Bio: Benjamin Krajmalnik

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Bio: Benjamin Krajmalnik
28-Jan-2003 -- Arnór Baldvinsson
 
A long term Clarion user, and an Aerospace Engineer, Benjamin is certainly no newcomer to technology. Born in Mexico City in 1963, moved to San Antonio, Texas in 1974 and lived in Israel for 14 years, he has been places and seen things. Now he lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife, Irit, his two daughters, Vered and Sivan, and works for his own network support company.
 
Who do you work for?
For my wife ;) Seriously, I work for myself. I am part owner of The Illumen Group, Inc. with my father and my brother. After having worked literally all over the world for companies ranging from 600 to 200,000 employees, I came to the conclusion that I would rather reap the benefits from my hard work myself. At least I appreciate my work.
 
What do you like best about what you do now?
That's a tough question. I have always enjoyed what I do, whether as an aerospace engineer, quality engineer, or "computer geek".
 
My work is quite varied. We are mainly a network support company, from the demark in, with emphasis on security. As a result, we always have in our test lab some new equipment for testing and evaluation, whether it be for features or interoperability with existing systems. In our business, the key to success is to identify the emerging technologies which we believe will be successful and learn them inside out and deploy before our competition. We cater mostly to the SMB market (small to medium business), so not only do we need to identify excellence in the technology, but also make sure it is at an affordable price point.
 
We have always been early adopters of technology, with a philosophy which differs from most of our competition. We do not try to support everything out there, but rather pick best of breed products and specialize in them. This gives me the intellectual challenge and variety which was sometimes lacking. Being the "code monkey" in our company, I have the additional responsibility of writing both custom software for some of our clients, as well as in-house applications to integrate between our systems and increase productivity.
 
What has been one of your biggest challenges in using Clarion?
Well, initially using it. I started database development back in the early 80's using a language called TAS, which was very similar to ODBS. AT the time, I wrote a Photographic Studio management system for my father's business. I also did some work at General Dynamics with dBase II. I showed my boss the capabilities of TAS, and got him to buy a license. When Clarion 1.0 came out, my brother bought a copy. I looked at it but did not see any significant advantages over TAS, so I did nothing with it.
 
As 2.0 and then 2.1 came out we upgraded, but I did not really look at it. Then, one day, while living in Israel, a friend of a friend called me and asked me if I knew anything about Clarion. I said, well, I own it but have not really used it. At that point I went back and revisited it, and saw immediately the productivity increases which I would gain from it. However, it did have some serious limitations from my standpoint, so I bought LPM, and voila! My dream development tool came into being.
 

The Data Center at The Illumen Group, Inc.

My biggest obstacle initially when using Clarion was the lack of Hebrew support, since at the time I was living in Israel and had to write applications for my local company. I was the Quality Engineering manager at an aircraft component manufacturer, and we did not have any databases for keeping track of records. This made our job unbearable. Writing an English application was not viable, since the inspectors needed to use it on the shop floor! My friend who had reintroduced me to Clarion had written a Hebrew support function in Clarion, but it was painfully slow. He then rewrote it in C - it was fast, but while editing a Hebrew text field you were literally out of the environment, so hotkeys did not work.
 
I had purchased one of Chuck Eckenroed's packages for dynamic pictures on entry fields, and sort of got my inspiration from there - I wrote a hybrid function which would accept a keystroke within Clarion, check if it was a hotkey and process it accordingly, otherwise it would call a very compact LEM which I wrote in assembler to process the string. I actually taught myself assembler just for that purpose!
 
Other than the Hebrew "thingie", I would say that moving to CW took some adjusting to, and then moving to ABC. But, all in all, I think the migrations have been smooth.
 
What has been one of your biggest challenges in business?
Knowing when to call it a day. When I am doing something I enjoy I literally get immersed in it. I can still remember my wife's phone calls at 2AM while I was building production jigs using Theodolite Measurement Systems. At the time, I was not self employed, but I guess it is a mindset. My biggest problem today is that when the wheels are turning I cannot go to sleep, so I end up at 2-3AM in bed, connected with my LapTop to the office so I can solve the problem that is driving me nuts. However, the biggest challenge for any company is to know how to reinvent itself to adapt to existing market conditions. Thankfully, we have had the foresight to reinvent our business model before the economy's impact hit us.
 
Do you use any computer languages besides Clarion?
Very seldom. I do some Perl and PHP on our websites. I mostly use Open Source software, so I really do not code from the ground up - it is more maintenance or adding features that are not in the package.
 
When did you start using Clarion?
Well, I guess it would be early '89. The reason was that it gave me the productivity I needed, plus the fact that I could extend it using LEM's or functions written in Clarion proper. The no runtime fees and built-in network support, of course, had a large part in the decision to adopt it.
 
What's the coolest project(s) you've worked on using Clarion?
Not to sound like a cliché, but I hold every project dearly and think they were cool. My first project was building a Quality Management System, using CPD 2.1 with LPM 2.53. It had statistical analysis and graphing. When auditors came in they were blown away! My next projects were in CW. If my memory does not fail me, I did not deploy anything on CW 1.0. Working for a defense subcontractor, there were tons of paper that needed to be delivered with every shipment.
 
