacy in Microsoft Windows. I also gave a several-part seminar in internet and connectivity (cell phone) safety. My belief was that kids should be aware of all the dangers (spoofed emails, viruses, online bullying, dangers of chat rooms and groups, etc.) rather than simply being forbidden to use these services, because all kids will find a way to access them even if they are forbidden. For that class, I arranged for the school to get a number of refurbished laptops, which I then configured for safe classroom use.
Being the only technical person directly involved with this tiny school, I took on the role of technician for the annual production (after first getting approval from a Rav because of singing). I ran a laptop control of projected images and videos, and also helped set up all the rented audio equipment.
During a photography class exercise taking “advertising” shots, someone snapped a photo of me at my desk…
Setting up laptops, and a couple of class shots:
A few of the school photos (I was also the official school photographer):
As part of my duties taking care of all the physical aspects of the Bnos Rabbeinu High School Dorm, I took safety and security very seriously. As someone who was also always interested in the latest technology, I also looked for products that would be best suited for such purposes.
To keep the dorm secure and yet allow easy entry for the students, I found an Israeli-made digital door pad, which I wired to the old door “buzzer” system. This allowed me to create a set of digital codes (one for students, and separate ones for cleaning staff, trades, etc that I could disable when they were no longer to have access.)
One concern I had due to the age of the building (about 90 years), was fire detection. Since the building was three floors and a basement, I worried that a small fire alarm in the basement could go unheard on the floors above. In researching this, I found that there was a new type of smoke detector that allowed for a series of units connected wirelessly such that any unit that was triggered would sound the alert on all units. In addition these added carbon monoxide detection — important in a building with gas-powered stoves, furnace, hot water tank and dryers.
I purchased these units and installed two per floor. I even ran some tests and a couple of “drills”. (In one case I took one of the detectors outside and held it near the tail pipe of my running van until it registered a CO alert!)
Some months later, while all the girls and the principal were in the basement practicing for their upcoming production, a night-time fire broke out on the 1st floor due to a short in some old lighting wiring. No one was there to see or smell it. Thankfully, the detectors did finally register and the alert was sounded throughout the building. At first suspecting a false alarm, someone ventured upstairs and quickly saw the flames and smoke — and thankfully everyone was able to evacuate safely. Unfortunately, the old building went up in flames very quickly and by the time the fire department arrived, all three floors were ablaze!
Realizing how invaluable these type of detectors were, I replaced the old wired smoke detectors in my home with these as well. At the same time, I found out that older detectors were really only reliable for about 10 years, even if they tested ok!
I decided that such information needed to be spread, especially in my religious circles. So I wrote an op-ed for a New York based web site, urging the adoption of such detectors in all schools and homes, and pushing for an organization to be established to help finance them for poorer families. I have no idea if such an organization was ever set up, but I did get a lot of feedback thanking me for educating people about this.
