About

I got my first computer, a Sinclair ZX80, when it first came out. Sold it a year later and bought a ZX81, and have been programming ever since.

During that time I have seen many changes in the industry, from the rise and fall of the mini computer, the ascent of the PC, and recently, the emergence of mobile. Through all that has been the slow and steady march of the network, from the early fumblings of proprietary systems to the utter and total global dominance of the internet. And despite all of this change, programming is still programming. Languages may come and go of style, syntax may evolve, but the need to break down a task into small chunks of easily expressible ideas remains.

I may be greying at the temples and have been in senior leadership positions, but I still enjoy the problem solving and the rush of excitement that comes from the clarity of code. I’ve always enjoyed (as my mother will attest) taking things apart to see how they work. This is a trait that has followed me throughout my professional career. I’ve spent many hours digging through software to discover how it works. Indeed I’ve always thought the best way to understand software is to consider it from the inside, if you know why something works, why certain choices were made, then you’ll really understand how it works. As programmers, we’ve all had to make decisions that seem odd from the outside, but may perfect sense from inside at that point in time.

The goal of this blog is to be an expression of those philosophies – clarity of thought, deep understanding, bursting the bubble – but like all good software and ideas it will probably iterate and refactor into something completely different. If it does, then I’m sure it will be for the better.

I currently live in Portland, Oregon, where I am the sole proprietor of my own company, Radical Barrel, designing and developing iOS apps.