Infotrakker Software LLC is a US-based development firm located in North Augusta, SC, just across the mighty Savannah River from Augusta, GA
(which you may know as the home of a little golf tournament which features the
"masters" of the game). The company was founded in 1998 to foster a love for technology
and a fascination with computers and programming. Over the years we've added to
our client base, and we now manage the software needs for dozens of companies
both small and large.
Computers were always a passion for me. I was fascinated by how that box could
make the Pong paddle and ball move (yes, I remember Pong - and I was GOOD at
it!). I am also a bit of a tinkerer, so I began to open up that box to see what
was inside. I built several computers, using components I found in surplus shops
and on the bulletin boards (yes, I remember the BBS systems, and I was even a
sysop for a while). That was fun, but I was still intrigued by how all those
circuits and chips and capacitors managed to convert my keystrokes to words.
So I got started writing batch files, and moved on to scripting, and finally
made the big leap to Assembly. I played with Assembly long enough to know that
it wasn't really the language for me, and made the move to QBasic. Then Visual
Basic came along, and I was off to the races. I discovered Microsoft Access
along the way, and found it to be a great platform to learn the basics
of data management and UI building.
I still do a tremendous amount of work in Access,
but much of my work has shifted to the .NET languages lately. .NET seems to be the direction Microsoft is moving with their development platforms, and I've found it to be a very robust and agile language, with more than enough horsepower to manage anything I can throw at it. At the same time I've developed my SQL skills, and have come to do most of my work in MS SQL Server laterly. Don't get me wrong - . Access is a great platform, and the
innovations made in Access 2010, 2013 and 2016 are definitely a new direction for Access. However, as my client base grew and began demanding more robust solutions, I found .NET to be a better solution.
I've been honored to be awarded the Most Valuable
Professional (MVP) award for Microsoft Access every year since 2009. This is an award presented by
Microsoft to those professionals who have exhibited deep technical knowledge of
the subject, and who also have shown a desire to help others in the communities. Those
who are awarded as an MVP must be re-certified each year by a panel of their peers, along with Microsoft
employees involved in the subject, who evaluate our careers and contributions to determine if we have the "right stuff" to
be an MVP. There are just over 100 Access MVPs worldwide, and being included in
that group is one of the crowning accomplishments of my career.
I also spend a good deal of time in the online forums, especially at Experts
Exchange, where I help other developers and power users with troubles in various
programming projects. Experts Exchange is the largest technology Q&A site on the
internet, and boasts more than 3,000,000 solutions in their knowledgebase. My name there is LSMConsulting, and I've been one of the top
2 Access
Experts for the past several years, and this year finally broke into the top 25
Experts on the entire site - quite a feat on a site with more than 50,000 Expert
members!
My favorite activities lately include camping with my wife Cindy and our coonhound Flickerds, and hanging out with the coolest dude in the world - my grandson Trey!