About the Author

// Published 18 May 2008 // Updated 27 May 2008 //

Hi, I'm Phil! I'm addicted to thinking and hacking^[1], caffeine, cycling, travelling, inspiring conversation, music, fresh air, sunlight and the unexpected.

Baby Boomer

I was born in Potsdam (just outside Berlin, which is where I live today) in Feb 1982 (back then, this was part of the socialist, eastern half of Germany). Before and after the 1989 reunification, I enjoyed a quiet, peaceful childhood exploring just about everything of interest to me.

I got my first computer as late as 1997 and soon discovered the joys and pains of computer programming (developing software). I first learned about the Internet as late as 1998 and figured out how to create web sites. I've been a web and software developer ever since. The Bubble only just surfaced, slowly, in Germany around that time and lasted until 2001.

What I did during 'School' and 'Uni' (hint: hacking)

During that time, while still in high school doing A-levels, a friend from school and I founded and ran a web and software development shop that we called — embarrassingly enough — "c:ndg Interactive Marketing". Business was good for 18-year-olds during the Bubble. Since then, I've continued developing bespoke software solutions on a freelance consulting basis for some great and some "not-so-great" =) clients...

I spent the years from 2002 - 2005 in Oxford — officially studying Computing & Intelligent Systems at Brookes University, but in fact most of the time just hacking away privately as always. Consequently, I had a great time and have always felt quite attached to Britain ever since.

Moving on

In Nov 2005 I created my own commercial software product, mainly in order to see whether I can finish a software product that's ready and polished enough to be published and marketed to a general, non-technical audience. SuDoku Pro was well received and loved by tens of thousands of users, so some of them even paid for it. I have sold the rights to the software in Jan 2008 to Diangy Systems, they have re-designed the English version of the SuDoku Pro web site, but the software at present remains the one I designed, developed, got translated into five languages and took to market by myself.

While I have worked on lots of unfinished software development projects and A.I. stuff privately all the time, I have also always finished bespoke commercial projects for my consulting clients. Since 2002, I worked in C# and .NET and since late 2006 I have also done a lot of SharePoint projects.

Because I tend to seek intellectual challenge and because I can accomplish so much more with added sophistication and better results that way, I'm now working more actively than ever with methods and tools I only used experimentally and theoretically during Uni, such as for example functional programming or logic programming.

Do I care about 'More in Life'^™ than hacking & business?

Not so much, but I do — yet this is not what this website is about. I'd rather keep my miserable guitar playing to myself for example, you see?