Endtroducing
I call it an endtroduction because of two things: a reference to
an artist
that pegs my youthful salad days and also because it will be the last
time I veer from programming topics into my personal life. You ought to
know who writes this blog, however, so I’ll add that dimension
especially since upon finding interesting things on blogs myself I
always look for that introductory post to know more about the writer.
I’ve been writing software since
just before the “dot com” era, beginning my web applications on
platforms like ASP and desktop applications with Visual Basic. Over the
years although I’ve tinkered in other environments, most of my living
has been made from Microsoft development tools. My first truly object
oriented language was Java and for a few years I worked with the web
application side of the Java world: Servlets, JSP and java application
servers. I’ve been working with the .NET Framework since the first beta
releases from Microsoft. It doesn’t feel like it, but it’s been a while.
Aside from the stalwarts of
McBusiness I’ve always had an interest in other languages and tools. An
old college friend of mine inspired me towards Perl as programming
language and culture so for a long time I was a wallflower in that
world. I still love Perl and will always return to it as my first
multipurpose dynamic language. At my first TechEd I developed an
interest in dynamic languages that cooperate with Microsoft’s .NET
platform and for the single reason it was ready for public exploit
before IronRuby, IronPython is my language of choice for Microsoft
Dynamic Language Runtime.
I'm writing this blog as a journal of trying to get the Sioux Falls.NET User Group going. I and my cohorts have hatched a plan to get people from the area together to learn and grow in our understanding of software development with the Microsoft technologies as our backdrop.
I’ve lived many places in my short life – I’m a Ugandan by birth but spent most of my childhood in one of three places:
Nairobi, Kenya
San Bernardino, California
Portland, Oregon
I remember Nairobi best and loved Portland the most.
As an adult I’ve lived in southern
California and South Dakota. I’ll never leave the Californian in me
behind but for the foreseeable future, Sioux Falls will be home.
Thanks for stopping by. If you’re in South Dakota I hope to see you at one of our meetings.