Digital Analytics Consulting

Some Details --- Analysis:
Consulting over the last fifteen years has included a number of projects involving the analysis of pre-existing databases as regards issues such as correctness and completeness of data in a large corporate database, and evidence for or against racial, sexual, age, etc. discrimination in corporate or governmental databases. This work has been performed in collaboration with colleague Dr. R. R. Hill, a professor at the University of Houston at Clear Lake. In this work Dr. Hill provides his expertise in the areas of statistical theory and methodology, and I have provided implementation of statistical calculations on the computer using various commercial software or custom written routines. Microsoft Access databases were used on the last project and we have used Stata and SPSS statistical packages.

--- Software:
Digital Analytics software is designed to speed the analysis of complex (or simple!) systems. As a consultant I am able to customize the software and develop special purpose applications for the user. For example, I have customized BOAT3D when the user's boat shape could not be matched by the standard version.

The Digital Analytics programs have all been written in one version or the other of Borland's Pascal, as I find this to be the quickest and best general purpose language for PC's. Borland Delphi Pascal provides a well-known, powerful, and heavy-duty RAD (Rapid Application Development) environment for Microsoft Windows. As I have explained in discussing DMSolver, Fre e P ascal is compatible with Borland Pascal and lets me provide at zero cost a compiler to users without having to worry about users encountering the many version changes (always incompatible with each other) and complexities of Delphi.

I also work in Microsoft Visual Basic (similar to Delphi) if the customer or application requires it, but I do not recommend Basic for larger projects. I can work in Borland's C++ Builder, a package which resembles Delphi but with C++ instead of Pascal as the language, but again I find Delphi is easiest for PC programming.

I have worked with FoxPro and Access databases, and have experimented with interfacing Delphi and Access, re-implementing part of an earlier DOS FoxPro project with this more modern technology. Overall, I have worked with a large number of different applications including the one creating this web page (see www.mvd.com).

In Feb. 1990, mechanical and aerospace engineer Peter R. Payne adopted EDTECH for his technical graphing needs. This led immediately to a long-term consulting relationship, active primarily from 1990 through 1997, with his firm, Payne Associates, Inc., and later Payne Dynafoils, Inc. of Severna Park, Maryland. The relationship unfortunately changed after Peter's death in late 1997, when company goals changed, and now (2007), the company no longer exists.

Almost all this consulting was done remotely with transfer of information by modem between Texas and Maryland, even before the internet became popular.

During 1990...1997 I assisted Peter in his development of a set of interrelated analytical programs, BOAT3D, originally written primarily in Microsoft Visual Basic for DOS, and assisted him with various analyses and the preparation of an externally funded report on relating ride comfort to the nature of vehicle vibrations. Peter is the inventor of the Dynafoil(tm), a new concept in hydrofoil boats for high-speed travel in rough sea conditions.

The Prototype Dynafoil(tm):

In conventional hydrofoil boats the supporting wings are rigidly fixed to the hull, but in the Dynafoil, the main wing is mounted on a sprung and damped pair of arms which allow the severe oscillatory wave forces on it to be absorbed. Unfortunately, the Dynafoil project is no longer active.