About Matt
Opinions are my own. My blog does not represent any current or former employer.
I have a long and storied IT and Dev career. Starting with hacking at the Commodore 64 and the IBM XT in my youth, I became deeply interested in software development and analysis. You could say that my real education happened at home, in front of a screen, at all hours of the day and night.
Running a multi-node bulletin board system (BBS) as a teen, I started developing my own game addons, BBS utilities, and BBS doors. Some of my software is still in use today by die hard BBS operators! I also developed skills in networking, modems, software and hardware troubleshooting, and root cause analysis that ultimately forged the basis of my career.
On leaving school, I moved into the IT field. Developing deep knowledge, understanding, and expertise of a wide range of technologies, I have worked in systems integration, IT consultancy, IT management, and much more. I have gained a vast breadth and depth of experience that informs much of what I do, and I often find myself called upon to apply extensive analytical skills that are informed by past projects, achievements, and yes, even failures.
My hobbyist software development never stayed far away; while I've never been employed as a software developer, I have nonetheless developed many IT and business focused applications and utilities over the years, enabling businesses and IT organisations to deliver their services more efficiently and effectively. I've created automated fax servers, database-driven login applications that functioned much like Group Policy Preferences, business facing document management applications with an API and back-end service featuring OCR and all manner of business workflows, automated transfer applications - just a few examples amongst all kinds of weird and wonderful things!
I've also run and written extensively for technology websites and online user groups. I've organised annual sponsored parties at technology conferences. I've spoken at conferences. I've had my expertise recognised with a Microsoft MVP award. I quite like ducks, and my sense of humour has been described as left of field, absurd, or "WTF". These two things are related.
