When It All Began
My interest in technology comes from a long history of curiosity and, well, breaking things. As best I can remember, it started with Lego building bricks and watching MacGyver on TV. Together, they influenced me in ways I never could have imagined at the time. The simple Lego toys (”Technic” pieces, not the boring house-building ones) encouraged me to learn the inner workings of machines and devices, and I would spend an almost unhealthy amount of hours building with them. As for watching MacGyver, I carry a Swiss Army Knife to this day because of that show, and I use it daily. I also like to think I took along some wit and wisdom, as well.

My First Mac
I’m always slightly embarrassed to admit that my first Mac was a Performa 5200CD, as most Mac users I’ve met started out on machines dating way back to near the beginning of the era, like the Mac 128K or SE. I started out using System 7, however my interest in computers quickly brought me many machines, from the Apple IIe up through my current PowerBook. Though I started out relatively late in the Mac world, I now have more Apple-branded computers of all shapes and colors than I know what to do with. Some get mashed-up and some get used for parts, but I’ll always enjoy Apple’s clever hardware design, even if some models are hard to open.

What I’m Up To Now
I’ve taken a great interest in several areas of technology, but the ones I see the most growth in are web-related ones such as PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, and CSS. With all these languages and protocols, it’s possible to create a very rich web experience, combining well-organized information from a database with a sharp looking presentation, all with a nice interactive layer. I’ve built quite a number of websites for people which allow them to update their own content, and because of that I’m finding more and more that the web is dramatically less static than it was a short few years ago. Content today changes quickly and has the capability to explode to all corners of the web within hours.

Lately, I’ve also been heavily involved in Xbox modification. Some wonder what good can possibly come of tweaking a game console, seeing only more game related answers. I find that I almost never play games on the Xbox. Instead, I modify it to run non-Microsoft code and install Xbox Media Center, which is an absolutely fantastic piece of homebrew software. An open source project still in the works, XBMC is a media system for the Xbox which plays nearly every audio and video format you’ll encounter. If you’re looking for a PVR-type set top box, don’t spend hundreds on a TiVo, run XBMC instead. While the Xbox’s hardware limitations don’t allow for video recording, it’s ideal for a setup where you can download the content you intend to watch and simply stream it to the Xbox over a network. My buddy Jon has a great introduction to setting up a system like this.

My Better Half
You’d think that, given my love for technology, I would be the stereotypical geek with no significant other to speak of. Well, I’m happy to report that I have a smart, wonderful fiancee whose writing is equally beautiful as she. We’ve been together for over six years now, and I’m happy to say that she and I have a great future ahead. She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me (yes, even better than the G5), and I would simply be wasting my time if I tried to find someone better.

Command-Tab
I purchased Command-Tab a number years ago and regularly posted Mac news, although it was more for refining my web development skills than anything else. I learned how to manage domains and set up web servers, and I picked up PHP and MySQL along the way. In the past, I updated my site by manually editing HTML files in BBEdit, but I’ve since switched web hosts a dozen times and moved onto WordPress for content management (however, I’m still a BBEdit user). My seemingly endless curiousity has brought in a wealth of knowledge which I’m proud of — and more than happy to share with anyone willing to ask.