General Bio of: Neil S. Rieck

Brief Summary

I am, or at least strive to be, an open minded skeptic
I'm a secularist, but not an atheist. I use the label Deist (we have no formal gathering place other than here: www.deism.com )
I'm a centrist and have voted for, or against, ebery political party based upon the issues of the day
- I call myself apolitical but I never miss the opportunity to cast my vote
- If I vote for someone (or some party) which turns out to be a mistake then I will not make excuses for my decision. But I will vote against my mistake at the very next opportunity
- Most political ideologues are idiots whenever they think that their party is the only solution for every situation (How can you have left without right? How can you have up without down? How can you have fast without slow? How can you have liberal without conservative? How can you have Republican without Democrat?)
- I never vote for any party advocating war which is always always a huge waste of time, money, and human life
- I am against the death penalty (something only performed by primitive societies; if you act like a primitive society then you will become a primitive society)
I received a Black Belt (Shodan) in GoJu-ryu Karate and Kobudo in 2012-01-28 (year of the Water Dragon). So although I raised as a Lutheran Christian, you can now count on me to NOT turn the other cheek.

Contact Info

Business:
  eml neil.rieck@bell.ca
  tel 519-568-5711
  cel 519-501-1635

Residence:
  eml n.rieck@bell.net     (new)
  eml n.rieck@sympatico.ca (old) 
  tel 519-578-3494

Profession

Click "my computing bio" or "dips and certs" for the painful technical details.

Currently employed by Bell Canada to do:
- system design and implementation on large minicomputers (VMS on VAX, OpenVMS on Itanium and Alpha)
- system design and implementation on large microcomputers (CentOS-7 Linux on HP ProLiant)
- Bell-VDSL (formerly: Bell Beacon / Bell Total Vision) Implementation + Support (based upon technology from Next Level Communications which is now a division of Motorola)
Free Lance Work:
- Software + Hardware design of a 68HC11 based controllers for a ground source heat pump manufacturer in Canada (software was originally written in 6811 cross-assembler then rewritten in "Whitesmiths C")

Apollo Launches

Mission	Launch	Notes
Apollo 14	January 31, 1971
Apollo 15	July 26, 1971
Apollo 16	April 04, 1972	Happened to watch this from the VIP stand beside the VAB (got the admission tickets from Kennedy Space Center employee, John Mitchell). Saw Henry Kissinger in the flesh. John also got us admission to a pre-launch party hosted by Rockwell International. Thanks John!
Apollo 17	December 7, 1972	This was a night launch. We stood in the water (camera on a tripod) of Indian River in Titusville Florida (near the corner of highways US-50 and US-1) while horseshoe crabs tickled our toes.

Likes (no particular order)

Authors:
- Isaac Asimov (he sent me a message in 2004)
- Arthur C. Clarke
- Philip K. Dick
- Carl Sagan
- Richard Feynman
Movies:
- Blade Runner
- The Terminator
- Avatar
- The Matrix
- Alien, Predator, etc.
- The Bicentennial Man (from a story by Isaac Asimov)
- The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
TV:
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
- Babylon 5
- Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Star Trek: Enterprise
- Sherlock Holmes (of the Jeremy Brett variety)
- The X-Files (primarily about two people working for the FBI)
- The Strain (primarily about two people working for the CDC)
- Humans (which is about robots)
- TekWar (by William Shatner)

Music:
- Classical:
- Modern:
  - Chill on Sirus-XM Satellite Radio
  - Metallica (have you heard "Hardwired to Self Destruct" yet?)
  - Rush
  - Jethro Tull (and Ian Anderson)
  - Sting / The Police
  - Saga

Future

Life in the 21st century will probably be much closer to what we saw in the movie "Blade Runner" (a synthesis of bio-technology and electronics). I doubt we'll ever see flying cars although the idea is seductive. The damage already caused by industrial pollution and global warming means that our lives will be closer to what we saw in the movie "Soylent Green"