Provide a quick, creative biography in 140 characters or less.
More bioI have a degree in electronics, but have always programmed or written about programming. I have worked on projects on almost everything from submarines to satellites ! Strong points include a lot of "old tech" (Algol, Fortran, Modula, Snobol, Lisp, Coral, Ada, Bliss, and other 70's lanuguages), as well as C, ObjectPAL (Paradox), & SQL.
For the last 24 years I've worked full-time with databases, including Paradox, Access, MySQL, Oracle, Ingres, Sybase, Teradata, DB2, and MS SQl Server.
I started web work with Bluestone's Sapphire/Web in 1996 and migrated into the varied worlds of ColdFusion, PHP, C#, Java, and JavaScript programming for the web and the Pocket PC (busy life !). Well, that was then: For the last few years I've been back in the MS world, using VB.NET, some C# and SQL Server from 2000 to 2016. I also dabble with PL/SQL at times. I've used Splunk for big machine data, and am currently studying R and Python and revisiting HTML.CSS/JavaScript.
I was a member of TeamB, giving online tech support to users of Paradox for Borland; followed Paradox to Corel to be a member of CTech, doing the same for Corel for many years. I hang out here in Experts Exchange for a little light relief, helping people with SQL Server, MySQL and PHP, among other things. I'm considering taking up sleeping as a hobby !
I have a son, a step-daughter, and a wife. I drive Subarus, speak English, French, Dutch, and German, and have given up Windows in favour of Linux for my own PCs - I work in virtual machines or remotely. I run a 17.3" System-76 Bonobo P5 laptop, which has as much power as many of the servers I work on! I bought it in 2011 - I'm saving up for a new one!
Finally, I am starting as a Consultant for Microsoft Field Services in September, 2106. I shall not be recommending any products of any sort here on Experts Exchange; partly because of my new affiliation, but mainly because that's really not what I do.