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The Part of my Life that is Perl
10 years on Perl, 20+ years on Un*x. Whilst I have been registered on PerlMonks for nearly 4 years, due to time and health issues, I have only just (as in September 2008) started to try to take an active part in this excellent community.
I am a freelance web applications developer using (Linux|Solaris), Apache, MySQL, Perl. And sometimes - though grudgingly - PHP.
There's More to Life than Perl (What, Really?)
Whilst Perl occupies the bulk of my working life and is also used for 'fun stuff', I do have a life beyond it - and indeed computers.
Sweet Music
My interest in music tends to bring me close to computers, running Linux with a realtime kernel and various software such as Jack, Rosegarden, Zynaddsubfx. Hook that up with a Behringer USB sound card, a Soundcraft mixer, a Roland MKS-70, Korg MS2000R, Kawai K5000W, Akai S2000XL and S01 samplers, an electro-classical guitar, some Boss pedals, and Alesis SR-16 and you might be excused for thinking that I make music. One day, when I can get Rosegarden to stop crashing, I may do that.
Until such time as the software starts behaving, my main involvement with music is via my iPod (iTunes run in Windows XP under VMware Workstation). This little beast holds a diverse host of music including that of Nena, Pink Floyd, Klee, Genesis, Toyah, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Eurythmics, Duran Duran, Philip Glass, Nina Hagen, Richard Wagner (the one with the long operas), the Thompson Twins, The Orb, Rosenstolz, Michael Nyman, Mark Almond, JS Bach - and lots, lots more.
Food & Drink
I'm into this in a big way, both preparation and consumption. I do all the cooking at home and try to grow such herbs and vegetables that can survive a combination of our brutal climate, snails and earwigs.
Whilst I love fine wines, my plans to put some vines in are still just that - plans. I do make my own beer (when I get around to it), although I use dried malt extract as my base rather than a full mash.
My main tipple is green tea - buckets of it.
Miscellaneous
Weight training. Electronics of the microcontroller variety (mostly Atmel AVR) - I design and make my own PCBs. Oh, reading. I read a lot. As a Chronic Fatigue sufferer, I have to spend a lot of time resting and that generally involves having my head stuck in a sci-fi or fantasy novel. Just started watercolour painting.
Family
I am married with many dogs, two horses and Henry the budgerigar who lived in my office for a while, providing distractions.
Further Reading
This is my non-work site and this is my work one which is not half as interesting ;-) And here is my LinkedIn profile which is the closest thing you'll get to a CV/resumé.
Contact
my $email="${my_nick}\@${my_nick}tech.com";