Hello and welcome to TheBooleanFrog. My name is Pascal Arnould and this is my personal blog dedicated to all things .NET, Software Development and anything else (the distractions part of the blog's subtitle) that I might have put on a sticky note before I started using computers. I'm hoping this blog will help me Be a Better Developer and maybe even a better person... you never know :)
I am not a Web Developer, a WinForm Developer or an Alpha Geek but a self-taught Business Developer who enjoys working for and with people. For me Software Development is about team work, daily challenges, continuous learning, adding value and problem solving through technology.
My career as a Software Developer is probably quite atypical in that I started in IT age 32 as 1st-line support and moved over to programming two years later. I have a lot of catch-up to do...
Not only did I start my IT career relatively late in life compared to most of my peers, I also use to despise computers with a passion and tried to avoid them at all cost for a long time. What put me off is that computing was obscure, complicated and totally user unfriendly. The only moments I enjoyed anything remotely digital is when I played Pong on an Atari console at one of my parents friend's house, Galaxian at the local Café and some turn based strategy game at my friend who owned a black and rubbery ZX Spectrum.
By the time I started working, I could not escape emails, word processing, spreadsheets and the likes. To my surprise computers had grown a lot friendlier. Suddenly they were helping me do my job faster, better and smarter. They were fun and WYSIWYG. I was converted. So much so that in 1994 I bought my first PC, a Gateway 2000 with a massive 700 MB hard-disk and Windows 95 pre-installed on it. Six years later I made the jump into IT and I have not regretted it since.
Although the rest is history, what really sparked my interest in IT is not the technology per se but what you can do with it. Now I can communicate with people in so many different ways without having to pick up the phone, I can automatically proof-read letters, I can create flashy presentations and reports, I can produce my own home videos, I can book tickets for the 2010 Football World Cup over the Internet, I can do my banking online, etc.
And this is what I love about programming. It can transform the way people work and change others life for the better. As a Developer I can make a difference. On top of that knowing that a piece of code I wrote is running somewhere tickles my ego.
The IT industry is a great place to work for. So far it has been very exiting and there's no reason it shouldn't stay that way.
But I diverge and should get back to what this is about. This blog does not pretend to be authoritative about anything as it is just about my thoughts and opinions which people can take or leave. I am primarily doing this as a personal goal. However I owe so much to the .NET community at large that if I could give a little bit back and help someone along the way with any of my (future) posts, it would be terrific. So let's start blogging...