My interest in computers began at an early age. My father got his degree in chemistry but almost as soon as he got it, he pretty much dropped it and went into computers. While in grade school he taught some of us kids Basic and some Pascal. I also picked up some Fortran at a summer camp I went to. I also got to help my father at work. While it wasn't much more than using a modem to connect to 6 remote stations every day to download data and then run some preset scripts, the lessons in programming and experience with that helped me get a good base for working with computers and programming.

After high school I went into the Army. There I pretty much left computing behind for many years. Though I still dabbled, I never got serious about it. Then in 2002 a friend turned me onto PHP and MySql. He loaned me a couple books and I picked up some more and I started teaching myself. It was like fish and water and have been programming ever since. It's been pretty much just sideline and for my own enjoyment, but I've done professional work as well.

Currently I'm attending school to expand that knowledge into new languages, including C++, Java, and .NET. I'll be getting my degree in Computer Programming from Bradford School in December of 2007.

While I may not have the "job" experience of a programmer, I do have extensive programming experience. I bring to the table a very valuable talent when it comes to programming; if you will pardon the "Geek-speak" I am like the Borg. I take in and assimilate all programming languages I can so that programs I create use the most secure and efficient methods available. Too often programmers only work in the specific language they have been trained in and ignore all others that would be more beneficial to a program.

Thank you for your consideration,

Michael E. Shaffer