About the site:
This site is intended to be my personal outlet for thoughts and ideas concerning software development, digital art and some occasional writing. If visitors find any use from this site I would be pleased.
About myself:
I have been a software development professional -- as in, getting paid to do software development -- since 1996. I started writing software when I started high school in 1984. Like many people my age, I started with a Commodore 64 and its built-in BASIC programming language.
Soon after high school I started teaching myself C and C++. This soon lead to learning other languages like Visual Basic (which I detest) and eventually C#. By 1996 I was a paid software developer.
It took about 2-3 years after I graduated high school to finally install Microsoft Windows on my personal home machine. I have always disliked Microsoft Windows, but for a period of time between about 1994 and 2002 I used it daily at work and at home. In about 1996-1997 I started dabbling in Linux and really enjoyed the experience. In 2002 I just couldn't deal with it anymore and started transitioning my personal machines to Linux only. By 2006 I only ran Linux, and my family followed shortly thereafter. Yes, even the 5-year-old ran Linux!
I am a huge advocate of Open Source software and ideals. I wouldn't call myself a fanactic about it because I'll use non-open software for things like video drivers (I am an nVidia fan), and will even pay for software without issue (I've bought both Simplify3D and Bootstrap Studio recently).
Starting in 1998 I began working for a company that placed software developers on contract at local businesses. I spent many years there, left for other consulting gigs, came back, left, etc. I gained a great deal of knowledge and varying experiences by being a software consultant. I have worked for startups and large enterprises alike. I am currently employed as a full-time software developer at a large company, and in all honestly plan to spend my last couple of decades here. I hope they're up for that!
Programming languages I am capable of using (astute readers will notice there is one missing. I even removed it from my resume years ago!):
- C/C++
- Python
- PHP
- Javascript
- C#
- UniBasic
- Lua (a bit)
Technologies, Frameworks, Stacks I am capable of using:
- Drupal
- Couch CMS
- Entity Framework
- MVC
Languages and Frameworks I want to explore more:
- Go
- Rust
- LISP
- Kivy
- SFML
Other things I do on a regular basis:
- Amazon Web Services (API Gateway, Lambda, ELB, EC2, RDS, Cognito, etc.)
- Git (and CI/CD using Git)
- Azure
- Databases (MySQL, SQL Server)
Stuff I play around with:
- Linux
- Blender 3D
- Godot
- 3D printing
And now for the biggies:
- My OS of choice is Arch Linux.
- My daily code editor is VIM
I didn't include anything in the above lists I would not feel capable of using in a real working environment. I play with more stuff than is listed.