On this page, I attempt to explain who I am.

My name is Steven Byrnes. See my contacts page if you want to contact me.

Happy? No? Then continue reading dear reader. (Or continue indexing dear Googlebot.)

I have been programming, and working with computers, since the earth cooled. Or at least it seems that way. It’s funny; I usually don’t feel like an old timer. I know a lot of people who have been at it longer than I have, but when I think about it, I started programming (as a kid) almost 30 years ago, I’ve been using Unix & Emacs for close to 25 years, and I’ve been using the Internet for 20 years… Well, that makes me feel like an old timer.

I’ve worn many hats over the years in IT. I’ve work in small companies, as a consultant, and as a member of larger organizations. At one point, I had a dozen languages or more on my resume: everything from Perl and Emacs Lisp to C & assmebly (multiple flavors). Projects have ranged from embedded programming to web 2.0 applications & N-tier distributed database applications. In addition to getting my hands dirty programming, I’ve been a database administrator (Oracle and SQL Server), Unix administrator (mostly Solaris & Linux, but I dealt with most major flavors at one point or another), and, even, a Windows administrator. (Although I’m really really rusty in that.)

But enough about the tech… for more info, you can check out my LinkedIn page. (Which needs a lot more fleshing out.)

INTERESTS

  • photography, videography: these days, when I pick up a camera (excluding cameraphone), it’s a Canon DSLR, and I’m usually taking photos of my kids.
  • travel
  • lots of reading: finance, economics, business, science & technology; computer-related interests usually limited to new stuff & research
  • astronomy, rarely: I keep an eye on space & astronomy stories, but I almost never look through a telescope anymore (and to think: I wanted to be an astrophysicist)

Years ago, I had a much longer list of interests on this page. It’s shorter now not because I have fewer interests, I just have less time.

POWERED BY

  • coffee, tea, and other substances containing caffeine
  • Mac
  • Emacs
  • the occasional cookie (chocolate chip just now)