One of these was called a DD250. The people filling these out always made mistakes that would keep the company from getting the payments on time. So I ended up writing an application in which we would enter the delivery information, and it would fill out the form automatically. Next project was a rewrite of a Quality Management System, this time under Windows, at a new company. The system did not require the complexity of the previous one, but it was pretty neat. This was the first time I wrote a class - to control a VBX graphing object.
 

Lab and Prepare area

One of the most challenging projects I had was writing Studio Works - a full fledged Studio Management package written in CPD 2.1 with LPM 2.53. The market at the time was controlled by Studio Access (which was really not very good), and I believe Picture Perfect. Mark Riffey I believe took over Picture Perfect and has developed them into some really awesome products!. We still have a few Studios running the application, and I am extremely proud of that application. Since I was living overseas at the time, I knew tech support would be a killer (remember, this is at the very heyday if the Internet!) so I wrote a small procedure (well, not so small) which the end users were instructed to run if they had a problem. This was basically a self-diagnostic and correction utility. In the 10 years since we released StudioWorks, I believe we had a ratio of less than 1 support call per 30 installations. Due to the lack of market penetration, we decided not to migrate the application to Windows.
 
My most challenging project is the current one - a Firewall Log analysis package. The challenge was not so much of a technical nature, but rather of obtaining information from the firewall manufacturers concerning the log formats. In the end, I ended up just logging data and reverse engineering the formats. The technically challenging part was squeezing speed out of the analysis system. As an example, my firewall logs approximately 1 million events per day. That means 1 million rows added to the SQL database. Currently, I can process about 4000 rows per second (about 1000 per second in the "lighter" TPS version), which is significantly faster than the market leader (about 30 times faster). The neatest project, I believe, is a Lab management system which I wrote for the only privately owned wool testing laboratory in the country. In this system, I import the test results from optical and laser measurement systems, as well as manual tests, and consolidate them into some awesome reports.
 
Have you done anything for a living other than software development?
Of course! Like every boy growing up in the U.S. I started with baby sitting and progressed to mowing lawns. I worked 2 summers at an audiophile store, which was located just down the street from Icetips (on the corner of Fredericksburg and Wurzbach). In the summers, when I was of legal working age, I worked at my father's construction company - mostly working for his subcontractors - so I did framing, trimming, brick laying, cleaning houses in between stages … While studying at the Technion in Israel I worked in a program which helped disadvantaged students - sort of a combination of "Big Brothers" and academic tutoring - in return for an academic grant. When I came back to Texas A&M I worked as a TA in a rocket propulsion class and as a grader for another professor (at the time I was already married with a baby on the way, so money was tight!). My formal degree is in Aerospace Engineering. Upon receiving my degree I worked for General Dynamics in Fort Worth, Texas. Initially I worked in one of the propulsion groups.
After one year I transferred to Liaison Engineering/MRB. I was responsible for correcting errors in designs and later engineering repairs to fix manufacturing defects. After 3 years at General Dynamics, my wife wanted to go back to Israel, so we packed up and left. I worked for 9 years at a company called Cyclone Aviation Products, Ltd. We manufactured aircraft assemblies, both metallic and composite. I started as a Quality Engineer, and within 4 years I moved up to be the manager of Quality Engineering. I was in charge of 6 quality engineers, 2 tooling inspectors, a calibration lab, and a materials test lab (al in all a staff of 13). This position was not only a "people management" but mostly technical management. I had to introduce the new technologies, train, provide technical assistance. But after 9 years, the politics of QA at the company were no longer for me. QA has to be the most unappreciated and stressful position in the world.
 
During the summer of '97 we visited the family in Denver, and it was love at first site. I asked Irit, my wife, how long she needed to prepare for the move. She said 3 years :( I said ok, landed back in Israel, resigned my position at Cyclone (working there was not fun anymore) and started working as QA Manager for Elscint's Fabrication Plant. SO I moved from the defense industry to the medical device industry. Elscint was a leading designer and manufacturer of CAT, MRI, NM, and UltraSound equipment. They have since sold the R&D to GE and Picker, and the manufacturing operation was recentlypurchased by Samina SCI.
 
What are your hobbies/what do you like to do when you're not using Clarion?

The FUN corner!

Well, I have quite a few. I started playing Ice Hockey (although judging by my stature the best position for me is probably the puck!), but I think I may stop. It requires so much conditioning that if you stop playing for even a short time when you go back you feel like you are going to die! When I was in High School I used to race 1/8 Scale nitro powered R/C cars, so I decided to go back into R/C racing. I just bought a small 1/10 scale off-road buggy - boy, has the technology changed since I stopped racing!
 
I enjoy listening to music (actually prefer listening to Vinyl over CD's). When I got back from Israel and purchased my house I told my wife "The living room is my domain - you can decorate and do anything in the house, but this room will be designed around the sound system".
 
