Born and raised on Vancouver Island; studied engineering at Queen's University in Ontario, worked for a while, then went to Edinburgh for a Master's, some more work, and a PhD. Traveled while writing my first book on parallel programming; came to Toronto "for a couple of years" in 1994, and have never left. I've worked for big corporations, startups, and myself (prefer the small to the large), been a university professor (enjoyed the teaching more than the red tape), and am now project lead for Software Carpentry, a crash course on software development for scientists and engineers. You can find me online at http://third-bit.com (personal stuff) or http://software-carpentry.org (the course).