Bio: Mike Pickus

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Bio: Mike Pickus
17-Apr-2002 -- Susan Pichotta
 
This week's INN Bio features a guy who has been around the Clarion community for awhile. He lives in the same city as CIA Headquarters, but originally was from one of the less populated states in the U.S.
In the past, he's done asphalt paving.
Now, he presents us with a new idea for the browse-form paradigm, complete with screen shots.
 
Who do you work for?
Myself. I have 3 daughters - Corinne, Michaela, and Caroline and have my office in the house. So I use the company name CMC Development Center.
 
What do you like best about what you do now?
I can work on things that interest me. For example, I looked at the browse-form paradigm searching for a way to make alternative uses of the window real estate. I began with a toggle button that would toggle the width of a listbox to display or hide hot fields behind the listbox. The user controls the view of the data. Then I morphed a frameless form over the hot fields so that it creates the illusion of editing the hot fields. Sort of like Edit-In-Place, but with hot fields and the full power of the form. I gave the templates and classes to SoftVelocity. They should be included in a future version of Clarion and will probably be displayed at the Tech Workshops.

Click on a thumbnail to see a full-size image.

 
What has been one of your biggest challenges in using Clarion?
Finding interesting new projects. I would love start one from scratch.
 
What has been one of your biggest challenges in business?
Finding interesting new projects.
 
Do you use any computer languages besides Clarion?
I play with VB, VBA, and C# just to see what I can do with them. I have also used PL/I on MULTICS, FORTRAN on GCOS, COBOL on WANG computers.
 
When did you start using Clarion?
In the 1980's I programmed with an applications generator called Wang PACE. When I was searching for something to develop programs for the PC, I wanted an applications generator, like PACE. Clarion is very PACE like.
 
What's the coolest project(s) you've worked on using Clarion?
I once wrote an OMR (Optical Mark Sense) program to run a dental office in Clarion 3.1. The entire office could be run from the scanner. More recently, I also wrote a touchsrceen POS system that had some clever user interfaces, including combination listbox control and button queue control. Every cell in the listbox acted like a button and the button queue scrolled like a listbox.
 
Have you done anything for a living other than software development?
I did asphalt paving for 10 summers in South Dakota. I drove those big rollers that compress the asphalt. It was hot. Real hot! The asphalt comes in at 300°F. I have a bunch of stories about brakes failing. <G>
 
What are your hobbies/what do you like to do when you're not using Clarion?
I spend time with the kids. Occasionally, I get to go free diving in nice tropical waters and skiing, hiking, and white water rafting in Colorado and Wyoming.
 
Married, children, grandchildren, other close family you want to mention?
Sharon and I celebrated our 21st anniversary this year. She is the Director of Tobacco Litigation at the Department of Justice. We have three girls - Corinne (13) and twins Michaela and Caroline (10).

We visit my parents in South Dakota in the summer and take our family picture on this Harley. This year the girls got their own bike.

 
Where were you born?
Aberdeen, South Dakota - a good place to be from. (How do you tell a butterfly from North Dakota? It's plaid.<G>) We had extreme winters and summers. In the winter, the snow would drift over 2 story buildings.
L. Frank Baum wrote the Wizard of OZ there. He said it was Kansas so that the good folks in Aberdeen would think it wasn't about them, which, of course, they did. I once saw a tornado stack some 30' bridge planking pretty as a picture right next to a large propane tank. During one spring thaw, we had all the dynamite in the county blowing up ice flows trying to save a bridge. I have fond memories of growing up there with lots of wild animals as pets, including a cayman alligator and a fox kit.
 
Where do you live now?
McLean, Virginia. We live in a quiet neighborhood next to a stream and woods. There is a rope swing over a pond where the stream is stoned in and lots of deer, fox, and an occasional cougar.
 
What's interesting about where you live?
It's inside the infamous Washington, D.C. beltway. In many ways it is a small town, but with lots of well known people. Everybody knows each other. Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Ted Kennedy, and Steve Case live here. The CIA and MARS, Inc. have headquarters here.
 
Have you lived any other interesting places?
I went to school in Boulder, Colorado. I love the mountains. We have vacationed many times in Hawaii. My wife's law school housemate is from there and we visit her every few years.
 
Which person, from past or present, do you most admire and why?
My parents and my wife. They all know how to live life.
 
What is your favorite food?
Anything spicy, sweet, or smoked on my New Braunfels smoker. You know how some people can play music by ear? Well Sharon can make desserts by taste. She can taste something and know what it has in it, how it was made, and then makes it better.
 
What is your favorite drink?
Yes.
 
What is your favorite type of music?
Yes.
 
What is your favorite book?
My favorite author is Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, and Cryptonomicon. All great books.
 
If Clarion never existed, what do you think you would be doing at this time?
I'd be writing bad jokes.
 
Anything else you want to mention?
No.
 

Caroline winning first place in the Mutton Busting contest at the Dakotah Stampede Rodeo last summer.