Black Sun Designs is a project started by me, Ruben Santiago, back in 1999. It is simply a site originally set up due to the many side jobs I started to receive and inquiries as to my work.
I had started in the technical field back in 1982, when I wrote my first game code. It was a simple tic-tac-toe game, but it was a lot of work back in the day. Back then, we had very limited resources for computers and they themselves were antiques by today’s standards. Almost everything was done in DOS back then. As the years went on, technology and programming languages became more accessible to the public. And as each new technology was released, I was there poking at it and trying to see what it could or could not do. Eventually I landed my first real technical job back in 1990 as an AS/400 administrator. The Application System/400 (also known as AS/400), now System i, is a type of minicomputer produced by IBM. It was first produced in 1988. It was then renamed to the eServer iSeries in 2000 as part of IBM's e-Server branding initiative. Now with the global move of the server and storage brands to the System brand with the Systems Agenda, the family has been renamed to System i in 2006, with the POWER5-based members of the series being called the System i5. The AS/400 is an object-based system with an integrated DB2 database that was designed to implement E. F. Codd's relational database model, which is based on Codd's 12 rules, in the operating system and hardware.
The company I worked for back then was an insurance company. One thing you need to understand about insurance companies back then is that they were not too receptive to change, including systems. So individual PC’s did not come into the picture for most until well after they became popular. Before PC’s, users were tied to what was called a “dumb-terminal” that connected to the Main Frame. No individual processing, no individual software. When PC’s were introduced in the company I worked for, I was very fortunate to have had experience with them and spreadsheet programs such as Lotus. I ended up doing most of the pc installations and training for the Western Regional offices in California.
After a few years there, the company reorganized, and even though I was still employed, my interest in just working in the Main Frame environment had diminished and it was no longer a challenge. I just so happened to land a job by accident with another insurance company. I just happened to be speaking to one of my friends and the indicated that at her company they needed someone with my type of Main Frame experience to help in the implementation of PC’s tied to the MF. I interviewed and got the job as Systems Analyst. The first year with this company was very exciting. I was part of the initial move from the old dumb-terminals to a PC based network system. My role included working with the parent company as their technical lesion between them and the company I worked for. I worked very closely with their IT staff and our own staff. I personally had to configure each workstation and train each individual in 5 branch offices in California, which were about 400 employees. The roll-out to a LAN/WAN based system was very successful and was promoted to Systems Manager.
In the new role of Systems Manager, I became involved with developing the Intranet for the company. The intranet was very new to most people back then and really did not see its full potential until I demonstrated what can be accomplished. It developed really well and I really got to enjoy working on the site. This was my introduction to web site design. I was asked to redesign the company’s external facing site as well. Working closely with a few other individuals from other departments such as Marketing, we came up with a great site. After the first year of the site, I presented how customers can access their own policy information via the web site in a secure manner from data fed down to SQL from the Main Frame. Of course this turned out to be a large selling point for the company and generated many new customers.
With the integration of database fed sites, came many more opportunities for me. I redesigned many of the internal and external sites for some of our customers in order to get the contracts. I honestly didn’t mind because I enjoyed each project because each was had its own set of challenges and objectives. This kept my mind busy.
But yet again, this company also re-organized and although I was still employed with them, my role had switched from more technical to more political. Which was not the way I wanted to go. So I interviewed for the Internet Technologists job with the parent company and got it. This role offered much more learning opportunities as well as exposing me to many other areas of the technology I was interested in. I had 3 other people reporting to me as we worked on the corporate Intranet redesign and moving it to a Content Management System. With 24 departments, each with its own content contributor, we come up with standards, requirements, and training for each. It was quite successful. But yet again, reorganization took my staff away and I was left as the sole web technician for the company. I didn’t mind this so much at all, but when I found myself doing less and less web work and more applications development, I was losing interest again.
Then I was approached by a person I had worked with in the prior company. She had left that company and was then working at a start-up, and they needed a site. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity to work on a site again. During this time, I became CIW certified. CIW stands for Certified Internet Webmaster. The certification is achieved by understanding all areas of technology that make the web what it is. It is not targeted to a single operating system or language. In order to receive this certification, one must be versed in all web servers, database servers, code, lan/wan, standards, etc. Unlike the Microsoft certifications that target their own technology, the CIW is targeted to individual who know ALL technologies.When the work was done, the site turned out to be very nice.
Eventually, this lead to a couple of referrals also looking for someone to do their site. During my talks with the individuals, they’d always ask for examples of my work so I set up a site where they can view the work…which is what Black Sun Designs is. One referral turned into another and another. Pretty soon I had quite a few side-jobs on top of my full time job. But that was ok as long as I could balance the two and maintain time for the family. After a couple of year, I continued my technical and programming training on my own. Eventually, I development my own browser based Content Management System.
I do push for customers to use the CMS because it benefits both me and them. For customers, they save money by not having to rehire someone to keep updating content or make minor changes. For me, it keeps me free from doing mundane content updates.
I don’t do this for the money at all. I do enjoy the challenge of each project and helping others along. I personally know how vendors can really pull one over on individuals. I worked with vendors for almost a decade; they are nothing but sales people that lack the professionalism to stand behind what they created. They just want to get the money and milk it for as much as they can.
-Ruben