About
A computer engineer and aspiring scientist, I live in Lansing, MI with my wonderful wife, Emmalena and my infant Elena. I work part-time as an Information Technology Professional for the Michigan State University Libraries, where I develop many web applications, support an ever growing storage area network and administer way too many MySQL databases. As the second half of my position at MSU I work for the Digital Evolution Laboratory as a researcher and the lead developer of the Avida Digital Evolution Platform.
In academic studies, I have a B.S. in Computer Engineering with an emphasis in Software Engineering from Michigan State. I am currently working towards a Ph.D. in Computer Science at MSU, studying the importance of contingency in the evolution of complex functions.
In computers and software, I am a big fan of clean, well-designed systems. I am a strong proponent of open source software. I utilize Linux in numerous server environments, including the compute cluster used for the majority of my active research. My primary platform of choice, however, is Apple / Mac OS X. At home I make use of Kashyyyk, a Power Mac G5 Quad. On the road Dagobah, a MacBook Pro 17-inch 2.4GHz, keeps me productive. Finally, at my day job Coruscant, a Power Mac G5 Dual-core 2.3GHz, does much of the heavy lifting. As far as other random systems, Dagobah the PowerBook G4 Titanium 1GHz, both my first laptop and first Mac, has moved on to a new home.
Outside of work and computers, I enjoy science fiction (especially Star Wars), Futurama, The Simpsons, CSI, Nine Inch Nails, Tori Amos, games and puzzles, cinema and home-theater, bike riding, sandy beaches, and warm sunny days. Emmy and I bought a nice little house in the summer of 2004 and are working on personalizing it as well. For travel, we own a 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid, which I highly recommend to anyone looking at buying a new car. Its fun to drive, versatile, loaded with features, environmentally friendly, and comes in two awesome shades of blue.
Formatting and Definitions
- Date Formats
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When appearing in strictly numeric format, dates will always be presented as YYYY-MM-DD, except as noted. This format has several advantages. First, it sorts date components by order of magnitude. Also, the order of magnitude is sorted in the same directions as most other numbers. And finally, when using textual sorting methods, dates will be put in the correct order without special date parsing requirements.
When appearing in textual format (i.e. 2 September 2005), the year component will always be written as 4 digits, so as to ensure that it remains disambiguated with respect to the day component.
