Nathaniel Talbott

I'm a software developer working for MercuryMD, Inc. in Raleigh, NC. If you want to contact me, drop me a line at mailto:nathaniel@talbott.ws. You can also have a look at my blog at http://blog.talbott.ws/.

This page is arranged pretty much chronologically right now (I guess I'm something of a SequentialLearner?), with the most recent stuff first.

2005/08/23 -

Wow, this stuff is old. So, since I last wrote here I've gotten married, had two kids, bought a house, and changed jobs several times. I'm not going to put too much here (see http://blog.talbott.ws/ for more), except to say that I still think that Ruby is the bee's knees.

2001/04/15 -

Hmmm.... it's been awhile since I've been here. Let me see, what kind of a mess did I create the last time? Oh, I skimmed what kinds of research was being done in universities in my area... and then kind of left it. Oh well, perhaps somebody else will find it useful, or maybe I'll get a RoundTuit again sometime.

Lately much of my time has been spent in writing code for the RubyLanguage, and in writing and reviewing papers and books. Ruby's tons of fun, especially after doing Java all day... static typing - BLEH! My first project for Ruby was a unit testing framework called Lapidary (yah, I know there was already RubyUnit, but read http://lapidary.sourceforge.net/docs/explanation.html for why I did it anyhow), and it was great fun (see RubyLapidary). Now I'm sloooowly adding new things and updating what's there, but then again, there's more important things to do, like play BlackAndWhite (when my game computer's not crashing), and write papers. I just finished one for XpTwoThousandAndOne, and I need to write another one for a workshop I'd like to attend there. I also need to finish reviewing the next XP book (by KenAuer, WardCunningham and RoyMiller), and write a blurb to go into it.

Well, enough rambling. Don't know when I'll get back this way again, so have fun while I'm gone :-)

1999/06/26 -

WardCunningham encouraged me a little while ago to start keeping track of what the ComputerScience departments in the local universities are up to. So I was about to begin, and all of the sudden I thought, "Where will I put the information?" Of course my next thought was "The wiki!" So I'm going to start recording NcTriangleCompSciDeptsResearch. That's a mouthful, isn't it?

1999/06/04 -

I'm a relatively new programmer, but have had the benefit of learning some great things early on. Right now I'm apprenticing to KenAuer at RoleModelSoftware, and having a great time.

Some educational history, largely copied from a profile I wrote the other day:

Nathaniel Talbott's education was non-traditional from the day he was born, and continues to be that way to the present day.

It all began when Houston, TX school authorities decided to institute all day kindergarten. His mother did not like that idea at all, so she decided to homeschool him to 'delay kindergarten.' Eleven years and a homeschool earned diploma later, she still likes to say that she's 'delaying kindergarten.'

During the latter part of elementary school and high school, one of Nathaniel's consuming interests was programming. Within that time he taught himself C, C++, Java, and Perl, mostly from books at the local library, and off of the internet. Perl was actually learned within the context of his nearly three year part time job at Heavenword (http://www.heavenword.com), where he did a lot of text conversion work with it.

Following his graduation from high school, Nathaniel traveled off to the Indianapolis Training Center and enrolled in the eleven month EQUIP program, during which he learned valuable people and leadership skills.

A few months before finishing his work at the Indianapolis Training Center, still not knowing what he would do when he finished there, Nathaniel happened to send his resume to KenAuer at RoleModelSoftware through some rather miraculous circumstances. After a time of correspondence and a visit by Mr. Auer to the training center, Nathaniel signed up at RoleModel Software as an apprentice.

He still holds that position, and is currently learning constantly in a real world context under one of the world's top object oriented programmers. He's now working on an IntroductionToProgrammingCourse?, which is indirectly tied to his work at RoleModelSoftware, since RoleModelSoftware is extremely interested in fostering programming knowledge in potential apprentices.

Currently, he's looking for further unconventional means to further his education. (Chatting with Ward on AIM works pretty well.)

Wow, someone home schooled working in software. Would you mind some questions about your alternative education experience and if you feel like it has been beneficial/deterimental to your career? We are considering home schooling and am always looking for first hand information. -- HankRoark

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