As a child I was, for a time, fascinated with computers. I even briefly entertained the idea that I would write a game in BASIC. The hours it took me to draw a slightly skewed line across the 16 color monitor of my Atari 800XL dispelled that notion almost as quickly as my prepubescent brain had latched on to it. Fast forward to college and while not a CS major, pursuing a Mathematics degree involved some logic and programming courses. When I say "pursuing" I mean barely attending classes and eventually dropping out completely to instead hitchhike across the continental US with all my belongings on my back and only a vague idea of where I was going. The bits of pascal and logic I did study did not stick with me except as a faint memory. Fast forward 8 years to 1998 and I have a wonderful daughter, a quaint middle management job at a box factory, and a renewed interest in the surging home computer phenomenon going on at the time. So with a brand new Windows 98 machine and a copy of Deitel and Deitel's C++ programming purchased for 10 bucks at a garage sale I set out to learn to write software during lunch breaks and late evening hacking sessions.

    I think the phrase "Web 2.0" is for the most part universally despised, and I wholeheartedly subscribe to this point of view. While it may be fluffy market speak it does carry a meaning to me, a vague and over hyped meaning, but a meaning none the less. When I work on client sites I will suggest using AJAX or a more interactive design if doing so is a good fit for the site and overall functionality. More often than not however clients will ask for dynamic parts of a site, even going so far as to say "I want this page to be more AJAX-y". Over the last few years I have been involved with and written quite a few different dynamic and interactive web site features. Thanks to great packages like Sajax, Prototype, and Script.aculo.us among others, adding varied levels of web 2.0 goodness while keeping an eye on overhead and bloat is not too difficult.