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Trail Blazers - Sheriffs - Bartenders - Other Staff - Java Community - RetiredStaff
or view the list of Active Staff
Trail Blazers
Paul Wheaton 
Paul is a Sun Certified Java Programmer working out of Seattle, Washington.
Paul had a web site dedicated to Java discussion that he started in November of 1998.
He merged his site into JavaRanch when Kathy turned it over to him. His contributions
include the Saloon, the Cattle Drive, most of the bunkhouse, some of the code barn,
the coop, gramps and granny.
Paul is an organic farmer wannabe. He is a certified master gardener and a certified permaculture designer. He cares for a large garden and several fruit trees and hopes to someday live on a full size farm. Paul wrote a fairly popular article on lawn care in 1994 with an emphasis on reducing the use of toxic gick. He has since written similar articles on the use of cast iron and flea control and set up some permaculture forums
(these aren't dolls, they're action figures!)
For more info see BioPaulWheaton.
Email
Kathy Sierra 
Kathy is a Sun Certified Java Programmer and a Sun Certified Java Instructor.
She travels the globe spreading the word about Java by teaching a variety of Java courses through
Sun Educational Services. When she's not traveling, she's preparing new courses on Enterprise Java and writing books and articles.
Kathy started Java Ranch in January, 1998 and turned the site over to Paul Wheaton in January, 2000.
Since Paul didn't want to bear the title "cowgirl", Kathy kept that title for herself and gave Paul
the title "trailboss".
Kathy's contributions to the ranch include the original Rules Roundup Game, some of the bunkhouse,
the campfire stories and most of the code barn.
Email (Note that all that travel makes it tough to get to e-mail regularly.)
Sheriffs "...These people have made enormous contributions to JavaRanch, mostly by writing thousands of helpful messages in the Big Moose Saloon. They are experts in using our messaging software and have been given "sheriff" access, otherwise known as administrator access." Trailboss Lasse Koskela 
Lasse is a software development geek, having a chronic addiction for interesting technologies.
This addiction has led to learning a wide variety of technologies over the years ranging from Flash
and PHP to XML and web services to Java and J2EE. Most recently, Lasse has picked up a new tool
in the form of the Ruby programming language and the Ruby on Rails web framework.
His interests have also moved more towards peopleware and methods, worrying more about team
productivity rather than byte code efficiency.
Working for a Finnish software consulting company Reaktor Innovations, Lasse spends his copious
spare time between traveling from one consulting engagement to another on writing a book.
Time will tell whether that project finishes on time.
Lasse was made a Bartender in 2003, and has been a Sheriff since 2005. Email
Bear Bibeault 
Bear has been turning coffee into quality software since 1976 when he starting programming
in BASIC on a Control Data Cyber.
He resides in Austin TX, and is currently a Web Applications Architect for a software startup that no one's heard of. Yet.
Having managed to wrestle two Electrical Engineering degrees from the University of Massachusetts,
he taught in the Graduate Computer Engineering Program of that esteemed institution for a decade or so. He has also served stints with Digital Equipment Corporation, Lightbridge Inc., Dragon Systems,
and a whole slew of other companies no one has ever heard of (or that he's ashamed to
admit association with).
He also served military time as a platoon leader and infantry trainer, teaching infantry soldiers
how to blow up tanks -- skills he brings to his sheriff duties on the Ranch.
When he should be tending to more pressing matters, Bear likes to ride his V-Star, dabble in
digital photography and video editing, cook BIG food, and read voraciously (mostly Sci-Fi and
techo-stuff). He's also nerdy enough to actually write web applications for fun
(if not for profit, alas).
Bear is hopelessly addicted to caffeine and rationalizes it by calling himself a "coffee snob"
and buying outrageously priced, but truly tasty, coffee beans that he insists on grinding himself.
Bear has co-authored three books: Ajax in Practice, Prototype and Scriptaculous in Action, and jQuery in Action.
Bear was made a Bartender in 2003, and has been a Sheriff since 2006. Email
BioBearBibeault
Ernest Friedman-Hill 
Ernest's long, strange trip from a humble Ph.D. in chemistry (MIT, '92) to his current position
as a Principal Investigator in the Distributed Systems Research department at Sandia National
Laboratories is the stuff of legend. When he's not developing desktop tools to help engineers
run simulations on the world's fastest computers, he dabbles in rule-based software,
and is the developer of Jess, the Programmer's Rule Engine.
Before all his spare time was dominated by Danielle (the little cowgirl in the picture) and Zachary,
he used to teach Java, both for the University of California, as an independent consultant, and online. He reckons he's taught more than 3,000 students in all. Ernest has written several books; the latest is Jess in Action
Dr. Friedman-Hill has been known to occasionally -- just occasionally -- engage in leisure activities, which may or may not include cooking, drawing, woodworking, and reading. But mostly he's too busy.
