Profiles in Nerdery
- Astrological Sign: I honestly don’t know. Never really looked into it.
- Time at the Nerdery: Since September 2008.
- Area of expertise: Front end development mostly (HTML, CSS, JS), but I can knock around PHP pretty well, and recently did my first Rails project. I started off as a designer . . . who knew an Art degree would lead to programming?
- When people ask you what you do, how do you respond: I make websites. Any details further than that and people kind of nod their heads and pretend they know what I’m talking about, but the “I make websites” usually brings an “oh, cool” response.
- Favorite kinds of projects to work on: Ones that I can focus on for an extended period of time. I can juggle multiple projects, but its much more fun to have one or two projects that I can devote time to, but if they last for more than 2-3 months I start to burn out.
- What one thing about The Nerdery surprises people the most when you tell them about it: That I bring my dog to work. Also when I tell people it’s doubled in size in the last year.
- Seven dream Jeopardy Categories: 1) The IE 6 Box Model; 2) Name that CSS bug!; 3)Definition Lists or Unordered Lists; 4) IE 6 CSS hacks; 5) Bathroom tile removal tools; 6) Ways to annoy my wife; 7) World of Warcraft (pre marital bliss).
- Favorite Fictional Nerd: Hiro, from Heroes, but he lost his powers recently and kind of sucks at the moment. There was a foreshadowing scene in the first season where he was a ninja and didn’t talk like a nerd, so I’m eagerly awaiting the episode when he becomes a kick ass ninja, but I guess he wouldn’t be a nerd anymore.
- According to the Wikipedia entry on Nerd, some nerds show a pronounced interest in subjects which others tend to find dull or complex and difficult to comprehend, or overly mature for their age, especially topics related to science, disambiguation, mathematics and technology. Do you know what disambiguation is: That question is too long. Can I pass?
- Astrological Sign: Raging Bull.
- Time at the Nerdery: 1 year, 5 months.
- Area of expertise: Schmoozing with our prospects and clients, account management, and drinking.
- When people ask you what you do, how do you respond: I punch them in the face.
- Favorite kinds of projects to work on: Large projects with aggressive timelines and a whole lotta scope creep.
- What one thing about The Nerdery surprises people the most when you tell them about it: We see no harm in a little innocent waterboarding from time to time
- Seven dream Jeopardy Categories: 1) Bare Knuckle Boxing; 2) Stand Up Comedy; 3) Who Sharted?; 4) New Ways to Injure Alex Trebek; 5) Pelosi at the Gallows; 6) People I Hate; 7) The Little Orange Cap
- Favorite Fictional Nerd: That little robot chick on Small Wonder, Vicky.
- According to the Wikipedia entry on Nerd, some nerds show a pronounced interest in subjects which others tend to find dull or complex and difficult to comprehend, or overly mature for their age, especially topics related to science, disambiguation, mathematics and technology. Do you know what disambiguation is: No, and besides, that word sucks.
- Astrological Sign: They need to have a consistency meeting at Horoscope, Inc. Sometimes they say Aries, sometimes Taurus. I guess my b’day gets . . . Taries the . . . Liger. Yeah. Bred for skills in magic. Some famous Taries: Joey Lawrence, Adolf Hitler, Carmen Electra, Clint Howard, Luther Vandross, George Takei
- Time at the Nerdery: 2 years and a small handful of months.
- Area of expertise: Staying under budget.
- When people ask you what you do, how do you respond: Jack of most
trades. I mail Legos or fetch things for The Marks. I have a real explanation, but it’s more boring.
- Favorite kinds of projects to work on: Things that are out of the ordinary & require a different look at things, then doing them well enough to legitimize them to those less whimsical.
- What one thing about The Nerdery surprises people the most when you tell them about it: That yes, we do actually call it that & no, I can’t get them a job here.
- Seven dream Jeopardy Categories: 1. “An album cover;” 2. Habits & Hobbies
of Nocturnal People; 3. BravoDogs; 4. Drum corps; 5. Mechanics of mini-donut machines; 6. “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia;” and 7. Stupid Questions People Ask the Unusually Short.
