My Interests

Computers are one of my strongest passions. My first contact with the world of "0" and "1" was circa 1984, at college. May be some of you recall the HP 41-C series of programmable calculators. While still in college I moved to the beloved Radio Shack TRS-80 and to BASIC. That computer gave me support through the last year of college and also home entertainment. Upon entering the work force I was introduced to the IBM standard and the world of CAD. They became the main tool for making my living, a great source for learning through experimenting and a very good source of entertainment. Yes! I WAS a great fan of video games in the old days of DOS. I said "I WAS", because due to the incredible demand of professional CAD and 3D Animation, when I finally made the switch to Windows, I jumped into the "heavy duty" Windows NT. Alas, NT wasn't fond of video games, the way that the "consumer level" version (95 and now 98). Today, the area of computing that attract me the most is the Internet (web development, on-line research and education, electronic shopping, and trading).

Cars follows computers in my list of passions; but do not take me wrong, I don't like the mechanics, what I love is to DRIVE. There is a big difference between a mere commuter and a driver. The commuter wants to go from A to B as much comfortable as possible; the driver enjoys the road and appreciates a car that let him/her feel it, like the models featured on the picture. I like comfort as much as every one else does; but not at the expense of performance. Visitors to my personal pictures my be wondering why I own a car that is the opposite of what's shown here. That is an unfortunate long story. For now I am stuck with the Infiniti as my financial endeavors I am undertaking, requires all the resources that I have.

I enjoy good music (mostly classical, and some instrumental like Richard Clayderman, Herb Alpert, Mannheim Steamroller, Vangelis and Yanni). When I was self-employed in Honduras I had a full featured home Audio/Video stereo. The peculiar environment of my former home made possible to enjoy the music and movies at concert hall and movie theaters level. I had always been a fan of electronic gadgets. Today, spending most of my time in the office and the road; and unable to replicate a concert hall in my place of residence, I decided to forgo the home system and replace it with a portable set of components and a very good system on the car. The change of formats and the fact that even the last format for video is not entirely supported by all studios; I decided not to jump on the DVD bandwagon... yet. Besides, the building of a video library could be a very expensive proposition. I was on my way building a large one in the Laserdisc format before coming to the US. The story about the cell phone is a rather amusing one; In the beginning I was completely opposed to carry one. It happened while still in Honduras and self-employed. I used to make trips between the Honduran Capital and the second largest city, business trips. However, being a fan of sports cars (I owned a Toyota MR-2 at the time), the last thing I wanted to hear, while racing... er, driving at 3-digit speeds or taking tight curves; was the ring of a phone.  But times changes and the picture above is a good example. 

I also enjoy the outdoors, specially the ocean. There is nothing more enjoyable than a trip to a beautiful place while everybody else is working: No rush in the highway, no parking problems, no overcrowded hotels, no long lines for the attractions, etc.; that's freedom! The only thing that can beat such experience is to have it shared with loved ones. Of course, to capture the scenes and share them to others, the gadget shown at the left comes very handy. Before the marriage of photography and computers I was not fond to take pictures. I remember making trips, seeing wonderful landscapes and monuments. That's all I can do: Remember them. Not this time. Once the business project I am implementing achieves critical mass, I will upgrade to digital motion video. I hope that the Internet infrastructure will be able to handle video seamlessly by that time.