Who am I?

My name is Ian McLerran, and I am a programmer and tech enthusiast based in Washington state.

In the beginning...

When my family first purchased a computer in 2000, I was 10 years old. It was an exciting day, and I couldn't wait to learn all about this incredible new machine. By 2006, I knew my way around Windows XP, but I knew there was more to it. I wanted to to tell the computer what to do. I knew very little about programming, but despite no classes being available at school, I was determined to learn.

I began by teaching myself HTML, but quickly realized this was not the power I was looking for. I wanted to make the software the computer ran, not just web pages. I discussed the subject with my father, who programs in SAS. He suggested a scripting language as a good place to begin. And so I came upon PERL. PERL was my nurturing mother, and it was from this language that I learned the basics of coding logic and syntax. I should also note that in 2007, Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon sparked my now long running love affair with Linux.

From there it was off to Washington State University where I studied advanced data structures, system architecture, and system programming, and of course some logic, mathematics, and physics. The math and physics where interesting (oh, that's how gravity works!) but it was the system programming classes that really captured my attention. It was incredible coding my own operating system. Everything I had ever wondered about how the OS worked now made sense!

Going forward

Today, I hope to find a full time job as a software Engineer. In the mean time I am continuing to further my programming knowledge; picking up new languages, APIs and frameworks, while working on some projects of my own. I am particularly interested in cloud service development and data mining. The massive amount of data available on the web provides enormous opportunity for innovation. Already companies like Google and many others are tapping into this resource, but we have only touched the tip of the iceberg.

Changing the world

Technology has the power to change the world. It connects us in new ways, puts knowledge at our finger tips, and gives us the power to do things we never thought possible. This (and a creative streak) is why I love programming. The world we live in is evolving faster than it ever has before, and I plan to be a part of it.