Introduction

 

I'm a wildlife biologist with a MS in Rangeland Ecology & a BS in Wildlife Ecology. I've had a life long passion for computers and all the wonderful things they did and toyed with the idea of being a computer science major. I've been a extreme power user of most DOS & Windows programs for over 15 years & ESRI's GIS programs for 10 years. Last year I finally got burnt out on pure wildlife consulting. I decided to start doing more with my high-level use of programs to better analyze our business and make routine tasks more efficeint. I started using VBScript & VBA quite a bit and realized how much I had missed writing programs. At the same time, I was (still am) moonlighting as a GIS consultant. One of my clients has me working on a very large multi-county project that he would like to sell access to. He is using it on his laptop & blowing people away with the high quality maps and rapid data access to many things that used to take weeks to get together. These 2 forces have come together to propel me into programming and developing tools for my employer and clients nearly full time. I started this blog because, I simply don't have anywhere else to share my truimphs & defeats. None of my colleauges even come close to understanding exactly what it is I do and I think my GIS consulting clients think I just kind of wave a magic wand and cool new things suddenly appear. None of my friends have any interest or real knowledge of what I do so I needed a place to vent & occasionally celebrate, and here it is.