I Love Software
A lot of people will tell you that no one hates software more than software engineers. That's mostly true. The hate runs deep. When you build something for a living, it's easy to spot sloppy, lazy, or just plain bad work. There's a lot of terrible software out there, but that's okay.
One of the great things about having so much terrible software is that you can always find ways to make it better. That's 90% of an engineer's job, finding things to break down and re-build harder, better, faster, stronger. More than ever, hour after hour, our work is never over.
If that last part made you giggle, we should probably be friends.
Let's connect!
Living and Working in Denver, CO
Denver is a great city for software. We're close to the Oracle campus in Broomfield, so there is never any shortage of new engineers (mostly of the Java variety). We also have a thriving Maker community and lots of startup spaces.
One thing that is oft-overlooked for a great place to work is the inevitable "stuff-to-do" in the off-hours. There is no shortage of music, meetups, festivals, public art, and outdoors-y-ness in Denver. Throw a snowball, you'll hit someone on their way to something.
Tales from Back-in-the-Day
I began my career over 18 years ago. When I started, websites were hand-coded in Notepad using only free-range, shade-grown, fair-trade bytes. There was only one major website, and it was always down. "Google" wasn't a verb. The print industry wasn't dying a slow, painful, wheezing death, and downloading music from Napster wasn't piracy … yet. We wrote websites to be compatible with Netscape and IE4, and we were glad to do it.
Now all the "hackers" are using Atom Editor and "the Photoshop". IE6 compatibility is a distant memory for those who have been around long enough, and is no longer a way to separate the boys from the men. Testing a site now involves running around a mall and getting at least 25 people to get their phones and tablets out. Learning anything new no longer involves reading, you simply go find the tutorial on YouTube and watch a 60 second ad for a 45 second tutorial.
Damn kids, my lawn.
In all seriousness, a lot of software development and engineering has gotten easier since 1998. Keeping up is a challenge, but it's a challenge worth chasing. Device compatibility testing can be a bit of a hassle, but luckily, we now have tools for that.
F.A.Q.s
Favorite Band / Music / Movie / Pasta dish?
"Ecclectic and shifting" would be the best description of my tastes. I periodically post "share-able noises" on Twitter, which is my way of saying I like a certain song. When I wrote this I was really hoping that I could find a band and a movie named "Lasagna", to be clever.
Favorite Programming Language?
Javascript. Hands down. I know quite a few programming languages, and Javascript will always be my favorite. Why? Put simply, Javascript is anarchy-land. Everything can be a boolean, you can overwrite core parts of the language so easily people do it by accident all the time, and prototypal inheritance makes multiple-inheritance so simple that even beginners can write a platypus. No, really. Go find an OOP primer tutorial. Chances are pretty good that it uses the "Dog is Mammal is Animal" example. Then try to make an egg-laying semi-aquatic mammal using the same techniques. People still love to hate on Javascript, but haters gonna hate, and potaters gonna potate.
Javascript is what you make it.
Do You do Presentations?
Yes! I've done quite a few, and most recently I have been speaking at the Front Range Web Developer Association meetups.
Are you a Chatterbot?
It's possible, but to the best of my knowledge, not presently. I'll update this if that ever changes.
Why do [thing]?
Why not do [thing]? In fact, let's do [stuff] too while we're at it. If I don't do [thing] or [stuff], then who is going to? Nothing ever got done by not trying. Dive-in. Do [thing], try [stuff]. That 3lbs of goo inside your skull isn't just there for decoration (ideally, no one can see it anyway).
Would You Like to Know More?
Stay tuned to this site. I plan to start writing a lot more and a lot more often. On the other hand, if you want me to answer a more specific, pointed, or personal question, reach out.