Hello. I'm Simon O'Riordan.I'm a professional software engineer, a patented innovator.
I get a big kick out of making things work. With three engineering degrees, one a First Class Honours Bachelor's degree, the other two Post-Graduate, the unifying theme is software, although in different fields; since 1981 and in particular for the past thirteen years, I have used software to solve interesting and commercially important problems.
Recently I'd been working for a small company in Dorset, a situation I was relishing, using technologies which I had previously had less access to commercially, such as ATL and XML, and of course .NET, STL, and MFC, FTP, LDAP, Sockets and Cryptography.
Also most enjoyably, I was able to acquire additional commercial experience in C++ and C#, including the Mono .NET system for Linux development.
I was working on a variety of projects with potential Blue-Chip clients; however, due to the recession and not a little tough luck, we have dispersed. However, with the current thriving market in IT, it has not taken long to find new work, and I am now in the Bristol area working for a major British engineering company.
Here I have been enjoying a variety of challenging work, from VB6/C# migrations through to operating system manipulations and the use of additional IDE systems such as Codeblocks. I'm hoping that this, permanent position does indeed reward me with an extended period of stability, particularly as I'm now living in a house built by a famous engineer and therefore steeped in the traditions of one of the heroes of my youth.
In case you want to learn more: