The Helper Solution's About the Author.

My name is Craig Johnson. I am the author of The Helper Solution's Home (THS Home), and I'm the only participant in this project, so all the glory and blame fall on my sholders.

I am a retired computer programmer. My final title was Technical Consultant, for whatever that's worth. I started programming in 1971 when I took a programming class. Back then the programming options were limited so the school started by teaching us how to code in "machine language", by twiddling the bits in memory. This was also the time when punched cards were used to input data into main frame computers. Terminals were just starting to appear in some locations. We then moved up to assembly language and finally Cobol. After graduating my first job was with Unigard Insurance in Seattle, coding in Cobol. In 1974 I got a new job at Seattle First National Bank (Seafirst), coding in Cobol. Seafirst was eventually bought and merged into Bank of America.

I spent about 38 years at Seafirst / Bank of America working on various projects from main frame applications, teller systems, online banking and other online systems. I utilized a number of coding languages like Cobol, at least 3 variations of assembler, unique teller control language, C, C++, Java, Javascript, HTML, CSS, just to name a few. Most of our online server coding was in Java and using Java Server Pages (JSP) for the web pages. This was responsible for my love of the Java programming language. It was my first taste of object oriented programming (OOP) in early to mid 1990s. I had done multi-task re-entrant programming using assembler on the Seafirst teller system, but Java's OOP sure made things easier. Java has grown to be a forceful player in global applications.

This project started as a flat HTML page with links at a time when browser bookmarks were not distributed very well. I loaded a browser tab with the page so it was easily available at any time I needed it. This might give you an indication of how long I've been working on this, like since 2013. Shortly after I created the flat HTML page, I thought it could be a good candidate for a multi-user web page. The flat HTML page has morphed into a multi-user application, written in Java with JSP web pages, all backed by a database at the server. It's taken me over 12 years to add enough bells and wistles to make it useful to myself and other people.

I love tinkering with the application. If I can think of anything to improve it, I will probably add it. I will attempt to solve any problems that come to my attention, but I can not guarantee any fixes, or that they will be done in a timely manner. This is a kind of part time hobby for me, not a main-stream business. You will have to take it or leave it on that basis.

I hope you find it useful and enjoy using it.

Last Updated: 12/12/2025