But, I am not.  I am an average programmer.  I've managed to survive for quite a while, under pressure from Indian and Chinese programmers making a lot less money.  I am a chemist by training.  I got started programming with the IBM FORTRAN G1 compiler on an IBM 360 something or other.  Back in the days of punched cards.  Nobody really cares about this history, so I will skip it.

I hail from somewhere in Oklahoma, if you are interested.  My daughter owns a thoroughbred horse, named Rocket.  He's about 9 years old, and he's turned into a heck of a hunter-jumper competitor in the short time that we've had him.  You can see him here and here.

I mostly develop software for Windows using Microsoft Visual C++.  At the moment, I slip back and forth between VS 2005 and VS 2008.  I like most of the features in VS 2008 a lot better than VS 2005. I've found some issues with certain header files, which you can read about here in my blog.  I used to work a lot with FreeBSD and Apache, back when I owned my own consulting firm.  I prefer FreeBSD and Apache over Windows and IIS any day of the week.

I work for Southwest Research Institute.  I am a Principle Analyst.  I really like my co-workers and my bosses very much.  The work environment is excellent.