About

Hello there, I'm Ian Nelson and this is my website.  Thanks for dropping by!

I'm a Yorkshire lad, originally raised in the lovely village of Woodsetts and educated at Dinnington Comprehensive, from where I took a haul of nine GCSEs, five 'A' levels and one Special paper (in mathematics).  Three fantastic years at the University of Nottingham followed, where I had a blast, met most of my closest friends, and gained a degree in mathematics.

Since leaving uni in 1997 I've forged a career for myself in the thrilling world of Software Development, which I genuinely enjoy.  I have been paid for coding in all manner of languages and environments, including mainframe IBM Assembler (OS/390), Java, Visual Basic, and other technologies which no longer grace my CV lest somebody asks me to prove my abilities in them!  Since 2002 I've settled down somewhat and focused solely on the Microsoft stack - C#, SQL Server and the .NET Framework are my core competencies.  I take particular pleasure in designing and creating solid well-encapsulated middle-tier components with intuitive APIs, and my databases always boast lashings of referential integrity.

I've recently decided to go solo and you can see (a little) more about my freelancing career over at the Ian Nelson Systems website. I have previously developed solutions for the manufacturing, banking, insurance, telecommunications and healthcare industries.

As an archetypal INTP I have enough interests to occupy me for several lifetimes, but lack the monies, time and energies to indulge all of them to the degree I would like.  Computing, the internet and technology in general are obvious passions, but there are others.  Inspired by my friend Bruce I have been bagging Munros on and off since 1998 and now have 90 of the bloody things under my belt.  I rarely leave home without my iPod and the 14,000+ strong collection of songs thereon - the right music is vital if I'm to function at my best.  Recently I've been getting into Genealogy and have just succeeded in tracing all sixteen of my great-great-grandparents.  Oh, and I've just bought my first digital SLR camera (a Canon EOS400D), so hopefully you'll soon be seeing some shiny new photographs on my Flickr photostream! 

I was married in April 2005 to Jocelyn, my Californian sweetheart, and our son Benjamin was born in July 2007. His younger sister is scheduled for release in May 2009.