For those who are into sound equipment, it consists of the following:
 
Yamaha RX-V995 receiver, Vandersteen 2Ce Signature front speaker, Vandersteen 1C rear speakers, Vandersteen VCC-1 Center speaker, Paradigm subwoofer (Vandersteen was too large for the space in the room, so I had to compromise), Pioneer DVD player, Magenta Digital Enhancer, MusicHall MMF-5 turntable with a Goldring cartridge.
 
Married, children, grandchildren, other close family you want to mention?
Must you remind me? Seriously, I have been married to Irit, the love of my life, for 19 years. We met while I was studying in Israel. She had just finished High School and was working at the student dorm office until her conscription date into the IDF. I used to go up and check my mail, and it was love at first site (from my side, anyway). She proceeded to join the IDF and had the "good luck" of being sent as a company clerk to Nabtiye, in South Lebanon, during the height of the war. Luckily, she was reassigned to the border crossing at Rosh HaNikra, on the Israel/Lebanon border on the edge of the Mediterranean.  

We were married on July of '84 and moved back to the U.S. I went back to school at Texas A&M (I had studied there my freshman and sophomore years before going to Israel). We are blessed with two daughters (can't blame anyone but myself for not making the boy! : ) And, of course, I have a "grandson" - my younger daughter's hamster (A BOY - finally some male hormones in the house!)
 
Vered, the elder, was born May '85 in San Antonio, Texas, just down the street from Icetips! (For those of you trying doning the math - she was conceived AFTER we were married!) She just graduated from High School.
Sivan, the younger, was born August '91 in Haifa, Israel. Although not a Gulf War baby, Irit was pregnant with her during the Gulf War in the midst of the Scud attacks. The first night of the attacks we had 7 Scuds land within a 4 mile radius if our apartment. Those were interesting and trying times.
 

Where were you born? I was born July 17, 1963, in Mexico City.

 
Where do you live now?
Centennial, Colorado (a suburb south east of Denver) .
 
What's interesting about where you live?
I love the fresh air, the view of the mountains (especially in the winter when their summits are snowcapped), and the variety of activities which are available. Denver is one of the largest villages - we have all of the benefits of a large city, but have not yet been "blessed" with most of the detriments.
 
Have you lived any other interesting places?
 
Well, my forefathers wandered 40 years in the desert, so I had to at least try to match them! I was born in Mexico and grew up there until I was 11. My family moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1974.
I lived in a small college town called College Station '80-'82 and '84-'85, where I attended Texas A&M University. '82 - '84 I lived in Haifa, Israel, while attending the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. '85 - '88 I lived in Fort Worth, Texas. '88 - '2000 I lived in Israel, first at a rented apartment in Haifa, and then in our own apartment in Kiryat Bialik, a suburb of Haifa located just north of the industrial zone (refineries, etc.). On June 2000, we moved to Denver, where we have lived ever since, and hopefully will remain.
 
Which person, from past or present, do you most admire and why?
My parents, for instilling in us the proper values to enable us to meet the challenges in life. My grandparents, for having overcome such adversities when fleeing from Eastern Europe to Mexico in the period between the two World Wars (and, unfortunately, becoming almost the sole survivors of their generation, with most of the family being exterminated by the Nazi's). And, of course, Arnor - for being Arnor! :)
 
What is your favorite food?
Difficult one. I live off of junk food (Taco Bell, Chipotle, Wendy's) so I can pretty much handle anything. I enjoy going to Benihana and having Steak with their delicious shrimp. However, I love my mother's cooking. Her authentic Mexican dishes are delicious, and, of course, Jewish Soul Food! Chicken Soup with either Kreplach or Kneidlach, a good Borscht, Galupchikes (stuffed cabbage), and the list goes on!
 
What is your favorite drink?
Arizona Iced Tea or Coke. Once in a while I will have a Capuccino.
 
What is your favorite type of music?
Almost anything as long as it is not rap! I also am not fond of heavy metal. I enjoy music from the "Folk Scare of the '70's", Jazz, Instrumental, Classical, some Opera, Klezmer, and quite a bit of Israeli music, but from older times. I do not like the general trend of the contemporary Israeli music.
 
What is your favorite book? Movie?
My favorite book - I think it would be a tossup between Exodus and Mila 18.
 
My favorite movie - I enjoyed the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings series, although my favorite movies are usually historical documentaries. I enjoyed Schindler's List, although it pales in comparison to some of the documentaries I have seen.
 
What do you find annoying?
Political correctness.
 
If Clarion never existed, what do you think you would be doing at this time?
Probably the same, only using different tools.
 

The Blizzard server! This is a dedicated server that Benjamin set up for us at Icetips. It already hosts several of our sites, including Icetips.net, which will be taking over the news part of our site, and will host a mirror site for Icetips.com

 
Anything else you want to mention?
As a member of the Clarion community, I would like to thank you and Arnor for the time you invest in maintaining your website and making all of the resources available to us. I would like to also thank all of the "regular" lurkers in the Newsgroups for the help they provide the Clarion community and the 3rd party tool makers, who give us the leverage to be even more productive.  
I think we are really blessed in that the Clarion community is so good at helping each other out. I do not see that level of mutual assistance in many other places.
 

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