G'day Mate!

Since I'm going to be joining the world of blogging here at Opto 22, I thought I would kick things off by introducing myself.

Born and raised in Australia, I moved to the USA to take up working for Opto, rather than with Opto, in 2008.

For some 18 years I used Opto 22 hardware and software to automate a large hospital complex. Pretty much every aspect of the hospital is either controlled or monitored by some part of Opto 22 gear.

HVAC, chillers, boilers, backup generators, ice banks, refrigeration, nursery, operating suites, the list goes on and on.

The cool thing? I could control all of it from my office.... in the basement.....

We really were located in the basement of the hospital. It's hard to take a photo of a basement, so here is a shot of me sitting inside my old office.... Note the lack of windows.

I have lost a little hair since then, but that's life, right?

You might notice the subwoofer under my desk, it was one of three.... Yeah, I like my bass. I enjoy listening to electronic dance music (vocal trance to be precise). Sadly I did not bring the subwoofers with me when I moved to the States, but most in the office here at Opto are glad about that. (Wireless headphones for the win!)

In my spare time, I enjoy hiking. Here is a shot of me in the Grand Canyon a few months back.

I keep a bit in shape by running most days, working out in the gym at Opto, and I may have been the main instigator of talking most of the sales and marketing department into joining me to do pushups at the top of every hour.

I get teased endlessly (in a fun way) from all my friends and co-workers for driving a Smart Car, but take a look at her....

How could you not just love driving a go-kart like that to and from work? I have done some mods, and there seems to be a few in progress at all times.... We might throw a few more photos of her up now and then in this blog.

I also do a bit of photography. I shoot with a Canon DSLR and take it pretty much every time I head out the door.

Of course, the best camera is the one you have on you, so I take some 'photos' with my cell phone camera as well. Here is one example.....

Yes, that is a Raspberry Pi computer zip tied to a rafter in my roof. Why? Follow this blog and you might just find out.

I wear many hats here at Opto, and this is going to be reflected in this blog. Now and then you might find a theme run for a few entries, but for the most part, I plan to skip around a bit.

Since we are coming up on the third anniversary of James Cameron's historic dive to the deepest part of the planet, the Mariana Trench, I'm going to start with talking about how I got caught up in that expedition and Opto 22's role in controlling the submarine.

I'm on twitter from time to time. Don't do the Facebook thing (but Opto 22 does!), sadly I am pretty much addicted to Instagram, so you can find me there throwing up the odd work-related photo (but honestly, it's mostly just photos of my Smart Car).

So, sign up and follow my blog. If nothing else it should be entertaining, and you never know, you might just pick up a tech tip or two along the way.

Cheers, Mate.