I've been a professional software developer for almost fifteen years, with the last two thirds of that doing work related to the web. My primary focus is experimentally-driven user interface design.

After stints in DC, Los Angeles, and Boston, I live in Pittsburgh, PA by choice, and think it's an awesome place.

Outside of technology, I'm a woodworker, and spend most of my free time trying to figure out how to build new things. I love my motorcycle, do a bit of gardening, and have the best wife ever.

If you've read any number of my posts, you'll pick up that I'm basically a broken record when it comes to recommending reading a few specific books. If there was a course that computer science degrees miss that was designed to make you a much better professional developer early-career, even odds that The Pragmatic Programmer and Code Complete would be the reference texts.

Meanwhile, some of my responses:

• What should a developer know about UI design?
• Pitfalls to avoid when outsourcing?
• Why is a data structures course important?
• When should you break away from xxxx to improve performance?