About Me

Todd Knarr <tknarr@silverglass.org>
Birthdate: 23 June 1965
Profession: Software Engineer

"I am not a rock star. I am a professional. My job isn't to impress you with how awesome I am, it's to get the work done right, on time and without gimmicks that'll give you maintenance headaches down the line."

That's been my motto for decades. I'm disappointed at how the quality of software has deteriorated, how the idea that software should do a job correctly and without disrupting the user's work has been shoved aside by Marketing's insistence on getting between the user and getting their work done. I'm tired of software that keeps changing merely to generate revenue from upgrades without actually adding any new functionality anyone needs or even wants.

I've worked in so many languages over the years I sometimes lose track. I'd have to dig up books and refresh FORTRAN and COBOL, but I'm at least reasonably proficient in C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Ruby, PHP, SQL, and shell scripting. I've worked with hierarchical databases, object/document databases (Pick, Mongo), and relational databases (Oracle, Informix, MySQL, PostgreSQL). I've worked on Windows and Linux and HTML/CSS/JS web applications (as well as web sites, the two aren't equivalent). I've made so many mistakes it's not even funny, and I've learned how to spot them coming and avoid them. Sometimes I can't explain why, but I can usually articulate what problems I see happening because of them.

Hobbies? Piano (keyboards in general, but more focus on actually playing them and less on using them to generate music). MMORPGs (EverQuest 2, World of Warcraft, currently Final Fantasy XIV). Science-fiction and fantasy and comic fandom. Furry fandom. RenFaires. Used to do a lot of hiking and camping, but loss of function in my legs has scotched those.