About alksoft

Who was that masked man?
alksoft is a one man team. If one man can be a team, anyway. alksoft, as an organization, has only existed since the beginning of March, 2003. But Andrew L Kershaw has been around since 1979. I've been programming on Macintosh since 1997; 1995 if you count writing AppleScripts as programming. I've been doing HTML authoring since about the same time. I've got some experience with Qbasic, C, C++, Fortran 70, Java, and (ICK) Visual Basic. I also know a bit of SQL, ASP/ADO, and PHP. I've been using REALbasic since 2001, and I have a fairly strong background in scientific and numerical programming (especially for applications of physical principles).

I finished up a B.S. in physics with a minor in mathematics at the University of Arizona in May, 2002. Since then, I've been writing software. For a while, that was a nearly full-time job. I even did a bit of work as a contractor for a small business developing a custom MS Access/Active Server Pages based website. The company wants it's customers to be able to answer questions on its website and have that information stored in an Access database. I was only too happy to help. I've also had periodic summer positions at Agfa Electronic Prepress Systems doing some website and database administration. Recently, however, I was hired as a Systems Engineer for Lockheed Martin. Programming and website development has once again been relegated to hobbies; I'm still writing software but at a slower pace.

I've got too many Macs. (No, you can't just have any.) None of them run OS X, though several have that ability. I know how much it bites to run hardware considered by some developers to be obsolete. Therefore, I have a vested interest in making sure that these Macs continue to see quality new software releases. And with REALbasic and plenty of spare time over the last year, I've had all the opportunity I need to start contributing back to the wonderful Mac user community.

Why aren't there uppercase letters in alksoft?
Because. In a san-serif font, I decided that alksoft looked better than AlkSoft, ALKSoft, Alksoft, or ALKsoft. That's why. That doesn't mean that AlkSoft isn't correct, however. Please note that ALKSoft, Alksoft, ALKsoft, and alkSOFT are all incorrect.