Hi!
I was born and raised in Bismarck, North Dakota. I still have many friends there and like to go back during the summers. Especially to I enjoy the Dakota Astronomical Society's annual meeting at the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park!
I am a graduate of the University of North Dakota (1992). I majored in computer science and minored in Space Studies. Before that I graduated from Century High School in Bismarck.
I play Judo, which is a martial art. Judo means "Gentle Way" in Japanese. We don't punch or kick people, no this method of self defense is oriented toward throwing people to the ground, armbars, chokes, hold downs and the like. I've been doing it for three years now, and it has been a great deal of fun!
I am seriously into music. About the only thing I don't like to listen to is country music... growing up in North Dakota might have something to do with that. I especially like to collect New Age music, Steve Roach is one of my favorite artists. I am also into alternative music of all sorts such as Garbage, Liz Phar, Natalie Merchant, Milla, Elastica, Pink Floyd, Letters to Cleo, and a number of others.
I can be a voracious bookworm. It's not unlike me to go through a book in a day. I really enjoy Terry Pratchett's Discworld, Tolkien, Douglas Coupland (Microserfs, Generation X and Shampoo Planet are quite good!)
I do like to go camping and hiking, tho I have not turned into a serious backpacker. It's hard to go backpacking and camping by yourself tho... Most of my friends are not into such things ... :-( My dream vacation right now is to either head over to Europe and see as many countries as possible or head out for Australia and New Zeeland.
If I was on Jeopardy my 7 ideal catagories would be
My work career started as a paperboy way back when! I've been a math tutor, data entry guy, coupon counter, t-shirt offer handler, computer lab supervisor, and computer aided animation animator, all before I graduated from college.
At UND the best job I ever had was as the head of the Space Studies Image Processing Lab. I got to play with all kinds of cool hardware and plenty of NASA data sets. There's an aweful lot that you can tell from a satellite taking images in a variety of bandwidths.
I Cooped with IBM for the entire year of 1991, when I worked with Steve Knight on PWS entensions for Pete. Then I helped design Pete v2.0.
In 1992, I came back to IBM for good. I hired into the same department that I had cooped with, Performance Tools. I've since worked on the the Performance Explorer as well as other performance tools for the AS/400.
For a very short time I was in Client Access land, working for Jane Vold. That was just before I became a Java guy. It was my calling and Jane was kind enough to let me chase my dream.
For a few years I worked on Java. I created a clean room implementation of a Java Virtual Machine with the help of 3 other people. In addition I worked on the AS/400 Java Virtual Machine and for two years at Common I have taught a number of labs about Java on the AS/400. I won a bronze award as a result. I also from time to time teach Java interally or externally. I co-teach an advanced Java course through the University of Minnesota with Joe Sharp.
It's funny, I hate coffee.
I work on PowerPC Linux. ppc64 iand Penguinppc.org are the two main PowerPC linux sites. I tend to hack on hardware that goes from the very large to the very small.
Officially I work for IBM in the Linux Technology Center.
For the past couple of years my biggest hobby has been doing the theatre thing. I serve on the Young People's Play Reading Committee, and am a member of both the Touch and No Easy Answers Troups. (We go out to the local schools and with the help of the Rochester Sexual Assualt Program we do educational programs) . This year I am the Vice President of the Rochester Civic Theatre.
Thus far I've been in
I have a number of favorite movies. Let me share with you some of them that I really liked for one reason or another.
I've really gotten to enjoy foreign films because with them you don't know where things are going to end up. They don't do trite little Hollywood scripts where you can just see the previews and know what the entire story is.
That's me.