For about fifteen years, I have been software developer by day job and a software hacker by night. I generally distinguish developers into the following categories: * Day-Job vs real hackers * Generalists vs Specialists * Application Developer vs Tool Builder So, I consider myself hacker, generalist and tool builder. Like many other enthusiasts, I chase any new computer technologies and after chasing Java, Jini, CORBA, and J2EE for many years, I have been putting more focus lately on light-weight J2EE, JXTA, J2ME, aspect-oriented programming, ruby and rails. My academic interest includes distributed and parallel programming. I developed a Java-based framework called "JavaNOW" to write parallel applications similar to Linda and PVM systems. You can find some links to parallel programming at my bookmarks page or from my del.icio.us page. Besides computing, I like to read books on Astronomy, unsolved mysteries, mathematics, aliens/UFOs and ancient civilizations. In Astronomy, I like String or Unified theory and hopefully one day it can sort out the difference between Quantum Mechanics and General theory of relativity. I love to read about ancient civilizations such as Egyptians, Sumerians, Babylonians, etc. There is a wealth of knowledge that has been lost, especially prior to Noah's flood. Maybe we will find a huge library in one of the pyramids one day. You can check out some cool sites at http://www.plexobject.com/~bhatti/bookmarks.html or from http://del.icio.us/shahzad/Parallel/Distributed section. I also own a small consulting and software development company and spend spare time writing interesting applications. Maybe someday I would get to quit my day job. You can visit http://www.plexobject.com/software of my business website. ---- For more information [http://www.plexobject.com/~bhatti/index.html]