- Favorite Fictional Nerd: Beaker And Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. I have a crush on most of the Muppets.
- According to the Wikipedia entry on Nerd, some nerds show a pronounced interest in subjects which others tend to find dull or complex and difficult to comprehend, or overly mature for their age, especially topics related to science, disambiguation, mathematics and technology. Do you know what disambiguation is: I prefer ambiguation.
- Astrological Sign: I’m with Kai on this one!
- Time at the Nerdery: I’ve been here since May of last year.
- Area of expertise: Python, Django, C/C++, Assembly
- When people ask you what you do, how do you respond: I’m a programmer that gets to utilize various languages and frameworks to accomplish a client’s needs.
- Favorite kinds of projects to work on: My favorite projects are offline projects. I enjoy web development, but my passion lies in systems programming, language design, embedded systems, and operating system design.
- What one thing about The Nerdery surprises people the most when you tell them about it: Definitely the dogs. People generally find it very cool that it is such a relaxed environment.
- Seven dream Jeopardy Categories: 1. Why Python!; 2.Design Patterns; 3. The Pitfalls of Object Oriented Programming; 4. History of Programming Languages; 5. History of Mathematics; 6. Thai Food; 7. MegaMan Bosses
- Favorite Fictional Nerd: The Time Traveller from H.G. Wells The Time Machine. He remains so nonchalant about the whole time travel thing.
- According to the Wikipedia entry on Nerd, some nerds show a pronounced interest in subjects which others tend to find dull or complex and difficult to comprehend, or overly mature for their age, especially topics related to science, disambiguation, mathematics and technology. Do you know what disambiguation is: I do, however I am far more interested in foreign language acquisition.
- Astrological Sign: Aquarius, which is weird because I don’t like baths
- Time at the Nerdery: Since the tender age of 11 weeks. 93% of my life & I still don’t qualify for retirement benefits
- Area of expertise: Annoying Bill Brakeman. It’s an art form, really
- When people ask you what you do, how do you respond: cycle through my best tricks until you fork over that treat in your hand
- Favorite kinds of projects to work on: Making sure the nerd’s lunches never hit the floor
- What one thing about The Nerdery surprises people the most when you tell them about it: That they let me stay here.
- Seven dream Jeopardy Categories: Sit, Stay, Shake, Fetch, Territory marking techniques, Leash etiquette, The tripartite alliance negotiations of 1938 and how they failed to contain Germany
- Favorite Fictional Nerd: Snoopy
- According to the Wikipedia entry on Nerd, some nerds show a pronounced interest in subjects which others tend to find dull or complex and difficult to comprehend, or overly mature for their age, especially topics related to science, disambiguation, mathematics and technology. Do you know what disambiguation is: arf?
- Astrological Sign: Western: Gemini. Eastern: Rabbit. … I’m a split hare.
- Time at the Nerdery:
- Area of expertise: Breaking code, chess, breaking things, modesty, PHP hackery, arbitrary lists, puns, teh internets, cube mods, pick, poke, peek, games, fencing, counting, bughouse, jQuery, finding areas under curves, sounding smart, guessing, precision, luck, commas, ellipses…
- When people ask you what you do, how do you respond: I start to explain the development process then hesitate, bring up recent projects and awesome coding tools, realize this is going way over their heads, simplify it to short and general statements pertaining to anthropomorphized scripts and happy little servers, reconsider my audience, then sigh audibly and say, “I make websites.”
- Favorite kinds of projects to work on: Nothing brings more glee than finding the subtle hidden unanticipated trick to make a patch of code explode. Except maybe discovering a tight solution to a stubborn problem that’s been holding back a project. Or seeing and executing a forced checkmate in seven moves. Or a well-timed joke to make someone laugh then cry because she has a sore stomach from laughing too much already. Or maybe…
- What one thing about The Nerdery surprises people the most when you tell them about it: There are dogs here at work. True, they may not have the cleanest code, their methods are a little unorthodox, but they get results.
