About Me

Greetings

This is my personal page. If you are looking for Python training or book resources, please follow the links on my home page. This page is mostly just a brief overview of my background, and a place where I keep assorted photos for family and friends.

The formal story

People sometimes ask me for a biographical career summary for various purposes. If you are looking for such a formal bio, you can find the standard blurb with all the details on this page.

The professional story

But enough of formality. I've been working in the computer software field since the early 80's. Since 1999, I have been earning my entire living as a self-employed Python trainer and writer. Much of my career has been spent in traditional software development jobs, and I still occasionally do some consulting. But in recent years, I've focused exclusively on my independent technical writing and training activities. They've kept me busy.

Speaking of computers: My first substantial computer project was a FORTRAN program that played tic-tac-toe against itself. It was coded on punchcards, and each move displayed a new "board" on a line printer listing, which I picked up hours after the program was run. Today, I get upset if my Python tic-tac-toe GUI program takes more than half a second to pick a move on my uPC handheld computer. It's been a wild ride.

The personal story

Well, as much as I care to reveal here, at least. I am originally from Wisconsin, and spent two years after grad school in Texas, but have lived along the Colorado front range since 1992, near Boulder. I'm recently married, and am the father of three amazing kids, ages 21, 18, and 10 as of Summer 2007.

When I have time for hobbies, I enjoy spending time on my computers, playing guitar, and hiking in the mountains here (Rocky Mountain National Park is about 30 minutes away). As you can probably tell from the words above, I also devote substantial time to the Python programming language, whether for career or fun. You can find more on my background in the links below.

More about me

• A list of books I've written so far
• The Python classes I teach
• My Python activities calendar
• A Python article I wrote in early 2004
• An interview I did when my big book came out in 2001
• Another online interview I gave in late 2005
• The gritty details? - see my resume
• A Python conference report: here
• Click here to send me email
• Click here for other contact points
• Another place I keep a small web page (old)

And finally, how about a few pictures?

Caveat: these photos are all seriously dated. I'll post more recent travel photos if I ever get some free time to work on this site.

Recent Random Stuff

• Posted September 2004: here, here, here, here, here, here

Hiking Shots

• From late 2002 hikes: here, here, here, here
• A 15-mile hike, Nov 2001, Rocky Mtn NP: here, here, here, here, here

Training Trips

• Apr 2003, Dublin, Ireland: here, here, here
• May 2002, Barcelona, Spain: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
• Jul 2001, Dublin, Ireland: here, here, here, here, here, here
• Jan 2000, Newmarket, England: here, here, here
• Jan 2000, New York City: here, here
• Sep 1998, Puerto Rico: here, here, here
• Some of the other places I have visited lately

Other Trips

• April 2003, Vegas: here, here
• Miscellaneous: here, here, here

Assorted

• My machines (i.e., toys): here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
• Pictures of me? - click here
• Someone who stopped in at a class I taught near Yosemite in 2001 (no, really)
• Last but not least, here I am on the job

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