All About Me

Yes, that's right ladies and gentlemen, this page is a record of all the things I want to tell you about myself. I suppose I will start at the beginning:

The first thing I can remember was being nice and warm, then a man in a mask grabbing me. Scared. So Scared. Cold. So Cold...

Errm, perhaps I won't go back that far...

Who Am I?

A good question (insert reflective pause here). Well, my name is Daniel Thomas and I am twenty one years old. I Completed my honours degree at Griffith University in Software Engineering. I live in Australia in a city called Brisbane.

In addition, I have never been horribly disfigured.

What do I do?

What I am NOT doing at the moment is a thesis. Why? Because on the 27th of October, 2000 I officially handed in the sucker!

I am a provisional SPICE assessor. What is SPICE? SPICE is iso/iec TR15504 (what a mouthful!), an international standard relating to software process assessment and capability determination. If you would like to know more, please go to my Development page.

At the moment, I am working for a company called Technology One - a company that specialises in some really large-scale enterprise software systems. They also have a range of products for financial, local government and university systems. At the moment, I'm working on a system for The Department of Natural Resources and Mines.

I must be crazy, but I am also now a part-time postgraduate student doing my PhD (whoah! I MUST be crazy). It's gonna be tough, but I have some great ideas to push the boundaries (and hopefully do that "Expand the body of knowledge thing which you have to do). As I complete milestones, I'll begin to fill out some of what I have been doing here on this site. So like me, you can be all confuzzled. ;)

I used to work forWorldlingo.com as a software engineer. We did a lot of funky stuff with automatic and professional translations, I recommend trying it out if you want to read web pages in languages other than your own. From a business perspective the services we have developed are essential in today's internet market. So, Impress your German (or other nationality) penpal, by sending them an email in their own language - it's really quite neat :)

Also, in the past I have also worked at Software Engineering Australia, where I worked in the Language Translation and Localisation Laboratory, gaining a wealth of experience and knowledge in the issues related to localisation and interationalisation of software. The experiance I have gained working for SEA has helped me to overcome i18n issues and provide assistance to others in that field (and it was a lot of fun too).

I also did brief stint at the Environmental Protection Agency doing network admin (now I can say "I worked for the Government", although in some circles that might get you stared at). I have also worked as a baker and a "checkout chick", working the registers at a store called SPAR. One of the best things I brought away from doing retail work was a sense of customer service. I think you can go a long way by really trying to be helpful. Common sense is it not? unfortunately, it not so common in the world today.

What do I like doing?

Well, I do like my job (which is a good thing), but there are a few other things I like to do:

I guess one of my favourite passtimes is music. While I haven't played any instruments in years (if you don't count singing), I just like to listen to music. Currently, I feel as comfortable listening to classical as I do to alternative which I think is a good thing - the ability just to appreciate music. I do have favourite bands and such though, and my general listening area is more rock-ish.

I also like to build and paint models, although I haven't had a chance to do any for about two whole years - I have 2 models that need to be finished and three more to build, but they have sat waiting ever since I got busy. One of the best activities in making a model is when you paint it. When you do it right it looks great! I love to paint for effect for example, using near-dry metallic paint to paint a surfact to give the appearance of scratching, or using a diluted darker paint to give a weathered appearance to a surface. One day I'll get back into it.

Disc Golf is a not-so-well-known sport (unless you're from the US), but I like to play it when I can. A friend of mine and former pastor Jack Bradford, introduced me to the sport a few years back, and asked the local council if they would be interested in using one of the public parks as a site for a course. They liked the idea, so Bray Park in Strathpine (north of Brisbane proper) is one of the few sites in Austrlia to host this game. I enjoy the fun of playing with friends, walking and also seeing the change in this park. The best thing about it was the fact that the park was revamped, cleared and cleaned up and is now enjoyed by the local community and not by the local druggos.

Reading is one thing I also love to do. I love to walk into a bookstore see a new book and add it to my collection. I tend to enjoy sf and fantasy novels, but I have also enjoyed action/thriller types and historical fiction.