Welcome to my world!

I plan to post lots of general information here. Some of it technical, some of it about my family, but all of it about stuff I find interesting and important.

I am a C/C++ programmer by trade. I greatly prefer working in Linux and Unix server environments. I am familiar with socket programming and have created a custom networking protocol as part of the VMAC research project at BYU. I am extremely passionate about high quality software engineering. I am currently leading a group at Cerner to revise C/C++ development tools and practices to address widely acknowledged engineering difficulties.

I am very opinionated, and I am willing to debate those opinions. After years of active involvement in the Open Source community, I have forged and honed these debating skills. BEWARE! :) I am an avid proponent against all things Microsoft. It is my opinion that a computer requires a certain level of understaning to operate correctly, and anything that attempts to make it too simple (i.e. Microsoft Windows) creates communities of people that do not understand computers. You wouldn't purchase and operate a thousand dollar piece of woodworking equipment without understanding how it works. Why are computers different?

On a more personal note, I have been married 10 years, and I am the father of two beautiful daughters. I served a two year church mission in Concepcion, Chile in South America and I still pretend to be fluent in Spanish, though I lack opportunities to speak it. I graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Computer Science. I am avid BYU football fan, Basketball is ok, and I don't follow most any other sport.

As you might have noticed, I still haven't decided what this blog will be. One thing is certain, I hope to update the status of my current projects on this blog. Stay tuned. Well, ok, so no one is tuned in yet. *sigh*

-brailsmt