Boston, Massachusetts United States My Technical Bio: For the past seventeen years, I have worked for a leading software company, providing practice management and EMR solutions across the United States. During the last eleven years, I have been in the programming department, where I have helped to code the product, and also focused on R&D; and special projects. Some of my special projects have included building the first (ever) interface for a hospital to send electronic claims directly to an insurance company for eligibility information (without having to go through a middleman clearinghouse.) Another special project involved building a prototype "Digital Dashboard for Healthcare" based on the original Microsoft Dashboard SDK. Although the framework was Microsoft's, the parts and realization of the practice management display was my own. Microsoft used my dashboard during their MS-HUG (Microsoft Healthcare users group) meeting in 2000 to demonstrate 'their' vision of the future of the digital dashboard in Practice Management. I am frequently given "special projects" that require "outside-the-box" thinking, or solving system-setup related errors. Other projects have involved writing interfaces between desktop applications and PDAs; communication and data/document merging between our software applications and Microsoft Office applications; developing a customized CRM system based on the Pivotal framework; generating dynamic Vector Based Graphics in webpages based on practice management data from SQL server; creating elaborate Excel-based applications; designed and built a robust ASP based message board system; designed custom site search capabilities; designed custom "document delivery system" for websites requiring authentication and specialized data delivery; created a document management service in conjunction with third-party vendor, Stethos, which allowed patient claims to be printed/sorted/collated with diverse outputs (Word, Crystal, AccuDoc, etc.); and other diverse projects. Coding in ASP, XML, VB6, Javascript, html, VB.NET, and C#.NET. Prior to Programming, I worked at LifeCycle Learning, LLC as a marketing assistant for about 7 years; creating websites, brochures, postcards, newsletters, showbooth signs, logos, powerpoint presentations, and other such media. I also helped coordinate tradeshows, updated our existing software to have active ordering and inventory control systems for catalog orders; did the daily books (when I was in a small office); and managed our mailing lists and rentals. Prior to Marketing, I had received my sales and (later) my broker's license for Real Estate. After a few years, I opted not to continue this career and let my broker's license expire in 2000. Prior to Real Estate, I enjoyed some time at Integral Resources where, in addition to creating Office-based workflow templates, I also did special research (and some editing) for the Addison-Wesley published book, UNIX for the IMPATIENT (1st and second edition). At Integral Resources, I also helped to build custom computer systems for such recognizeable contracts as NASA and the D.O.D.. Before that, for all intent and purposes, I didn't exist :-) While doing all of these things, I also had many side-jobs and hobbies which included working with graphics and media (Photoshop and Illustrator being two of my favorite programs.) I have done numerous extensive photo restorations of difficult, damaged photos; and other graphics related projects. I have also done digital movie editing. I scored and performed the soundtrack to the short film "Wake Up"; and co-wrote the short Indie film "Black Strawberries" which went to NY and TX film festivals in 1998. In my so-called spare time, I also have written over 1000 songs, numerous symphonic-style instrumental pieces, and several books over the years (all purely for my own enjoyment.) My novel, 'dark-house', was a supernatural thriller which inspired the birth of this site. On a lighter note, in the EARLIEST days of LITESTEP (a windows replacement shell), I was an active part of the community (under a different name back then) trying to help establish skinning guidelines. I used to have multiple computers running a range of OS types: Linux, Windows, Mac, IBM OS2, BeOS, QNX, AT&T's UNIX ... though in the past 8 years, due to my job, I have consolidated to working almost exclusively with Windows systems (with an occasional dabble back in the Linux pond.) And finally, I should mention that I created a large number of the icons for our software product (some good, some horrid). One of them that I drew, (the "caduceus symbol", rendered in great detail at a fairly small size) was used for many years on our product's login screen. It pleased me so much that I have been known to say (several times over the years) that it is "the single thing I am most proud of in all my years at this company."