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Welcome to the home of David Sussman

Full name: David Mark Sussman
Born: 1966
Email: [email protected]

History

It's been a while since the iDevResource guys asked me to get this page together, and at last here it is. I'd like to say I've been too busy, but that would only be partly true. Thanks to the wonders of genetics I'm cursed with a memory like a goldfish. Not that either of my parents were goldfish, but you get the general idea. Anyway, here's the personal stuff.

Academically I'm not a patch on half the people here. I was dismally bad at school until I got into computers (cue image of spotty geek in corner), where I discovered a practical subject that didn't involve me remembering huge amounts of stuff. Yeah, it's that memory thing again - I'm no good at learning by rote. I admire people who have the ability to do well like this, but I've learned that you don't have to be like this to suceed in life. Don't let anyone say that because you don't achieve great exam results, you can't achieve something.

My career started as a Unix and C programmer, and after redundancy (they called it 'departmental restructuring'), I moved into the Microsoft field. PCs were just starting to become more available, and I loved the UI side of things. I'd done some X-Windows/Motif programming and really wanted to do this on Windows. I joined consultancy at the time Access 1.0 was released, and rapidly moved into VB, SQL Server (when it was on OS/2) and NT. I stayed there for four years until I was offered a training position by my friend Rob Smith (co-author of the Access VBA books). So I moved to Edinburgh and worked as a Microsoft Trainer for a year. At that stage I was also doing more book work, and realised that I couldn't write books and train full time - training is too demanding for that. So, I took the decision to move into the full time writing role, and I haven't looked back since.

What I Love?

Food, Wine, Beer, Malt Whisky - can you see a trend here?
Technology - I'm a big technology fan, so follow that closely.
The countryside - this is why I live in a very quiet rural village (I need to be near trees and fields).
Music - I have fairly eclectic tastes, and listen to lots of music. A perfect evening for me is some good music and a glass of Malt.
Nature, wildlife - I wanted to be Gerald Durrell when I was young.

What I Hate?

Bigotry, prejudice - anything that promotes hatred and distrust. Man's shape, creed, colour are all irrelevant.
Shopping - typical bloke.
The overstressed relience on qualifications. Yeah, this is a historical hang up. I was refused a few jobs because my exams weren't good enough. No one would let me prove my abilities. Ha, I'm laughing now though.

What am I reading at the moment?

Throwim Way Leg, by Tim Flannery. Tim is a mammologist, and curator of Sydney museum. The book is about his travels around Papua New Guinea
Weaving the Web, by Tim Berners Lee

What do I spend my money on?

Ludicrously expensive hi-fi gear and CDs mostly.

Books I've written

I've also contributed to a few others.

Articles I've written

On this site: ADO Recordset. I wrote an article on WebDAV for the IEEE Multimedia magazine, have done a few for ASPToday, and have one in the pipeline for EXE magazine.

Conferences

I spoke at the inaugral ASPDevCon in 1998, and am heavily involved in the Wrox Conferences. If you're attending any of these come and say hello.