About Me
I’m a perpetually curious person who likes working with smart people to use technology to solve difficult problems.
I have had a 20+ year career in technology, and in that time have had roles that included developer, team lead, manager, architect, and more. Since 2012, I have been focused on both infrastructure automation and cloud technologies, working with Chef, Jenkins, Ruby, Python, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and others. Currently I work for Accenture as an architect on the Accenture Cloud Platform. I enjoy the challenge of keeping up with the pace of change in technology as it feeds my curious nature and fits well with my talents. I’m currently in an architecture role that allows me to work on the big picture challenges associated with security, scalability, and maintainability, as well as writing code and proving out new technologies and approaches.
Outside of work I’m a husband and father. I have three kids and a dog, and we all live in the small-ish town of Normal, IL tucked in a corn field somewhere between Chicago and St. Louis.
The Best Of
If you're new here, this is a collection of my favorite things I've written. It's a great place to start.
One of the recurring themes in my quest to be organized is that of todo list staleness. Inevitably, the cycle looks like this: I sit down, and in a burst of creative energy I create a beautifully crafted, perfectly organized todo list. It’s a thing to behold. Everything is broken down into nice orderly projects, each with a clearly identified next action. There are contexts assigned to everything: this one is an errand, this one needs to be done online, this one needs to be done in the kitchen.
Read the full articleI am a huge fan of coffee and over the years I have tried a lot of different means of preparing it. I currently own a french press, a drip maker, and a stovetop espresso pot. All of these make good coffee, with each having its own set of pros and cons. Last year, however, I discovered the best method for brewing coffee: Aeropress. It makes delicious coffee, takes up almost no space in your kitchen, and cleanup is easy.
Read the full articleLike Marco Arment I’m not qualified to eulogize Steve Jobs, but I owe a lot to him so I need to say something. My first computer was an Apple //c. 1985. I spent a lot of time on that computer. A lot. Probably an unhealthy amount. I was a nerdy kid to begin with, and I instantly fell in love with it. I spent endless hours on that computer. Playing games, writing programs in BASIC, and generally just exploring the new world that it opened up for me.
Read the full articleWhen budgets get tight, it can be difficult to provide adequate training for your staff. Over the last couple of years, I’ve found some ways to provide some training even in the face of a shrinking (or non-existent) budget. Regional conferences If you still have some budget, but maybe just not as much as you are accustomed to, look to smaller regional conferences as an alternative to the larger national ones that are in major cities.
Read the full articleIn my time as a developer, and now managing a team of developers, I have come to realize that there are two kinds of programmers: the Journeyman and the Craftsman. These terms aren’t mine - I’ve seen them used other places - but they describe the developers I’ve worked with pretty well. The Journeyman …knows one programming language. …knows one operating system. …can’t be bothered to learn something on their own.
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