It's About Time

So, I have been around the block for a while now. People have been asking me if I have a blog for about a year. I guess it is time. I hemmed and hawed about doing this for a number of reasons (time, resources, interesting content..) and finally went the free route. I was going to do the whole domain thing, but not right now. Lets see how committed I am first.

So, who the heck am I?

I am a GIS Specialist who develops Web Apps for Agriculture in Ontario. I use ColdFusion and Flex, and just recently started down the AIR path (which is pretty damn sweet, if you need something like that... anyways, that is my first real blog post). I have been a CFer for about 9 years now I guess. I know no one has ever heard of me ;0)... I work at the largest privately owned Agricultural Testing laboratory in Ontario, we do a LOT of testing of anything to do with Agriculture, and it is interesting. In my role as GIS Specialist, I look after all of the mapping that needs to be done for our customers... the guys that use precision Ag technologies that is. I will go into what I actually do if people are really interested, but suffice it to say, that I make maps. I also do all the web development and IT work as well. We have a website that serves all of our analytical results and runs calculations on those results... All ColdFusion.

I am also partner in service firm that provides GIS softare and precision Ag hardware to growers. We also do web development for companies. Currently I am working an a traceability program for the largest vegetable processor in Ontario. Growers go on-line and enter data about their crops, and well.... lots of other stuff too. Interesting stuff, if you think it is :) (another blog post if folks are interested :p)

I am in the middle of redoing a legacy system written in Visual C++ 6 and converting it to a Flex CF app. It has been interesting so far, and Flex is providing most of what I need without have to override too many classes. That might change as I get more comfortable. I just wrote an AIR App over the weekend, it is of no use to the general public, but will serve its' purpose. Especially when I figure out how to print a report out of AIR.

So, what else? I have been married for almost 7 years to my lovely wife (Jill) and we have a recently turned 5 year old daughter (Brenna). We have two English Springer Spaniels (Maddison, 8, female, and Wesson, 2, male) and we live in a lovely little community in Southern Ontario. I have been at my current job for just over 6 years, and things just keep on changing.

I am the manager of the Southern Ontario ColdFusion User Group (SOnCFUG).

You can follow me on twitter @rob_parkhill and on google talk @ robert dot parkhill at gmail dot com.

I think that that is all for now. I hope to occansionally post something that you will find interesting.