Introductions - General - Northwest Arkansas .NET User Group

Forum Discussions General Introductions

5/8/2008 9:42 AM

	jay.smith
32 posts

Introductions

Modified By jay.smith on 5/8/2008 7:43:17 AM)

Several sits I belong to have an introduction thread where members and new member introduce themselves and begin to become part of the community. I thought that would be a great idea for our community. Yeah, we see each other at the meetings but rarely do we take it past that. Lets start building an strong community for developers where we can help each other out. A simple introduction is a great way to start.

Please include the following info in your introduction.

Name:
Job Title:
Company:
Team:

Technologies You Use:

Topics you would like to present to the group:

Topics you would like to see presented to the group:

Feel free to add any additional info about yourself that you feel would make a good introduction and help others get to know you.

I'll go first.

Jay Smith - http://jaysmith.us

5/8/2008 9:51 AM

	jay.smith
32 posts

Re: Introductions

Modified By jay.smith on 5/8/2008 7:53:10 AM)

Name: Jay Smith
Title: PMO Architect and Evangelist (Sr. Programmer Analyst)
Company: Tyson Foods, Inc. in Springdale, AR
Team: Program Management Office (PMO)

Experience Level: I don't consider myself an expert my any means, some area I know more, some areas I know less, and some I don't know anything. I feel like I have been hacking code for the last 15 years and just now am really learning the fundamental principles that will allow me to become a REAL programmer.

Technologies I Use:
I am currently working with ASP .NET, ASP .NET MVC Framework, .NET 3.5, EntLib, and focusing on learning TDD, and BDD and the tools that go along with that.

Topics I would like to present to the group: I am trying to learn more about Object Oriented Design, Test Driven Development, and Behavior Driven Development and I would like to present these topics to the group.

Topics I would like to see presented to the group: Hmm, I guess my other one kind of fits here as well, but I would also like to learn more about SilverLight, WPF, and LINQ.

Blog: http://jaysmith.us

I enjoy talking with developers, when they can get me to shut up ;-), and learning what works in their environment. I have hobbies other than coding, yes I consider writting code a hobby, such as Homebrewing (mead, wine, and beer), motorcycles, I am also the founder and one of the host of a podcast for a PC based role playing game called Neverwinter Nights (http://nwnpodcast.com), and trying to keep up with my kids. I have two girls ages 8 and 4 who are just a ton of fun to be around, I'm sure every parent feels this way. Mainly I love learning, which is why I like the IT field so much, there is always something to learn.

Jay Smith - http://jaysmith.us

5/8/2008 8:27 PM

	mjhufford
11 posts

Re: Introductions

I'll go

Name: Mark Hufford (MJ)
Job Title: IT Manager
Company: Wachter in Lowell, AR
Team: IT
Experience Level: I'm pretty green relatively speaking, but I'm a pretty quick learner. I've managed a Microsoft tech support team and currently work as an IT Manager for Wachter. I have another app developer and a sys admin on my team and we have a lot of fun learning from one another. At Wachter, we build business management applications that face internally and externally. We've done some kewl mash-ups with MS Virtual Earth and GPS data from our field employee's vehicles. I also have a business I run on the side (as I'm sure we all do). Through MJ Consulting, I offer web design and technical training services.

Technologies You Use: .NET 2.0, 3.5, VB, C#, SQL 2005, AJAX and hopefully Team System 2008 for our next project.

Topics you would like to present to the group: I'm here to learn right now...lol.

Topics you would like to see presented to the group: OOP, Design Methodologies and maybe some of the newer technologies like Silverlight.

I'm married with 4 kids. I love to play my guitars and started up a guitarist community about 4 years ago: http://www.GuitarVoice.com. It's in PHP right now, but I'm in the process of developing a new C# version. More recently, I've started running and am getting addicted. I've lost over 50 pounds in the last year...so that makes me the biggest loser!

"The pursuit of easy things makes men weak" ~David O. McKay

6/4/2008 5:33 PM

	rtennys
3 posts

Re: Introductions

Name: Rob Tennyson
Job Title: Lead Programmer Analyst
Company: Tyson Foods
Team: Production Planning

Experience Level:
I got into computers as a hobbiest in the mid 90's, was first introduced to programming when I started college in '99, and have been writing software since. Most of my experience is from Tyson with only a few outside stints.

Technologies You Use:
.Net 3.5, C#, ASP.Net, Sql Server, Oracle, Sybase. Have worked with other languages and things, but would rather not advertise the specifics as I sure as hell don't want to work on them again!

Topics you would like to present to the group:
Anything simple enough that even I wouldn't hose it up.

Topics you would like to see presented to the group:
Anything an architecture astronaut would be interested in. Anything Alt.Net, Agile, or to do with patterns and practices. I'm much more interested in the "meta" type topics.

It's interesting how over the course of a career there are many peaks and valleys as far as how interested we actually are in what we're currently doing as a career. I'm currently somewhere around a peak so I feel like I've been learning a lot lately with all of the reading and reasearch (books, blogs, and mags). Good times. Though I enjoy the valleys too - the family gets more attention and I play a lot more!

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