- Seven dream Jeopardy Categories: 1. Jeopardy Categories 2. Etymology 3. Fencing Tricks 4. The Erdos–Faber–Lovász conjecture 5. Lucky Charms Marshmallows 6. Random & Pointless Trivia 7. Transcendental Numerology
- Favorite Fictional Nerd: I couldn’t think of one. I thought of many. In no particular order: Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, Angus MacG, Dr. Larry Kyle, Gyro Gearloose, Dr. Emmett Brown, Gune, Dr. Horrible, Jeff Albertson, Dr. Roy Hinkley, Richard Langley, Dr. Zefram Cochrane, Alan Turing, Richard Feynman, er whup, those aren’t fictional.
- According to the Wikipedia entry on Nerd, some nerds show a pronounced interest in subjects which others tend to find dull or complex and difficult to comprehend, or overly mature for their age, especially topics related to science, disambiguation, mathematics and technology. Do you know what disambiguation is: If one traces the word back to its roots, the origins of the term are derived from the Greek: “etymon” meaning true sense, and “logy” meaning logic. Transcribed from Middle English as ethimologie, the phrase entered common… oh wait, that’s the etymology of “etymology”.
- Astrological Sign: Astrology promotes a lack of critical thinking. Critical thinking saves lives. Ergo, astrology kills. Birthdays, by way of contrast, promote life — mine is St. Valentine’s Day.
- Time at the Nerdery: At the time of this writing, just about exactly 20 megaseconds.
- Area of expertise: Proper science test procedure, severe storm morphology, water vapor dynamics, sleep deprivation, and kittens.
- When people ask you what you do, how do you respond: I cut them off, mid-sentence and say, “Oh yeah? Well, why don’t you tell me what YOU do?” And then before they can respond, I cut them off again and say, “Yeah, that’s what I THOUGHT.” Then we stare awkwardly at one another for a while, until one of us bursts into tears. Pretty soon someone’s mother is called. I forget what happens after that.
- Favorite kinds of projects to work on: The kind of projects where there’s time travel, and you get to fly under your own power, and you come away from it having gained telekinetic abilities.
- What one thing about The Nerdery surprises people the most when you tell them about it: The fact that everybody who works here gets their very own executive office suite overlooking the ocean.
- Seven dream Jeopardy Categories: #1. Tornadoes. #2. Time Signatures and Polyrhythms. #3. Cats I Have Owned. #4. Parents I Have Had. #5. Things I Already Know. #6. Making Out. #7. Bubblemath.
- Favorite Fictional Nerd: Jordan Cochran, from the movie “Real Genius”, as portrayed by Michelle Meyrink (see Jeopardy list item #6 above).
- According to the Wikipedia entry on Nerd, some nerds show a pronounced interest in subjects which others tend to find dull or complex and difficult to comprehend, or overly mature for their age, especially topics related to science, disambiguation, mathematics and technology. Do you know what disambiguation is: That depends on what you mean by “disambiguation”. Are you talking about the musical group? The traditional dessert? The video game? Or the controversial concept overall, as discussed incessantly in theoretical linguistics?
- Astrological Sign: Scorpio.
- Time at the Nerdery: Nearly 1 lunar cycle.
- Area of expertise: Interactive marketing, search engine marketing, and a bit of programming. I’m also vocally endowed.
- When people ask you what you do, how do you respond: I tell them I’m the bridge between the nerds and the sales people. I need to be able to understand the technology surrounding the solutions we provide for our clients, but I also have the opportunity to keep my digital consultant skills sharp.
- Favorite kinds of projects to work on: I like mash-ups – taking a bunch of existing, cool things….slapping them together….and building something completely new. That exercise used to be very difficult, but thanks to things like APIs, REST, and the maturation of digital development tools it’s much easier to do.
- What one thing about The Nerdery surprises people the most when you tell them about it: That we have this many nerds in one spot. I think there’s a law against that somewhere.
