Richard Conto

[ home | Arts | Editorials | Evil | Humour | Jobs | Library | Life | Lists | Michigan | Networking | News | Resources | Resume | Sample Code | Security | Stories | Survival Guide | Wireless | Contact Information | perldoc | Cruft and Dust Bunnies | disclaimer ]

Recently, AT&T and Verizon have been caught corrupting (or interfering) with customer's http transmissions by injecting identifiers into web (and related) communications by means of HTTP headers. The following link(s) will give end users a chance at seeing what is being sent.

This is my personal home page, available to the public. From time to time, I'll update it, but it is seldom updated. At the top and bottom of the page is a bar of quick-links. I'm more likely to keep those up to date than this thing.

News

 

University of Michigan - DNA Sequencing Core

My first day with the DNA Sequencing Core was September 30, 2013.

The DNA Sequencing Core is part of the University of Michigan Medical School's Basic Core Research Facilities, located in the University of Michigan North Campus Research Complex (NCRC).

It's been a LONG time since I've worked on campus, in a research environment. (My early days with Merit Network Inc. were like that.) It's great to be in a research environment again, surrounded by very smart people involved in a very bleeding leading edge endeavor.

No recession this time (although the effects of the Great Recession linger on.) The Rabid Right Wing in Congress did try to sink the government and economy, but fortunately their form of political and economic terrorism blew up in their faces instead of ruining life for the rest of us.


A brief interlude

My last day with ITS was September 27, 2013, which happened to be the day of the ITS All Staff Picnic (at the Crisler Center). I had mixed feelings about attending it, as it seemed a bit presumptious to do so, but a good friend and co-worker told me that it was to celebrate accomplishments over the past year (and ignored the whole "future" thing.)

So I went.

And I couldn't resist wearing a name tag that proclaimed:
HTTP Status: 302 DNA Sequencing Core

Under the circumstance of leaving ITS Shared Web Hosting, it was very, VERY appropriate. Not geeky or tacky at all. Not a bit. Really.

Got to talk with a lot of people at the picnic. I'll miss them - even if they're located just to the east of my new digs. It was a beautiful autumn day. A wonderful going-away sort of party!

It's a wonderful thing to move to a new job while still employed. Given my long history at Merit, this was a first for me. Oddly, it gave me a great deal of energy for my old job.

And for what it's worth, the opportunity (and compensation) at the DNA Sequencing Core was something ITS couldn't match.

 
XKcd - How to write good code
Thanks to XKCD - http://xkcd.com/844/
 

University of Michigan - ITCS and ITS

As of May 4, 2009, I was once again employed and (ostensibly) a productive member of society. If you're curious or desperate enough to see the text I had here while I was unemployed, look here.

A funny thing happened on the way in to work ...

Once again, I worked for The University of Michigan, although rather more directly than in the past. I was hired as a Database Analyst by Information Technology Central Services (ITCS) unit, in particular the Web/DB group that's part of the U-M Computing Environment (UMCE).

That's when I learned that ITCS was merging with MAIS - Michigan Administrative Information Services (and ITSS — Information Technology Security Services) to form ITS — Information Technology Services. This is all rather weird to me - when I first joined the University of Michigan as an employee, it was with the Computing Center (cc), which shortly thereafter was merged with Data Systems Center (dsc) to create the Information Technology Division (itd), and at the same time the University decided to own and operate it's own telephone system (UMtel) instead of using Michigan Bell (later Ameritech, then SBC, now AT&T)'s Centrex service. Incidentally, that was during the recession years of the Ronald Reagan's first term.

Deja-vu all over again, eh?

In any case, it's good to be there, to see many old friends and to make new friends too, as well as (in my own way) helping make the world a better place by assisting researchers, teachers, and students in advancing the frontiers of knowledge.

These pages

I keep copies of my web pages at the following locations:

For less important information, there's this little directory:

Who am I?

I am a real person who has had the same e-mail address, rsc@umich.edu since 1987. (But, please don't use this link without changing the subject!). This means that the spammers and virus writers and other low-life slime have long since harvested it and send tons of e-mail purporting to be from me. (I know, I get and ignore the bounces.) It also means that I'm a stubborn fool for not retiring it.

Now that the University of Michigan has Gone Google, I have a Google+ URL for rsc@umich.edu, https://plus.google.com/u/0/116817838207976933145. Given that I have so many other ways to have a presence on the 'net, I don't know what I'll use it for. It's my "corporate associated identity" not my personal one.

On the 'net

I'm old school on the 'net with personal web pages, etc. I'm also very old school in social networking - so old, that it's all "Been There, Done That." But I do have a presence on social networks:

LinkedIn
I have a LinkedIn profile at Richard Conto www.linkedin.com/pub/0/ab4/250. It says pretty much the same thing as my resume.
Twitter
@rsconto is at https://twitter.com/rsconto
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/rsconto
Gmail

I've had a Gmail account Richard.Conto@gmail.com account for some time

There appears to be another Richard Conto in the United States, although as best as I can tell, he lives in the western states. Unfortunately, he has provided my Gmail address as his to Dell Computer and they keep pestering me with customer service garbage for a machine I never bought.

I am Richard S. (for Samuel) Conto. I have never lived west of the Mississippi River. Accept no substitutes.


I used to have the following e-mail addresses, but they have lapsed for various reasons:

My e-mail preferences used to be strictly plain US-ASCII text, and I still favor it. However, using Apple's Mail application for OS/X, I've finally joined the 20th century. I try to write in (I hope) US English, with as few mispellings as I can manage. I know where the Shift key is, and even the Caps-Lock key is.

I am a graduate of the University of Michigan College of Engineering (BSE Computer Engineering, 1987).

If you don't know my name, but still wish to contact me involving something not involving body parts, drugs, insurance, morgatges, be polite about it.

If you send me e-mail, please obey the following rules:

Don't rules

Do rules

[ home | Arts | Editorials | Evil | Humour | Jobs | Library | Life | Lists | Michigan | Networking | News | Resources | Resume | Sample Code | Security | Stories | Survival Guide | Wireless | Contact Information | perldoc | Cruft and Dust Bunnies | disclaimer ]