I like to think of myself as a 'bit-pusher' by trade. I've always been interested in computers and electronics.
I graduated from UF with a BSEE - class of '77. Moved to Chicago where I worked at GTE on telephone switching equipment for six months, then quit and started working for Bally Manufacturing - Pinball, Video Games and eventually online Lottery terminals - both hardware and software design.
The entire time I was working for Bally, I had a side business selling computer boards to the nascent S-100 computer marketplace. My company was ADS in Elmhurst, Illinois. I'm amazed that there are photos of some of these products and user manuals on the internet today. With the introduction of the PC, the S-100 market dried up, and our foray into the Multibus market was unsuccessful.
I moved to Sarasota in '90 and joined my youngest brother, Scott in his business - ACS, which was selling networked computer systems with customized accounting software. This was lucrative for awhile, before the department stores started competing. We then started designing and manufacturing customized embedded industrial controllers, which is what we're still doing to this day.
Here are links to our websites, where we market our own product lines:
http://www.acscontrol.com
http://www.cfsound.com
The bulk of our business consists of OEM products that we design and manufacture at our production facility.
And here's a link to my blog:
http://spaces.live.com/sjackerman
Member since Thursday, July 6, 2000
(11 years, 10 months)
