One of These Days

After reading many blogs for many months I have finally managed to enter the blogosphere.

First, a little about myself. I’m currently in my third year of studying Software Engineering at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. I’ve also been doing freelance web development for the better part of 4 years. I also have a job as a developer/IT support guy at a company that deals with online learning solutions.

I love to work with PHP; it’s a very no fuss language that gives you a lot of flexibility, while still providing the strength required to make complex applications. As far as frameworks go, I’m all for them and use the Zend Framework.

I’ve also worked with the .NET framework with C# for both web and windows development and I have to say that I really enjoy using it. It’s a very powerful system that makes coding easy and fun. Unfortunately it’s not so great to develop from a Linux machine, which is my primary computer, and the licensing costs are only viable when you have a company paying for everything.

If you’re interested in some of my work, check out my portfolio at www.samdalton.co.nz.

Now that work is out of the way, some more about my personal self.

I’m an absolute music nut and spend my days listening to the likes of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Beethoven, Bach, Miles Davis, BB King, Tool, The Doors, Don McLean and other such blues/classic rock/classical/jazz bands, artists and composers. I’ve been learning Japanese for about 8 years now and really enjoy doing so. I play guitar in a band too.

What’s my reason for blogging? Many times I’ve found a solution to a problem that I simply was not able to find on the internet. I hope that by posting about problems and solutions that I come across, it will help others who find themselves in the same spot. As well as this, it’s a place for me to collect my thoughts and write about things that interest me, and hopefully others.