e l c o m e !

I was a scientist, then a programmer and then a manager.  I was trained in biochemistry, but started playing with computers 'way back in 1965, as a second-year undergraduate at McGill.  Got my first micro in '77; before long it was too much of a money sink for the comfort of my inflation-decimated academic salary :( so I started doing computer consulting on the side.  By '85 this was more fun than science (the seventies were disastrous for Canadian research, and it hasn't gotten much better since) -- and lots more remunerative.  I took the plunge and incorporated, creating a firm called Dynamicro Consulting Limited to house my consulting activities, and went into full-time freelancing.  Then at the end of 1988, with recession looming, I joined Consultronics Limited, my best customer, as Manager of Software Development.  After a long and productive time with Consultronics, I was transferred to EXFO, in January 2006, as the result of an acquisition.  There my role was to be "Infrastructure Project Manager -- Security Specialist" in EXFO's IT division, a position that offered some new and fascinating possibilities; but fate stepped in, and I'm presently on leave of absence due to disability.

If you'd like a look at my CV, select the link you prefer: html, xhtml, plain text and pdf formats are available.

To contact me privately, use PGP or the GNU Privacy Guard; here's my public key.

The picture was taken in June 2008.

We at Consultronics, and I at home, get a lot of use out of Linux, which I recommend highly to anyone who's either fond of driving a standard shift or tired of waiting for Windoze...  Back in 1995 when I wrote that, Linux wasn't very well known; "now," five years later, everyone computer-literate is at least aware that there's life outside of Microsoft's Mordor  ;-)  I'm not really a Microsoft-hater (that may surprise some of my colleagues) but I certainly do like the GNU/X/Linux working environment a lot better than Windows!

Readers interested in Baroque music (and maybe readers who didn't know Baroque music could be fun ;-) might enjoy a harpsichord performance of Domenico Scarlatti's sonata K.13 in G.  There's a .MID file, an ogg vorbis file, updated in 2005 (Warning: 3MB), and a file in Cakewalk .WRK format.  I've sequenced some 70 of the 555 Scarlatti sonatas, and enjoyed it hugely.  "Live happy."

(If you listen to the .MID or .WRK file, I hope you have a good harpsichord patch for your midi software -- it can make a lot of difference.  Also, bear in mind that Scarlatti wrote for the physical pleasure of playing.  His music is as much fun to watch as it is to hear, and even more so to play.  As you listen, imagine a performer actually dancing on the keyboard[s] with his [or her] arms, hands and fingers!)

Pipe smoking can be very relaxing.  I took it up in 1972 and have smoked between zero and 18 pipes a year ever since, so it could hardly be said to be an addiction!  ;-)  But when the urge is felt, the pleasure and the peace are sure to follow...

Does this pipe interest you?

I've been called a gourmet and a gourmand.  This page wouldn't be complete without some recipes.  (I enjoy hot peppers -- the ones in the picture are homegrown; warm thanks to Hinh Khuong, who gave me my first pepper plant -- but actually only a few of these recipes call for them, and even then it's at the discretion of the chef.)

<==    The diet -- tomorrow!   ; - )