Ernest was made a Bartender in 2003, and has been a Sheriff since 2004. Email
Jeanne Boyarsky 
Jeanne Boyarsky is a 2002 graduate of Queens College with a degree in Computer Science and completed her Master's degree in Computer Information Technology at Regis University in 2005.
Jeanne is Brainbench certified in the Java Programmer and Web Developer roles. She works as a Java Developer for a bank in New York City. Her development interests include databases, web programming and testing. In her free time, she enjoys playing tennis, reading and nature.
Jeanne was made a Bartender in 2004, and has been a Sheriff since 2007. Email
For more info see BioJeanneBoyarsky
Valentin Crettaz 
Valentin Crettaz received his MS degree in information and computer science from the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) where he graduated.
In 2001, he visited SRI International (Menlo Park, CA) where he worked as a software engineer.
In summer 2002, he joined the Software Engineering Laboratory of EPFL as principal engineer.
At the end of 2002, Valentin co-founded Condris Technologies, an aspect-oriented software
development company that strongly focuses on software architecture. His research and development
interests include aspect-oriented technologies, design and architectural patterns, web services,
and software architecture. During his spare-time, Valentin moderates the Sun Certified Java
Programmer Forum at Javaranch.com. He is a Sun Certified Java Programmer and Developer for the
Java 2 Platform.
Valentin has been a Sheriff since 2003. Email
Mark Spritzler 
Mark is a SCJP, SCJD, SCWCD, SCBCD, SCMAD, and was also a member of the SCJP 5.0 exam creation team.
He was a technical editor on Head First Design Patterns, Head First Object Oriented Analysis and Design, and the K&B SCJP 5.0 Exam book.
He graduated from USC in 1990 with a BA in Communications. So he can now talk to people.
He is currently a Middleware Trainer for JBoss, a division of Red Hat, and travels around the country giving training classes in JBoss Administration, Hibernate, Web Developer and many more great JBoss learning classes.
While Mark is not on the road, he would be at home with the best wife in the whole world Franziska
or playing Golf, or rehearsing with his Rush Cover Band.
Mark was made a Bartender in 2001, and has been a Sheriff since 2005. Email
Frank Carver 
Frank is a Sun Certified Java Programmer.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Warwick and a Postgraduate Certificate of Education from the University of East Anglia, and is working on a Master's
degree with the Open University.
Frank runs a consultancy company Efficacy Solutions Limited which
specializes in Server-side Java, but is currently employed by iO Global Ltd - a start-up company located at British Telecom's Adastral Park research site.
Frank has been a Sheriff since 1999. Email
David O'Meara 
David is not a Sun Certified anything in particular, but he has a few certs that are no longer valid.
He has a Bachelor of Computer Science from the University of Western Australia with a background
in Mathematics and Engineering.
He currently works at a small company in Perth, West Oz that writes software for golf clubs. Dave prefers writing golf software to playing golf. He used to work for a company that would fly him around the world to work, and that was fun for a while too.
When he isn't working he pursues interests in programming, reading, computer games and moderating various Ranch forums. That is, he would if a wife, two sons and baby daughter allowed him any spare time. He also likes swimming, walking, cycling and has a gsoh.
David was made a Bartender in 2001, and has been a Sheriff since 2006. Email
Ilja Preuss 
Ilja is an impassionate programmer since secondary school. Starting with BASIC, he migrated to Pascal, C and C++. After some meandering, he finally started studying computer science, putting some more languages into his bag of tricks. For a couple of years he is now concentrating on Java, but also keeping an eye on the uprising of dynamically typed languages. At the moment his skills are utilized by an employer in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Currently he is mostly interested in the social aspects of software development. Especially the
agile movement appeals to him, particularly the Extreme Programming process.
Ilja was made a Bartender in 2002, and has been a Sheriff since 2005. Email
Eric Pascarello 
Eric Pascarello is the co-author of the 2006 Best Seller Ajax In Action (Manning) and also the author of JavaScript: Your Visual Blueprint for Building Dynamic Web Pages 2ed. (Wiley). Eric graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2002 and somehow ended up as a programmer.
Eric specializes in (X)HTML, CSS, JavaScript, DHTML, and Ajax on the Ranch. He also has interests in the following areas of programming: C#, AI, Security, and Site Usability. Note that Eric is not a Java guy, but lives on the dark side!
Eric spends his free time with his pets (more like a small zoo) which includes a dog named Ajax, a school of fish (all fresh water - 55 gallon tank, 45 gallon tank, ad a 150 gallon pond), a painted turtle named turtle, six parakeets (Weezer, Shaggy, Ice, YOOHOO, Digger, & Dot), a cockatiel named Baby, and a leopard frog. Eric would rather be outside hiking in the woods then sitting behind the desk any day, but will probably have his laptop attached to his side with a long extension cord!
The picture is an old picture of Eric and his wife in Red Rock Canyon, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Eric was made a Bartender in 2003, and has been a Sheriff since 2007. Email
Ulf Dittmer Ulf got a degree in Computer Science after attending the University of Hamburg and Syracuse University. After stints in a variety of industries in everything from tiny startup to very-blue-chip company, he now is an independent IT consultant specializing in J2EE projects. Aside from computers he's a licensed table tennis coach, and still plays regularly. He's also an avid movie fan, and considers Apocalypse Now Redux to be the best film ever made (although The Godfather part 1 is running a close second). Ulf was made a Bartender in 2005, and has been a Sheriff since 2007. More about him can be found at his web page http://www.ulfdittmer.com/. Email Jason Menard 
Jason lives in Maryland where he is employed developing software on behalf of an international
information technology products and services corporation.
He holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. When Jason isn't working or arguing with somebody in Meaningless Drivel, he spends his free time working in his community where he actively volunteers as a firefighter / emergency medical technician, playing the occasional bit of guitar, indulging his bizarre taste in movies, inciting his two cats into psychotic frenzies, and seasonably disturbing the neighbors while expanding their vocabulary with his loud and creative use of the English language during televised New England Patriots games.
Jason was made a Bartender in 2003, and has been a Sheriff since 2006. Email
Michael Ernest 
Michael owns and operates Inkling Research, a band of instructors who teach Java, C, Perl, Unix administration, and enterprise systems management. He is co-author of The Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide, affectionately referred to as RHE on 'JavaRanch'.
He also teaches a variety of technical and IT topics, specialzing in technology adoption. In recent years he has developed custom seminars on products as diverse as Solaris 10 technologies, including Zones, ZFS, and Dtrace; JCAPS; Lustre file system; and Dtrace/Java integration.
Michael occasionally presents at JavaOne? and Java University, mostly for the free conference pass. His current writing project, The Book of Dtrace, is projected for release by No Starch Press late in 2009. It will have a bit of Java stuff in it.
Michael was made a Bartender in 2001, and has been a Sheriff since 2002. Email
Marilyn deQueiroz 
Marilyn is a Sun Certified Java Programmer. She is a contractor based in Denver, Colorado, currently working for IBM
After taking the CattleDrive Java course, she was so impressed with the results that she volunteered to be in charge of the Cattle Drive. The course has expanded quite a bit since that time and keeps her busy. She also maintains the Java Programming Style Guide. In her spare time she plays principal viola in the Niwot Timberline Symphony Orchestra as well as playing for weddings and other special events with the Ptarmigan String Quartet.
Marilyn was made a Bartender in 2000, and has has been a Sheriff since 2001. Email
For more info see BioMarilynDeQueiroz
Andrew Monkhouse 
Andrew is the senior engineer of a small startup in Boise, Idaho.
Andrew has currently passed SCJP 1.2, SCJP 1.4, SCJD, SCWCD, SCBCD, and part I of SCEA.
Andrew has been working with computers for too long (his first program was written on mark-sense
cards (similar to punch cards)) and his experience spans a good number of different types of hardware, operating systems, and network protocols.
When he was living in Sydney, Andrew liked to go to the nearby beaches to go swimming or snorkeling, go on bush walks, go bike riding, or go horse riding or roller blading. Some of those are still possible, but the water in Seattle is too cold for most of the beach activities.
Andrew was made a Bartender in 2003, and has been a Sheriff since 2006. Email
For more info see BioAndrewMonkhouse
Jessica Sant 
Jess is a software developer at JBoss, a Division of Red Hat on the
JBoss Operations Network team. She has a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering from Villanova University, a Master's in Software Engineering from Drexel University as well as her SCPJ 1.4 and SCWCD certifications. Thanks to JavaRanch, Jess got to speak at a Birds of a Feather Session at JavaOne 2003 with Michael Ernest and she was a technical editor (along with Val Crettaz) on Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates book, Head First Java
Now that Jess is done with school (for now) her spare time is taken up with rock climbing
(top roping, lead climbing and bouldering), both for fun and for competition. To offset the
climbing and programming, Jess is an avid knitter.
She is originally from Utah (no, she's not Mormon... yes, you were too going to ask) and is
currently living near Philadelphia (so if you were looking for some girl named Jessica Bradley
from Sandy, UT... you found her).
Jess was made a Bartender in 2002,
and has been a Sheriff since 2003. Email
Mark Herschberg 
Mark Herschberg (the one not in the dress :-) has received both a bachelors and masters degree
in EE/CS from MIT. His masters thesis was the world's first secure electronic voting implementation
(done using Java, of course).
