Hello everyone! I would like to personally welcome you all to our new blog, Tech Talk with the Three Titos! I am sure Rommel and Ryan will introduce themselves in the future, but I would just like to take a moment to tell you a little bit about myself and what I hope to achieve here.
Who are you?
My name is Glenn Lalas and I guess you could say that I am the one is spearheading this project. I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May of 2011 with a degree in Computer Science (specializing in databases) and a minor in business. I now work at a small (but growing!) software/web development firm in downtown Chicago called Adage Technologies (read more about us here).
How did you get into computer science?
I guess you could say my journey to my present career started in my high school geometry class. During class one day, our teacher Mr. Beggs taught us how to program simple formulas into our TI-86s. Now most kids probably were one-and-done with that little lesson (or too busy playing snake instead of paying attention), but I found myself fascinated.
"You mean I can have a machine do the Pythagorean Formula for me?!" I exclaimed.
"Yes, and that's just the beginning!" my calculator responded to me with a lustrous wink. I then quickly convinced myself to never eat the Bosco sticks in the cafeteria ever again.
I've been hooked ever since. The following year I took a beginner's level computer science course in Visual Basic and the rest, as they say, was history. Four years of ridiculous algorithm grinding and code smell de-odorizing later (followed by a few months of praying to every deity for a job offer), and you get the doe-eyed, naive little code monkey you see before you!
Why start a blog?
I have always loved to write. Not to toot my own horn, but I am an award winning author after all (if you consider a $25 dollar Amazon gift card for a never-completed Harry Potter fan fiction an award. And yes, that sound you heard was definitely the sound of a personal horn blow. *toot toot*). I always found writing to be a very therapeutic way of self-reflection, allowing you to understand the lessons of your past and applying them toward the future. This blog is my means of leaving a history of these little lessons as I continue to develop my professional career.
And hey, if this helps some inspiring young programmer along the way, even better!
The overall goal of the blog, at least from my perspective, is to give the reader some insight into what life outside the classroom is for an entry-level programmer. We will try to provide insight into every aspect of the computer science industry, whether that be coding techniques, client and project management, professional development, new technologies, or other helpful advice that you may not receive in the classroom. I hope to provide useful information in a way that is also entertaining for the masses. You may laugh, you may cry, you might even come down with an illness, but in the end I hope you can take something out of it.
Thank you for reading, and raise a glass for new beginnings!
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