I'm a
32
year old self-confessed computer and cult tv geek, living in
Adderbury, a village near Banbury, Oxfordshire (UK) with
my husband James and son Nathan. I'm a .NET Developer by trade, though I now split
my time between working as a freelance developer and working hard to look after
Nathan (30
months) as he grows up.
Having graduated from Birmingham University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering,
I decided that I wanted to work in the IT industry. I started my career selling
computer training, then moving into network administration and general tech support.
The turning point in my career was when I joined Wrox Press as an Editor, where
I rediscovered my love of programming. I spent my time in the Microsoft arena, starting
out with ASP and ADO, then catching the .NET wave just before it hit and working
on a great many books on ASP.NET development.
Working at Wrox was a fantastic experience, but sadly it didn't last. Wrox UK went
out of business back in 2003, and though the brand was purchased by Wiley (and a
substantial portion of the back catalog purchased by Apress), the old Wrox was gone,
and it was time to move on. I subsequently spent a year in an internal IT department
at a logistics company where I had some fun working on some Windows Mobile development,
but found that the bulk of my work was maintaining a Delphi 5 application. Not exactly
making the most of my .NET skills, I moved on again, and ended up in Coventry, working
for Trinity Expert Systems Plc.
Before I went on maternity leave, I had a lot of fun working on several major .NET,
SharePoint, and CMS applications, and enjoyed having a job where I got to learn
and play with new technologies on a regular basis, often working on-site with customers.
Since Nathan arrived, my work has changed a bit. I'm now working for myself (via
my company,
Code Torque
Ltd.), working from home, three days a week, while Nathan gets to have plenty
of fun at nursery. The arrangement seems to suit us both quite well - Nathan gets
to do lots of messy activities like hand-painting, and I get to build SharePoint
sites, then we have the rest of the week as play time. And on that subject, he's
already mastered using a mouse, so his computer is as locked down as possible (with
help from Vista's parental controls) to make sure he doesn't accidently search for
dodgy content from Google!
I am a published author on a number of ASP.NET books, including:
I hope to write some more in the future, though right now, my spare time is mostly taken up
with working with the Second Life .NET User Group. It's a great arrangement - developers from
all round the world can come together and meet without the hassle and cost of travelling to
meetings or conferences. There are some technical issues to overcome, but along with the other
group officers, we're all working on creative ways to overcome them, and making the experience
as full and worthwhile as possible for all members. If you want to find out more, log on to
Second Life and feel free to look up my avatar, Strawberry Fride. Or, drop me a mail the
old fashioned way and I'll help you get online.