About

Why @nite? Because I am a rather extreme night owl, and the vast majority of my writing and side projects are accomplished in the quiet hours of the night.

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History

I became interested in computers initially because I was enamored with video games. Shortly after our family bought our first computer, I was hooked. Not only were games fun, but there was also much more interactive educational content available, such as Encarta Encyclopedia. As the machine aged, I became adept at configuring it so that newer games would run smoothly. That was the first spark of my interest in programming.

That happened to be around the same time that AOL started sending free disks to everyone. My first experience with the Internet was with an external, 14.4k baud modem (you know the one; U.S. Robotics, with a nice physical power switch and a speaker so you could hear its digital dance). For the younger folks, that is a whopping 14.4kbps. Going from only accessing content locally from disks to accessing content almost anywhere in the wold was a huge leap. People were making pages about their hobbies, bulletin boards (a precursor to forums and comment threads) allowed for community discussions on different topics, and messaging let you interact with your friends in real time. I loved it and I was fully convinced that this was the future and I wanted to be a part of it.

I learned HTML and started making basic websites. The first game I ever made was a one-page JavaScript game. The first paycheck I ever got for programming was when I was 13, making small one-page sites for businesses within a town directory site. Every job I have had since has been in software development.

Career

I have been a software engineer in a professional capacity for over 20 years. From web dev shops to large defense contractors to small startups, I have worked many projects in a wide variety of industries and technologies. I am well-versed in fullstack development, but often specialized on one end or the other depending on the project.