|
|
|
|
Links Homepage Resume Toys Play Music Bikes |
So you want to know more about me huh? Oh well, now I'll have to tell you.
I'm rather (in)famous for my long blue hair. 6 and a bit years I had it for. Finally got tired of it in August 2005 after a series of long bike ride trips, and trimmed it back. It's taking a while for the colour to fade, so it still has a somewhat bluish tint to it given the right ligthing. Next hair cut should remove the last of the blue and return back to normal colour again (I think it's a dark brown, but so long ago I don't remember!).
I work as a code hacker primarily using Java and X3D/VRML, but I tend to dabble in almost anything that looks interesting. I do a lot of defence work that is now migrating into the civilian market. It's a real source of interest how much standard military software can be taken to the civilian emergency services and big time sports arena. Planning a offensive football team strategy requires just as much precision and visualisation as a full scale military attack. Just a few lines of code difference and hey presto, one civilian firebrigade system made to order. The work is great fun because I get to play with all sorts of cool stuff, and I also get a good amount of time to satisfy my own interests. Those interests are primarily distributed networking and virtual reality. Work's pretty good to me in this regard and those who know me, know what I get up to. When I work I am there to make a difference. When I stop making a difference I move on to another place. I don't like being a run-of-the-mill code hacker that sits there, writing code to someone else's design. I also hate having people that work for me do the same thing. I encourage, even hassle them, to work on new stuff, explore, play, suggest alternatives, even argue with other members about the best solution. If you can't justify your arguments in a rational way to your fellow coders, how can the design be properly thought through? For example - how I make differences: the project that I'm working on is now delivering all of its documentation in HTML format. There's not a paragraph or heading number to be seen in over a thousand pages of documentation. Hyperlinks galor! And remember, this is for some staid old defence project, not some hip young Silicon Valley startup. And, after reading all of this stuff you are still interested in employing me, don't forget to have a look at my resume.
Many moons ago, in the deep dark dim days of the past ages, I used to do quite a lot of things. Unfortunately, getting a real job has seen the demise of many of these fun activities. Generally, fun is very similar to work. I do a lot of writing which consumes a fair amount of my time. The latest one has been somewhat slow in coming. I must be getting better at it these days. I'm now finished the 10th book that I've either written or contributed to. They say practice makes perfect, but I don't really know about that. I still have a hard time trying to say useful and meaningful things without sounding like some bloody suit. Books are not the only thing. I seemed to have picked up standards writing too. I've authored a 100+ page part of the VRML ISO standard, A few hundred pages of the X3D ISO standard as well as a number of recommended practices, extensions etc. Finally, I also love to dance. I've been doing club dancing for quite a long time, which lead to becoming a semi-professional night club dancer for a while (working clubs around the Perth scene like Metropolis, The Church, 2-3 nights a week). Picked up a few other forms along the way, such as Street Latin. Here in Seattle, the nightclub scene sucks badly. Barely anything that resembles house music, let alone high energy forms. From 4-5 nights a week to lucky to find something once a month! Filling in the gaps that this wet and dreary place I have found myself in, has been Martial Arts. I'm now devote a large chunk of time each day to studying a number of forms: Hapkido, Aikido, Tai Chi and TKD. When the sun is out, then going out hiking is fun too. However, with all the wet weather, being able to plan a good long hike in advance is quite difficult, so it is mainly day hiking now.
When not writing I'm currently engaged in any one of a number of things. Firstly, in an attempt to shorten my life expectancy I have taken out temporary citizenship and learnt to ride a motorcycle. Starting with a 250cc two-stroke race bike with headlights (KR-1S), I've ridden (and fixed) many different forms of bikes over the years. I'm now onto more expensive racebikes ('02 RSV-R) and looooong distance touring (longest day has been 1400 miles in 23hrs). Riding motorbikes, especially ones with fairings, means that a lot of panel work always needs to be done. My other current time consumer is being a part time panel-beater. I spent many years in all my uni holidays working in a Glider repair shop helping to repair and maintain aircraft. As part of this, I learnt how to work composite materials and wield a spray gun with deadly accuracy. These days, I use this to fix my mates cars. Over time, I've rebuilt two MGBs (one of which I personally crashed - sorry Dad!), various cars like Fords, Toyotas, Jaguars, my own cars and anyone else's that comes along, including having worked on several customs.
The other favourite pashion of mine is Music: both performance and listening. Having played music since before I could walk (well... not quite, but close enough) its in the blood. This takes a number of serious forms from car stereo to home stereo to actually playing the stuff. While the CD collection is not currently huge, its getting there.
Of course, no self-respecting geek could have a homepage about themselves without including a copy of their Geekcode. Here's mine: -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.12 GCS/E/MU/TW d-- s++:- a- C+++>(++++)$ UL+++>$ UI+ P+ L++$ E-- W+++$ N+ !o K++ w$ !O !M V-- PS !PE Y+ PGP@ t+ 5? X R !tv b++$ DI+++ D G+ e++(*)$ h* r y? ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------ |
