Welcome to BlinkingBoxes

Who am I and what is this about?

The name is Dave and after working in the Software/IT business for over 22 years I needed to make a change. Being a Web Engineer during the DotCom Crash also helped make the decision for me.

About two years ago I returned to school at a local community college, the College of San Mateo, to experiment and see if this aging dog could learn anything new. I tried some work in Graphic Design; it was fun but I couldn't see any future earning potential for myself. I also checked out a new program in Computer Forensics.

At the last moment one of the Computer Forensics classes was postponed until the following semester. I looked around and discovered that there was an opening in "D.C. Electronics". This triggered some good memories.

When I was a teenager I'd played around with building digital circuits. I enjoyed it and most likely would have continued the hardware work, except I lost my most valuable components in a power supply failure. At the time the value of the lost circuitry was maybe $150, but it was 1977 and I was 15. I couldn't recover from that large a loss. I dropped the electronics hardware and stuck to the software side using a Tandy TRS-80 microcomputer. This simple start eventually lead to my 22 year software career.

Now with the goal to explore, I took the "D.C. Electronics" course. The rest, as they say, is history. I continued with the classes and am now less than a year away from finishing the technical portion of an A.S. in Electronics Technology. Who knows, a BSEE could follow someday.

It's been very frustrating and amazingly rewarding. I've come to remember the joy of learning and getting in touch with yet another aspect of my inner geek.

Right now I'm so green I glow in the dark. My hope is to learn, talk about what I learn, develop electronics projects and ask questions. Then maybe I'll glow a little less brightly.