About Me

Who am I?

Matthew (on the right)

Matthew (on the right)

I am Matthew Blackford, a software developer from Adelaide, South Australia. I’m your typical Windows-based Java programmer who loves his iPhone. I’ve yet to grow up and still waste numerous hours and dollars on every new technology, toy or crazy phase that passes my way.

I started my career when I was 10 years old, learning to program BASIC on my old Commodore 64. I remember writing my favourite programs down on paper as the tape drive took 30 minutes or more and often corrupted my hard work! Once the magic world called the internet appeared, I switched my focus to messing with web pages. I found it amazing that you could right click on a page, click Edit to open Front Page Express, and save the changes of other people’s pages back to the world wide web! I was later disappointed to find that this was not actually true, and that nobody else was enjoying my funny changes (that’s what we have Wikipedia for now).

After writing a customer complaints handling program for KFC, and a demo laptop media player for Dick Smith’s (I believe both to still be in use today), I decided software was the world for me. I graduated with a Bachelor of Computer Science (Software Engineering) from The University of Adelaide and entered the workforce. I now work for a small Adelaide-based custom software company developing some pretty cool stuff!

Why am I writing?

I know that the typical answer to this question is “I’m writing for myself”. While this is partially true in the sense that I’m improving my communication skills and keeping an archive of my thoughts, I’m writing this for other people as well. I’ll often have friends and family using me as tech support asking me technology related questions, and instead of sending them a couple of links, I’d like to write a post of the topic.

I also play around with new technologies as I hear about them, creating little demos and learning as I go. If I could pass this information on to people trying to do the same, then I could save them a world of effort. Even if only a single person benefits from something I write I’ll get that warm tingly feeling inside.

What else do I do?

Besides developing software and writing this blog, I -

  • am the tech guy for a number of Adelaide Fringe comedy shows
  • really want a kitten (I’m more of a cat than a dog person)
  • play the piano in a really bad way
  • love to cook (almost as much as eating)
  • like riding my bike

How can I contact you?

Please comment on this blog or email me at matthew@serializethis.com.