I knew it was only a matter of time, with the great game of Blogger Tag going on before I was tagged, and Andrew got me. I'm supposed to share five things about me people don't know. Like Rick Strahl said, I feel its pretty hard when you live your life in the public but here goes:

1. When I got to Kindergarten, I could only speak Italian. Not a single word of English! My parents (and all my relatives) were all born and raised in Italy and came over in the 50's. That makes me 1st generation. While it seems cool to the chicks now-), most of my classmates thought I was an alien...
2. All of my education was in hardware, not software. I graduated with a B.S.E.E. in Computer Engineering from Northeastern University in 1985, I had great visions of designing VAXes and Data General Eclipses (Soul of a New Machine was my most inspiring book ever). Instead, the economy was down, and I went to work for the US DOD in lovely Port Hueneme CA (not!) learning complex Software V&V. I deserted Southern CA after 10 months of the plastic quotient and moved back to New England and persuaded Raytheon Corporation to teach me Software Development and let me start as a software guy. 21 years later that's where I am. Yup, all self-taught.
3. I went to college during the explosion of Punk/Post Punk in Boston where a lot of it was happening. I probably saw over 200 shows including the 2nd US Clash Tour, the first PIL after Sex Pistols, early Echo and the Bunneymen, the first 3 tours of U2 (Paradise + small theatre), Stiff Little Fingers, Ramones, etc. It's hard for people to believe now but I actually had hair then! In fact, it was long below the shoulders and usually all punked up (ala a little Robert Smith) along with the leather jacket and such-))
4. I don't drink. I stopped 16 years ago.
5. My first "platform" was a Z80 Microprocessor, which during a College Course, I built a little system and programmed in Z80 assembly. Then followed by VAX VMS (the first semester of college we were still in punch cards! and then we thought we were big time with VT100's), Apple IIe's and Trash 80's. I later got to work 6 years at Digital Equipment during the Cutler reign of VAX VMS.

Who's next? Hmm, I'll pick Steve, Jim Shore,Robert, Peter, and Clemens (already hit) so Beth

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