Currently, Mark is the VP of Engineering at Trafficmac in NYC. Throughout his career Mark has worked in numerous industries (development of the Curl language, enterprise JOLAP systems, financial modeling and simulations, wireless EAI) as well as academia (MIT, HBS). Starting with Java in 1996,
he has worked with J2ME, J2SE, and J2EE applications, and sat on Sun's JSR-75 (J2ME PDA Profile).
Mark has done numerous speaking engagements and guest lecture throughout the US and often speaks at JavaOne. He also is on MIT's UPOP steering committee, and teaches annually at the program.
Mark was made a Bartender in 2001, and has been a Sheriff since 2006. Email
Tony Alicea 
Tony is a Sun Certified Java Programmer and Sun Certified Web Component Developer.
He's currently working as an e-commerce Java Developer at a major international "clicks and mortar" retailer.
Before discovering the beauty of Java, Tony put his BSc in physics to work on assembly language,
FORTRAN and C programming.
Everybody having further interest in either Tony or Java, please visit
Tony's Java Page.
Tony has been a Sheriff since 2000. Email
Pauline McNamara 
Pauline hangs out mostly at the Cattle Drive. It only took a few years, but she finally got through
all the assignments and she's even been nitpicking other Cattle Drivers' code for a while now too.
A long time ago, like around Web -3.0, Pauline wrangled a Bachelor's degree in Human Biology from Stanford. Around the turn of the century she got a Masters in Geography from Fribourg University in Switzerland, polishing her French skills and picking up German along the way. Her biggest disappointment was dropping her only programming course, which, after finding refuge at JavaRanch, turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
Pauline thinks that her official title, "scientific collaborator" for university eLearning programs,
sounds kind of weird (it's a language thing). She really likes that learning is a job requirement,
and that on any given day she gets to be a programmer, a teacher, an organiser, a dedicated
cappuccino drinker (yes, that's every day).
She's been living with her partner in Switzerland since 1992. Once upon a time she was a serious athlete - now she manages to just barely stay in shape, mostly by biking to work, walking up the stairs, and running for the bus.
Pauline was made a Bartender in 2001 and has been a Sheriff since 2008 . Email
Ben Souther 
Ben is a Sr Java developer working Massachusetts.
He's been developing software professionally for 10 years.
In another life he managed shipping companies.
Besides programming he enjoys messing about in old boats, large format photography, and guitar.
Ben was made a Bartender in 2005 and has been a Sheriff since 2008 . Email BioBenSouther
Bert Bates 
Bert is an SCJP 1.4, wrote his first FORTRAN program in 1974 (he was very young), and has been
developing software ever since. Bert is co-author of 'Sun Certified Programmer & Developer
for Java 2 Study Guide' ( K&B ), and 'Head First Java'. He is also the co-author of 'Head First EJB' and a little later 'Head First SCWCD', which is why he is tired. He has written in Java, C, TIRS, FORTRAN, COBOL, Basic, RPG, Smalltalk, etc.
Bert is an avid Go player, skier, hiker, back-packer, and soon to be Airstream owner.
He hopes to soon be making his posts to JavaRanch from his hi-tech, satellite equipped, 28' CCD. With any luck these posts will issue from the Yukon, Denali, Homer, Wells Grey, Jasper,
Kalispell, Bend, Telluride, Santa Fe, Ojai, Brice, Sedona, Sioux Lookout, or Victoria.
Regardless of the location, Bert will be reading science fiction, astronomy, quantum physics,
or learning theory books with his wife Kathy.
Bert was made a Bartender in 2003 and has been a Sheriff since 2008 .
Email
Marc Weber 
Marc is a Sun Certified Java Programmer.
Being indigenous to the frozen tundra of Minneapolis, Marc is addicted to lowercase java
(the steamy beverage). He does his best work in coffee shops, and readily admits this is part
of the reason he picked uppercase Java as a language.
Marc was exposed briefly to BASIC in the early 1980's, but the programming bug remained latent
for many years. He pursued other interests, including guitar, karate, art, journalism,
and stand-up comedy. Eventually, he majored in Mathematics at Augsburg College, minoring in Chemistry and Studio Art. Since the mid-1990's, he has been employed in the financial services industry developing primarily in Lotus Notes.
Current addictions (other than java and Java) include writing experimental fiction,
seeking out abstract films and music, buying shoes, and running.
Marc uses Mac computers. His cat, Milton, does not program.
