Musings about Entrepreneurship, Technology and Software Development

Accidental Technologist

About

I am not a technologist totally by accident but close enough to call my blog Accidental Technologist. I started my career as a Chemical Engineer but switched my major on what seemed like a whim. So, here I am a computer scientist.

Background

I am a freelance web developer, Internet Systems Architect and entrepreneur living in Woodstock, CT. I have been writing software for more than 20 years in languages such as Objective-C, Ruby, JavaScript, C/C++, BASIC, Visual Basic, ASP/ASP.NET and C#. I ran a software development and network integration company for 10 years and then sold the business in 2000 to pursue other interests.

Today I create and maintain both web applications using Ruby on Rails and JavaScript as well as mobile applications for iOS. My Ruby and Ruby on Rails work started in early 2007 when working with ASP.NET had become too much of a chore and the enjoyment ebbed away. Working on Ruby and moving outside of the Microsoft walls really opened my eyes and my interest in many different computer languages has grown to include; Clojure, exploring Scala, Python and almost anything dynamic.

I maintain the open source project known as Instant Rails project over on RubyForge, but that project has been replaced by RailsInstaller, which you should check out if you are stuck on Windows and want to try out Ruby and Rails.

Writing

Well, I write for this blog when I have time and ramble about anything that interests me.

I also am a Ruby Community Editor for the great site, www.infoq.com, since June 2007. My InfoQ writings can be found on my authors page.

Work

My professional work includes running a web development consultancy, The Still River Software Company, LLC. We are a iOS and Ruby on Rails consulting and development services company.

As part of my consulting work I also work on several projects:

  • Palette Pro – simple utility app that runs on iOS which uses the camera to scan colors for interior decorators, web designer, graphic artists or anyone interested in reproducing a color they see.
  • Note-It – utility to make the user more efficient. I created this application for myself, as I surf the web and collect notes and URLs I can paste them into a note to have delivered to my email address.
  • Customerify – helps SaaS product owners to understand and engage their visitors.
  • Rails Rescues – need help with that Ruby on Rails web site not behaving as you hoped? Not scaling? Bugs or just broken.
  • RenderMate – currently a free service that allows developers who need to render complete web pages really easily.
  • Expens’d – dead simple expense tracking and reporting.

I am available for hire on freelance projects, contact me about your project at [email protected]. The most recent copy of my resume well, does anyone really use them any longer? Read my blog, look at my web sites or take a look at my profile on LinkedIn and my GitHub account. You can also see what I’m up to on Twitter and Facebook (pretty much ignored).

My other interests include amateur astronomy, backpacking in the White Mountains and flying High Power Rocketry in and around New England.