Now for a little more about me. I have been involved with electronics in one form or another since 1982. I've worked with advanced electronics and weapons guidance systems with the Navy, and a small touch screen monitor design company. Since the early 90's I have had my own freelance computer consulting company, and have found new and interesting ways to use off the shelf technology in ways that it was either not designed to be used, or that it says that it cannot be used. Maybe someday I will do a review of my homemade USB 2.0 RAID array, or the best way to turn a Dell NAS unit into a Veritas based "virtual tape" back-up device, or maybe how you can build your own personal back-up device out of a spare hard drive and a $20 USB drive enclosure.

For a few years I worked as a graphic designer for a local sign and mural design company; and I still play around with it freelance-wise; but it seems that everybody is a graphic designer these days. Don't get me started on how the terms Graphic Artist, Graphic Designer & Designer/Artist are tossed around these days. I have been to more than one convention and met people with those titles that just did page layouts. Just for future reference, a true graphic artist/designer can start with a blank page and design an image up from there. They use programs like Illustrator, Freehand, Corel Draw or Photoshop to create their artwork. If they use words like clip art library or design template; or use PageMaker, Quark Xpress, InDesign or heaven forbid Microsoft Publisher to design graphics, they are actually desktop publishers. That is not actually the same thing.

For the last several years I have worked for the University of Illinois redesigning departmental networking infrastructures. To put it in laymans terms. I get called into departments and fix messes that their old net adminstrators created. Stabalize things, build new systems fo them, and get everything back humming the way it should have been in the first place. Since I first started working with PC based computer systems back in 1987, I have probably built well over 500 computers; and have designed and or reset close to 30 networks or server farms.

For fun I do wood working. My Grandfather got me started on it when I was 7 years old. No I wasn't using table saws and drill presses at that age. It was mainly just sanding and hammering a few nails into a couple of boards. But I was hooked. Now I design furniture from the ground up. Take a stack of wood and turn it into something useful. I also love to restore discarded furniture. Nothing better than taking a painted, scratched, water damaged dresser that you find at a yard sale for $10, and taking it down to bare wood, repair the scratches and loose joints and putting a beautiful finsh on it and selling for $700 to $1000 dollars.

I also dable in photography, mainly for my own amusement and enjoyment, but it isn't that the idea behind having a hobby? You are supposed to get some kind of enjoyment out of it. If not, why do it? Which explains why I am also an amateur consumer, but I am hoping to go pro someday. *laughter*

That pretty much sums me up in a quick glance. Well; Of course, like anyone giving reviews on this site, I am not afraid to voice my opinions.