Marc was made a Bartender in 2005 and has been a Sheriff since 2008 . Email
Weber, Marc 
marc weber is the inventor of the weber grill. when he's not grilling, barbequeing, marinating
or roasting, he likes to code. marc only uses lower case letters and only under duress will he
use his [shift] key in order to utilize the occasional double quote or angled bracket.
marc dreams of the day that he'll be the only marc of any significance on javaranch, but
unfortunately for him, and fortunately for the rest of us... there are already 3 others
(2 with a 'k' and 1 with a 'c'). marc has already learned that any sheriff on the javaranch can,
and will, without provocation mess with his javaranch account. this is just another example of that.
Marc Peabody 
Marc loves JVM languages like Groovy, JRuby, and Scala. He codes in plain Java when better languages won't pay the bills.
Inside the Machine blog marcpeabody.com @marcpeabody
Marc was made a Bartender in 2005 and has been a Sheriff since 2008. Email BioMarcPeabody
Gregg Bolinger 
Gregg Bolinger is an independent consultant. He lives in Wichita, KS with his wife Candace and three children Benjamin, Alexandria, and Christian. He also has a cat named Charlie and a dog named Maddie.
Email BioGreggBolinger?
Bartenders "...These people have selflessly volunteered their valuable time to help others learn Java here on JavaRanch. Each person has also taken on the responsibility of moderating one or more of the forums in the Big Moose Saloon, so they bear the title of "bartender"." Trailboss Christophe Verré 
Christophe Verré was introduced to computers by a friend who owned an Amstrad CPC 464 (yes, with tapes). He received an Amstrad 6128 (yes, with floppy disks!) and started programming in BASIC. He graduated in Computer Science at the I.U.T. of Nantes (France), and Bsc(Hnrs) Computer Studies at N.E.W.I (Wrexham, Wales). He worked for a year and a half in France, before moving to Japan in 2001, and is now working in Tokyo. He owns SCJP, SCWCD and SCBCD certificates, as well as various certifications in English, Japanese and Chinese. His main pastime is playing Shamisen, a Japanese music instrument, and learning foreign languages.
Christophe has been Bartender since 2007. Email.
BioChristopheVerre
Paul Sturrock Paul works as a senior software engineer near Edinburgh, building various Java based systems. He was told to learn Java many years ago (despite originally spending most of his time using Microsoft technologies) and hasn't looked back. He managed to sneak out of the University of Glasgow in 1998 with a Masters in Information Technology stuffed up his sweater. Over the years he's worked with pretty much all the buzz word technologies, but tends to live in a J2EE world these days. He has an unhealthy obsession with mountains, and a much of his spare time as is possible is spent charging around the Highlands, variously mountaineering, rock climbing, mountain biking or skiing. He has very parochial views on football (the version where you really use your feet),! and believes the only truly beautiful game is played in Tannadice Park, Dundee. Don't talk to him about it, he will bore you to tears. Paul has been Bartender since 2005. Henry Wong Henry Wong is a senior developer, based in New York City, involved in many Java related projects. Henry earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from The Cooper Union in 1987. In 1994, while working for Sun Microsystems, he learned a new (then unnamed) programming language, to create demos for a financial trade show. Little did he know that this language would become the powerhouse that it is today. When not in front of a computer, Henry is an instrument rated private pilot, who also likes to dabble in archery, cooking, Scuba diving, and traveling to different places with his wife, Nini. Henry has been Bartender since 2006. Nathan Pruett 
Nathan received his BS in Computer Science from Armstrong Atlantic State University (Savannah, Georgia) in 1999. His first exposure to Java was in a comparative languages class there. His experiences in this course led him to take an optional course in Java the next summer. It's been all been downhill from there... He also recently finished a MS in Computer Science at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
He is currently working at LMN Solutions, and has 8 years of (professional) development experience, mostly in defense and government contracting. ...if I told you any more I'd have to kill you...
When he is not working, he plays computer games, entertains fantasies of being a game developer, reads (voraciously), spends time with his wife and daughter, and keeps his wife busy (trying to stay sane).
Nathan has been Bartender since 2001. Email
Tim Holloway 
Tim got involved in computers because his scientific interests required more arithmetic abilities
than he possessed and 4-function pocket calculators hadn't been invented yet.
He might hold all sorts of impressive certifications except that by the time they make up the exams,
he's off learning the next generation of technology.
He started off doing systems programming for mainframes and minicomputers, detoured into
embedded systems, and helped pioneer object-oriented programming by producing one of the
first commercial C++ implementations for a personal computer platform.
He lives in Florida because any place further north would be too cold in the winter!
Tim has been Bartender since 2003.