- Seven dream Jeopardy Categories: 1) Search Marketing Jargon; 2) Great Tenor Arias; 3) Beavers and Ducks – Quotable Movies; 4) Save the Cheerleader; 5) Save the World; 6) Farley-isms; and 7) History of Mountain Dew
- Favorite Fictional Nerd: MacGuyver, followed closely by Chuck Bartowski
- According to the Wikipedia entry on Nerd, some nerds show a pronounced interest in subjects which others tend to find dull or complex and difficult to comprehend, or overly mature for their age, especially topics related to science, disambiguation, mathematics and technology. Do you know what disambiguation is: That’s a trick question, isn’t it?
- Astrological Sign: Astrology is garbage. But if you want to know my birthday, it’s February 28th.
- Time at the Nerdery: 33,399,512 seconds. (At the time of this writing).
- Area of expertise: PHP, XHTML, Javascript, Production Design, Snacks.
- When people ask you what you do, how do you respond: I get to make computer programs for a company that makes awesome web sites and applications.
- Favorite kinds of projects to work on: Projects with clearly defined requirements, custom interfaces, or plenty of time for testing/bug-fixing.
- What one thing about The Nerdery surprises people the most when you tell them about it: Nothing. I don’t tell anyone anything about the Nerdery. It’s a secret! Shhhhhh.
- Seven dream Jeopardy Categories: 1. Vim keyboard shortcuts; 2. Capitals of the world; 3. Star Trek: TNG Episodes; 4. The Metric System; 5. Songs by the band Nirvana; 6. Things I like to do; and 7. Things to do when you’re bored. Honestly, I am not very good at Jeopardy… it seems so backwards to me.
- Favorite Fictional Nerd: George McFly. He just seems like a guy I could be friends with.
- According to the Wikipedia entry on Nerd, some nerds show a pronounced interest in subjects which others tend to find dull or complex and difficult to comprehend, or overly mature for their age, especially topics related to science, disambiguation, mathematics and technology. Do you know what disambiguation is: Yes, I do.
- Astrological Sign: Taurus
- Time at the Nerdery: 4 years, 5 months
- Area of expertise: All aspects of Web application development
- When people ask you what you do, how do you respond: My standard response is, “I add technical knowledge and credibility to the sales efforts at Sierra Bravo.” When prompted for “Occupation” on a form, however, I still write in “Programmer.”
- Favorite kinds of projects to work on: I enjoy projects that are driven by the excitement and enthusiasm of the customer. No matter how challenging the timeline or technical scope, we always succeed when the developers and stakeholders share a common sense of excitement about launching the end product. Even if it’s something as seemingly mundane as online auto glass ordering, as soon as the client says, “We’re gonna turn this industry upside-down when this site launches!” I know we’re in for a fun and fulfilling project.
- What one thing about The Nerdery surprises people the most when you tell them about it: The fact that we allow dogs in the office surprises my friends and family the most. Then I explain that my dog isn’t allowed, which makes this fact more believable. (Dasher is a bit barky, nippy, and leaky; all bad traits for an office dog!) On the flip side, I expected more of my cycling friends to be impressed with our awesome bike-commuter friendliness (showers, indoor bike parking, general acceptance of stinky, sweaty cyclists…). To my surprise, many companies in the Twin Cities are equally accommodating.
- Seven dream Jeopardy Categories: Photoshop keyboard shortcuts; Acronyms of the Mpls/St. Paul bike routes; Airport Codes of Asia; Stephen King movie cameos; Scalix bugs and glitches; Regular Expression patterns; All-Wheel Drive station wagons of the early ’80′s
- Favorite Fictional Nerd: MacGyver. His name is still a verb in my vocabulary. As in “Damn, this fuse is blown, but the parts store is closed. Guess I’ll have to MacGuyver it with some tinfoil.” MacG was a master of solving problems pragmatically, always using technology and creativity over brute force. I like to think that these same qualities have made me an effective programmer and problem-solver throughout my career.
- According to the Wikipedia entry on Nerd, some nerds show a pronounced interest in subjects which others tend to find dull or complex and difficult to comprehend, or overly mature for their age, especially topics related to science, disambiguation, mathematics and technology. Do you know what disambiguation is: I see what you did there.
