24. About The Author

Hi, my name is Nick Antonaccio. I'm an experienced developer with a broad background creating hardware and software systems that satisfy practical data management needs. Do a Google search for "learn livecode", "learn rebol", "learn ns basic", "learn rfo", "business programming", "etsy api", "open source consignment", and you'll see my instructional texts at the top of every first page in the search results. I've been programming for more than 40 years, and have been an entrepreneur/business owner for more than a third of a century. I've written software and designed computing systems which help run hundreds of businesses and organizations, from small mom and pop start-ups to major corporations. Unlike many programmers, I have a great deal of real world experience starting and running a number of my own businesses, and I've helped a wide variety of other organizations start and operate successfully, using custom designed hardware and software systems.

24.1 My Businesses

Below are 2 businesses run on software that I created:

1. Merchants' Village: This 120,000 sq. ft. indoor market managed sales for over 170 vendors. During it's years of operation, it processed millions of item purchase transactions. I designed this business idea and wrote the software that ran all operations at this former Walmart location. The programs include an industrial quality point of sale system, reporting system, check writing software, security video software, scheduling system, data backup system, time clock, web site maintenance software, bar code printing and reading software, and more, with mobile and web components used by managers, employees, and vendors to handle 1,000-10,000 weekly brick and mortar customers.
2. The Rockfactory and Musiclessonz.com: This music lesson studio and associated video conference lesson business is one of the most prominent in its niche. Featured on the front page of the New York Times January 2012, this business runs entirely on software I wrote. Programs to manage daily appointment scheduling, accounting, music printing, lesson plan organization, audio recording, karaoke performance, music composition, videoconferencing, event scheduling, student sign-in notification, and more, enable many hundreds of lessons a week. 25+ instructors have been employed at that business since 2004 (search "video conference music lessons" or "live online music lessons" in Google to see how it works).

Those are just two of the hundreds of successful business computing projects and software applications I've conceived, created and put into commercial production. Other hardware systems and software applications I've written have been operating reliably in critical environments for more than 2 decades.

24.2 Client List and Previous Experience

A few of my clients have included:

P & R Grocery
Trinity Lending
Peddlers Mall
Tennessee Branch Water
Indianapolis State Museum
Farm Bureau Insurance
Allied / Spectrum Janitorial
Palm Harbor Homes
Diana Michaels Jewelers
FOX TV
Hays and Sons Fire Restoration
KWK Property Management
Bowen Productions Recording Studios
Advantage Graphics
Garden Homes Real Estate
Oscar Renda Construction
Blue Star Battery Company
Brehob Electrical Engineering
Flanner and Buchanan Funeral Homes
Orchard Park Retirement Centers
The Law Offices of Scott Montgomery
American Cabaret Theatre
Indiana Mulch and Stone
Carriage Cleaners
Kirk Automotive
EBC Business Centers
Eagle Point Apartments
Pennsylvania Powered Paragliding
The Indiana state school system
The Princeton, NJ school system
Milestone Veneer
Deaton's Mechanical
Earl's Auction Company & Liquidators, Inc.
A number of state government offices 
Hundreds of additional businesses and home users

I know what it's like to work with a wide variety of organizations and different types of businesses. For 8 years I owned and operated a retail computer store with 4 locations, where operations included assembling hardware, installing and maintaining network business systems, training and providing IT/technical support services, and developing desktop/network/web software for a wide range of businesses.

I've created and implemented numerous critical inventory, scheduling, accounting, point of sale, reporting, automation, hardware control, and custom data management systems for dozens of busy businesses. I've written software to help automate local cable cut-away spots for FOX TV. I've written software used by BJs corporation to train employees. I wrote the program that handles all inventory and pricing operations for P&R Grocery. I wrote the bar code system that handles trade-in clothing purchases at Zeus's Closet. I wrote an application for Palm Harbor Homes to automate sales tracking and follow-up procedures. I created a web app for the Princeton, NJ school system to match students with tutors based on schedule, subject, and other various needs. I wrote a bingo board program to display boards for a local bingo establishment. I created the web based member sign up and classified ad boards for the PAPPG paramotor club. I wrote a program to help Etsy sellers quickly add, alter, and search/replace listing data in their online shops. I've written many hundreds of other custom data management applications that help businesses and individuals keep track of important info. I know intimately what it's like to have a business idea that requires a flawlessly operating computing system and/or piece of software at its core. I truly enjoy creating useful software which enables successful business concepts, improves bottom line performance and productively, and/or creates opportunities to satisfy personal interests.

I specialize in writing plain and simple applications that get data management jobs done, quickly and easily. Because I've been personally involved in many varied business environments and have experienced a wide range of software use cases, I'm intimately familiar with the difficulties involved - and the solutions required - to improve bottom line results by implementing productive computing solutions. My real world experience involves much more than just software development. I've experienced marketing and sales, accounting, human resources management, and even more about how daily operations can be improved in businesses of all sizes and types, using computers and software tools. That experience makes an important difference in how I work with clients, compared to software developers who work in a cubicle writing code.

My development kit includes efficient and effective tools for building web and mobile apps with clean and simple user interfaces. Because my code base for projects is often several orders of magnitude smaller than would be required using other mainstream tools, I'm able to quickly provide updates and improvements to projects, and to satisfy requests for changes to code, just as quickly as I create original code. In any production environment that makes use of custom software for any period of time, the ability to make changes efficiently is a critical consideration.

I was voted "Reboler of the Year" in 2010, for the large volume of instructional material and code I've donated publicly. You can find more than 100 of my applications and code examples at http://rebol.org (I've donated more code to that site than any other single developer in the community). My 800 page tutorial at http://business-programming.com and the more than 80 associated tutorial videos are popular online (search "computer programming tutorial" in Google to see the results). My instructional texts for NS Basic, the Etsy Developer API, Haxe, and RFO Basic are all distributed by the creators of those tools as primary learning resources for developers. I operate rebolforum.com (and wrote the forum software that runs that site), to regularly help other developers learn to improve productivity.

Below are some screen shots of the software I created for Merchants' Village. They provide a sense for the type of straightforward interfaces I create for business apps.

Full set of screen shots: http://re-bol.com/merchants_village_screen_shots.zip

24.3 Contact Me

If you have a programming project in mind or need to find a developer to complete a piece of software, please send an email to nick@com-pute.com . I'm happy to discuss the options!

Keywords:

software development, program a computer, how to write software, computer programming, business computing, how to create programs, write code, learn about programming, coding, get started programming

Copyright © Nick Antonaccio 2013, All Rights Reserved