Joe Ess Joe Ess is a Sun Certified Java Developer and holds two bachelor's degrees: Literature and Computer Science. After an ignoble start to his career, he wrote code for 5 years for 3 different employers before finally writing something someone actually used, he has settled into a comfortable position maintaining a website where he actively tries to incorporate as many technologies as possible ("This week I'm going to post user comments to Bugzilla via XMLRPC. Why? Because I can."). BioJoeEss Joe has been Bartender since 2004. Simon Brown 
Simon is a technical architect with Detica (Financial Services) and still likes to get his hands dirty with the code where he can. Simon has been involved in projects ranging from desktop clients to highly scalable distributed systems, where his specialist technology is Java. As a part of his day job, Simon helps mentor aspiring architects and strongly believes that the role of an architect isn't purely technical.
Simon founded thepragmaticarchitect.com in an aim to bring together content that reflects this view of what an architect's role entails. Additionally, Simon has written and contributed to a number of books about Java EE web technologies and is a frequent speaker on such topics. Simon's personal blog can be found at http://www.simongbrown.com/blog/.
Simon has been Bartender since 2002. Email
Balaji Loganathan 
Balaji is currently working in Geneva for an international organization. He holds a Master degree
from Australia in IT, and has earned IT experience in Australia, Singapore & India.
He is currently working on a project involving data modeling, web services, XML, J2EE and .NET.
He loves nature, forests, and country side driving with mild music. He also plays badminton weekly
and is learning French. He recently started eating beef, veal, pork, frog, octopus & oyster. He is currently moderating Webservices and XML forum during his free time.
Balaji has been Bartender since 2004. Email
Merrill Higginson Merrill works as a senior consultant for Sima Solutions, which is a small but spunky consulting company specializing in IBM WebSphere solutions. He's one of those people who got into IT in the 80's without any formal training. However, since then he's passed the SJCP and obtained a number of IBM WebSphere certifications. He has a Bachelors Degree from Brigham Young University in Music Education and a Masters Degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Utah. Merrill claims that music is still his first love, but now makes music a hobby rather than a profession. He has sung for many years with the Pacific Chorale although recently travel for consulting gigs has put an end to singing with them. He also plays the piano for his own enjoyment and for church groups. Merrill is also an avid cyclist, and enjoys tooling around Southern California on his road bike. He can also be found enjoying Southern California's beaches on most weekends. Merrill has been Bartender since 2006. Fred Rosenberger 
Fred graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1990, with a degree in Theatre.
After spending a few years as a bookstore clerk, a high school math teacher, and an airline
reservation agent, he finally settled in as a programmer in 1999, and earned his SCJP certificate
a few years later.
Fred lives in a small suburb in St. Louis County, Missouri with his wife Stacey, and his daughter
Olivia, whom was adopted from China in 2005. Fred is probably the only person who can directly thank the JavaRanch for his having a child - you can read about much of his adoption journey here.
He is, however, still learning to use the shift key in his posts.
Fred has been Bartender since 2005. Email
Paul Clapham 
Paul Clapham has been in the commercial computing business since 1974,
when men were men and computers had 32K bytes of memory. Currently he
is living in Vancouver, Canada, working for a company that runs its
business on IBM iSeries computers, whose primary programming language is
RPG. (No, that's not Role Playing Game or Rocket Propelled Grenade!) So
when IBM announced Java as its "strategic direction" for the system back
in 1999, he was assigned to figure out what that meant.
He learned Java by reading questions on online forums and finding out
and posting the answers. Most of the time this worked out quite well.
Paul has two adult children and spends his holiday time in distant
countries with his wife Rosemary, birding and hiking and visiting local craft markets.
Paul has been Bartender since 2006.
Jesper Young 
Jesper's interest in computers started when he was about 10 years old, when he saw a friend typing in hexadecimal codes on a home computer which impressed him so much that he still remembers it. He got his own Commodore 64 when he was 13 on which he started programming in BASIC and assembly language and he has been a computer wizard ever since.
After studying electrical engineering at the Delft Technical University (in The Netherlands), he started his career as a software developer. He has been working with Java since 2000. He has done (and is doing) projects for many different clients using Java, from large Swing applications and web applications to enterprise middleware systems.
Jesper is SCJP and SCWCD certified since 2001 and 2002 respectively.
Jesper has been Bartender since 2007. BioJesperYoung
Jaikiran Pai Jaikiran is NOT a Sun Certified Java Programmer and neither does he have any other certificates :-) He has a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Vishweshwaraiah Technological University in India. He completed his engineering course in 2004 from SDM College of Engineering in Dharwad, India. He's been working in a software company in Pune since 2004. He's been mainly working in Java and J2EE ever since he joined the company. In his spare time, he likes to hang out with his friends and play Cricket. Jaikiran has been Bartender since 2007. Email Scott Selikoff 
Scott Selikoff is a senior Java/J2EE software developer with years of experience
in web-based database-driven architectures. He owns and operates
Selikoff Solutions, a
software consulting company servicing businesses in the NY/NJ/PA area.
