I'm an undergraduate, rising junior studying Computer Science at Appalachian State University.  I have a strong background in C\C++ and Java.  Additionally, I have a strong interest in networking, which includes development of client\server programs in both Java and C++.  

The Mac Conundrum

    At 12 years old I began teaching myself to program in C++.  After about two years  of piecemeal learning, I was a self-proclaimed, fluent user of the C++ language.  Once I had this under my belt, picking up more languages came more naturally; to me, the concepts are universal, but their expression is language dependent.  As my interests began to broaden, I began experimenting with making pretty GUI applications for Windows 98 (it's bad, I know) in Visual BASIC.   My pride and joy of that development was a program similar to the Windows Task Manager, which displayed program paths and their process IDs, along with the option to kill that process :) .  Overall, this program wasn't too complex, but it did give me a good look at how process manipulation was handled in a Windows environment. 

    When I entered college, I made The Great Migration to the Macintosh.  The summer before freshmen year I hadn't quite made up my mind on what to get: PC or Mac?  For all of my competent life I had dealt with evolving PCs - dealt with their pros, but moreso, their cons.  Enticed by Apple's description of the brand new Mac OS X Tiger (i've since upgraded to Leopard), I went for the Mac : a sleek, black, beautiful MacBook.  No regrets there. 

    One night I bravely started online tutorials on Mac development, specifically in XCode, Apple's equivalent to Microsoft Visual Studio.  Despite confidence in my C++ and Java abilities, I approached this undertaking timidly; all I could think was, "What the hell is Objective-C ??...sounds like C's evil cousin."  I stumbled upon The Cocoa Dev Center, a wonderful Cocoa\OC tutorial online that explained the material like I was in Kindergarten.  With a new outlook on Mac development, I came up with my own maintenance utility.  Even though there were hundreds, or even thousands, out there, I felt a great sense of accomplishment when I tied a sleek GUI and the power of UNIX commands together into an easy to use interface.