About Me

I was born on a U.S. Army base in Oklahoma. When I was very young, my parents left the Army, and we moved to Indianapolis, Indiana. I have lived in various areas of Indianapolis ever since.

I became interested in computers and technology when I was in high school. When I was 14, I thought I'd try to get into veterinary school at Purdue University after completing a bachelor's degree, but by the time I graduated high school I had decided to pursue a B.S. in Computer Technology (later renamed to Computer Information Technology, or CIT).

My technology-related hobbies have grown since my first year as a CIT student at IUPUI, and I am now far more interested in computer hardware than I used to be. I have initiated and worked on projects to modify and improve old computer hardware - particularly the Apple clamshell iBook G3 line that was introduced in late 1999. Since purchasing a used iBook on eBay in 2005, I have upgraded the optical drive to a CD-RW/DVD-ROM, swapped out the motherboard for improved graphics and processor performance (as well as the inclusion of a FireWire 400 port), and upgraded the LCD from the stock SVGA (800x600) to a 12" XGA (1024x768) display.

My projects with my iBook have also allowed me to gain proficiency in Apple's operating system, OS X. I have also worked with various Linux distributions for both school projects and my own enjoyment. I've gained an appreciation for the open source software movement, and try to use open source software when I can.

During my 2005 summer internship at Cummins, I quickly learned how to use PHP and MySQL to create data-driven websites. I have since found the combination of these two technologies to be indispensable in the development of websites and online applications.

Computers and technology are not my only passion in life. My childhood was filled with books and constant reading, and as a result I love both reading and writing. I've written software documentation for Cummins applications, and I enjoy writing reviews of products for epinions.com.

I also have a desire to help others learn what I know, and as a result I have found enjoyment in helping friends and family use technology and computers to their advantage. I am the de facto source of tech support for my family, but it's something I do willingly! My desire to help others learn has also influenced my aptitude at writing documentation, training materials, and user guides for applications and processes.

My Website Design Philosophy

There are several major components to my design philosophy. I am committed to creating websites that are as cross-browser and cross-platform compatible as possible, and I make sure to test my designs in several browsers (including Firefox 1.5 and 2.0, Internet Explorer 6 and 7, and Safari 2) and several operating systems (including Windows XP, OS X 10.3 and 10.4, and Linux).

I also strive to create sites that are accessible by as large a demographic as possible. I try to adhere to using CSS for all visual formatting of a site, so that a screen reader or text-based browser such as Lynx can still access the site correctly. Another result of this goal has been that I avoid Flash when creating navigation and content, because this technology can create accessibility problems for a range of users. I aim to create sites that are usable from all kinds of Internet connections, from dial-up to broadband to mobile devices.

Data-driven websites are the future of the Internet, and my overall philosophy of intranet and internet websites at any company takes this into consideration. Through my web development work at Cummins, I have discovered that separating the content from the visual formatting and web infrastructure by using SQL databases or XML provides much more flexible, future-proof websites and applications.