Scott is also the author of a Java Tech Blog
providing stories and advice to budding Java/J2EE developers.
In his spare time, Scott enjoys swing dancing and playing fetch with
his dog.
Scott has been Bartender since 2006. Email
Carol Murphy Carol has a background in the arts, and used to be a professional dancer. Although she spent a few years working as a show girl in Vegas and Reno, the bulk of her dancing career was devoted to Classical Ballet, in which she holds a Masters Degree from United States International University in San Diego, California. Since retiring from the stage, Carol has held a number of weird jobs, ranging from directing amateur dance companies to outfitting the commercial salmon fleet in Northern California. A former technophobe, Carol was dragged kicking and screaming into the world of computers when she was acting as an educational facilitator for distance learning at a Charter School in California. The job required a computer with internet access, the idea being that most communication with the students and the school would be done via the internet, and a good part of the curriculum would be delivered on the net. The job didn't last very long, but Carol's interest in computers did. Wanting to learn how to communicate with these fascinating machines became an obsession. While wandering around on the net, Carol happened to stumble on to JavaRanch. It was a defining moment in her life. Carol currently works as a pharmacy technician and substitute teacher in Half Moon Bay, California. She is married and has a son who is in high school, 4 cats, 2 ducks, and 23 rabbits. (She started with just 2.) Carol has been Bartender since 2003. Katrina Owen 
Katrina had a really hard time figuring out what she wanted to be when she
grew up. She got accepted into two degree programs simultaneously: Aerospace
Engineering, and Molecular Biology. Since she had spent a lot of time reading
about the human brain as a child and youth, she figured biology must be the
thing to do (even though aircraft, spacecraft, and satellites are way cool). After commencing her studies, she discovered that she likes programming more than cloning, and spent more and more of her spare time learning to code. She completed her Bachelors Degree in Genetics at the University of Oslo, and then promptly left Norway for sunny California, where she now works as a developer for a tech start-up in the fashion industry.
She became a JavaRanch bartender in 2007 and hangs out mostly in the Cattle Drive
Email
Rob Prime After cruising through high school without much effort, Rob first decided to ignore everybody's good advice and joined the Dutch army. Fortunately for him, he soon found out what a bad choice that was so he attended the Technical University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands, where he earned his Master's degree in 2004. He has since worked as a programmer and database administrator at a small company near where he lives, all the while improving his programming skills. Rob is SCJP 1.4 since 2006 with an impressing 100% score and SCJP 6 since 2008, disappointing everybody around him with a mere 91% 
On January 19th 2009 he added SCWCD 5 to this, with a score of 94%.
Rob has been Bartender since 2008.
Campbell Ritchie Campbell has been Bartender since 2008. James Clark 
James learned BASIC structured programming on a Texas Instruments TI-99 4/A in the early 80's. He is eternally grateful to his Uncle Don who sent the PC from California as a gift. Uncle Don was a senior engineer at McDonnell Douglas and authored code algorithms for Apollo 11, the first spacecraft to land on the moon.
James studied Art and English as an undergraduate and joined a legal publishing company upon graduation. He quickly learned the VersaComp programming language as well as SGML and OmniMark languages -- key technologies for electronic typesetting, book publishing and CD-ROM creation.
For the next 13 years, James worked as a consultant to financial services firms and other legal publishing organizations. He holds a Master of Science degree in Publishing and a Master of Science degree in Software Engineering from Pace University in New York.
Currently, James is a software architect at a global consulting and IT solutions provider.
In his spare time, James enjoys playing Chess online (with human opponents.) He first learned how to play Chess and think strategically, way back when with his TI-99 4/A. Thanks Uncle Don.
James has been Bartender since 2008.
Amit Ghorpade 
Amit's first encounter with Java was in 2003 when he was learning Object Oriented languages for the first time. He discovered(?) that Java was a bit better than the 8085 opcodes and C++ . As of now he is a SCWCD for J2EE 5.
As a kid he always dreamt of becoming a fighter pilot until he got a pair of spectacles due to excessive computer games. So he had to opt computers for a revenge.He did Bachelors in Engineering from Shivaji University in India .
When he is not trying hands at code, he's reading books, shaking head at music, playing computer games, trying luck with photography and cooking, with friends or on a weekend adventure.If he's doing something that's not on the list, then its probably sleeping.
Sometimes he gets thoughts of becoming a rockstar , but he does know exactly what it means being a rockstar, he just wants to be one .
Amit has been Bartender since 2008.
Maneesh Godbole Maneesh started fiddling with the computer in 2000. Understandably his first exposure was Windows, and the copy file graphics absolutely wowed him! He holds absolutely no academic qualifications whatever and is a die hard of fan of Mark Twain, who once said, "I never let schooling interfere with my education". He is a voracious reader, and is found immersed in books, when he is not pretending to work. The way to his heart is over a glass of nice whiskey. The way he won a bet with friends, in a seedy bar, after 10 rounds, way back in 1995, has passed into legend. Maneesh has been Bartender since 2008. Peter Johnson Peter started his computer career in 1980 supporting a COBOL accounting package running on a Burroughs mini-computer. He started working in Java in 1998, and was lead designer on projects such as a JDBC driver for the DMSII database that runs on Unisys mainframes. For the past several years he has been chief architect on a team that analyzes performance of Java applications on large-scale Intel-based machines (8 to 96 CPUs), and evaluates various open source software for enterprise readiness. Peter speaks often about Java performance and JBoss technologies at industry conferences such as the Computer Measurement Group conference, Linux World and JBoss World. He is co-author of the book JBoss in Action. Peter has been Bartender since 2008. Nitesh Kant 
Nitesh has been a part of the ever growing software industry in India since 2002, after doing his B.Tech in metallurgical engineering from Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University.
Currently, based out of Bangalore, he is working for a company called sonoa systems building a cutting edge SOA/cloud governance product.
In the good old college days, nitesh was a vocalist in his college rock band and the people who were victimized by his singing are still nursing ear pains. Since then he has learned to strum the guitar and now indeed he is a "double trouble"!
Nitesh has been Bartender since 2008.
Martijn Verburg 
Martijn Verburg is a Dutch Born Kiwi who is also a permanent resident of a few other nations, he likes to call it being a 'citizen of the world' ;). Martijn first cut his teeth on Java when his University decided to change the first year Computer Science course language from Pascal to Java, a frantic 3 day internal course later and he and the other tutors were 'qualified' to begin running the labs. He has since picked up J2EE/JEE, consulted in a few odd places around the world and is a voracious supporter of the open source movement.
He's currently working on somewhat archaic JCA Connectors and an associated open source middleware platform and also spends a good deal of time herding monkeys on another open source project that deals with creating characters for d20 based role playing games.
Apart from that he enjoys traveling to weird and wonderful places, Football (the round ball version), Dance music (reach for the lasers!), Amateur Astronomy (Ohhh pretty shiny things!) and of course hanging out with his wife and pals (just in case she reads this ;p).
Martijn has been Bartender since October 2008.
Other Staff "...These are people that have made large contributions to JavaRanch outside of the Big Moose Saloon. Yes! There is more to the ranch than the saloon." Trailboss Paul Little Paul is the guy behind Evolution Hosting who has been keeping JavaRanch running for years. David Rizzi 
David's background includes programming, systems and network management, and web development.
He currently works as a contract web application developer. By night he plays drums with other
jazz, rock, fusion and reggae players.
Although David's contribution to Javaranch was fairly small, Paul insisted on a bio and pic because of their long standing friendship; he also threatened to supply his own - completely fictional - bio if David didn't get busy and come up with something.
Java Community "...Major contributors to the Java Community who can often be found here (one of whom begged and pleaded to have his picture shown too)." Trailboss Marcus Green 
Marcus is a Sun Certified Java Programmer.
Marcus runs the most popular site on the internet for Java Certification. His hit count is always about 30% ahead of JavaRanch. His motto is "Content Before Cows".
You can find the famous "Marcus Green Site" at http://www.jchq.net/.
But don't bring up the fact that the JavaRanch forums are more popular than his; it's a sensitive topic. :)
Roseanne Zhang Roseanne is a Sun Certified Java Programmer, Sun Certified Java Web Component Developer and IBM Certified Developer on XML Technologies. She also teaches physics in a community college. She is a contract senior software developer in many different industries, from telecoms to revenue management, from airplane dogfight cellphone games to real Navy airplane avionics, programming in different languages too (Java, C/C++, Ruby, XSLT, VB, etc). Roseanne used to be a physicist and a long time teacher, and she still is. She once worked in a lab with a sign "Danger (a skull icon): power CO2 laser, strong magnetic field, and extremely poor physics graduate students." Roseanne finally figured out a way to continue her beloved teaching career without the worry of being fired, or waiting for the next pay check. She created her not-so-personal website JavaChina for education purposes. You can visit it for C/C++, Java, XSLT, ANT FAQs. Roseanne served as a moderator at the famous Marcus Green website since 1999. With some other people, she started the "Dallas SCJD Study Group" in 2001, which is no longer active. Roseanne is also a jGuru forum/FAQ manager since 2002. Roseanne is a bartender in JavaRanch since 2005. Java started a second life for her. Active Staff | |
