Steven Benner's Blog

Hello! In case you haven’t figured it out yet, my name is Steven Benner. I am a web developer, car enthusiast and former small business owner from northern California. I’m the general jack of all trades, master of none type. I am an exceptional JavaScript, .NET and PHP developer who also has moonlighted as a web designer and system administrator. I can do just about anything with computers.

My life has revolved around computers for as long as I can remember. I started learning to program when I was quite young, around thirteen or so if I remember. By fourteen I was writing Windows desktop applications to screw with people on AOL (yes, it was that long ago). At fifteen I was writing arcade games in C. I started doing freelance web development work just as I turned sixteen.

Since then, I’ve learned over a dozen programming languages and have worked on countless web sites. My work is used by millions of people every day, chances are you have seen my work somewhere already. I built one of the first blogging web applications, though I called it an “online news publication system” and I created the first eBay auction tracker ever to hit the internet. Suffice it to say that I’ve since learned the value of a patent.

Now-a-days I occupy my time by working as a web developer. My current specialties are JavaScript, PHP, HTML/CSS and C# .NET development.

This blog

Basically I created this blog as my personal forum to post random nuggets of knowledge as well as my personal rants an ramblings. Perhaps you’ll find something interesting, helpful or maybe even valuable posted here, from time to time. Otherwise you’ll just see me ranting at the internet. I post about all kinds of random development and technology topics, really whatever interests me that day. I don’t post every day, but I try to write at least one article every few weeks.

If you want to keep updated on the random pieces of knowledge and ramblings that I post on this blog then take a moment and subscribe to my RSS feed.

You can also follow me on Twitter. I’m on other social networking sites, but Twitter is the only one I really try to keep up to date.

My obsessions

I am absolutely fixated on all things computing. Web development is my particular area of expertise, but I’ve done plenty of desktop development as well as networking. I can code in JavaScript, C#, PHP, Perl, HTML, CSS, XSLT, SQL, et al. Back in the day I even worked with Pascal and COBOL, but those don’t really count anymore do they.

Microsoft Windows is my desktop operating system of choice, I can get by on a Mac, but it really isn’t my style, I like the Windows interface better and I need to have real control over my computer. I used to own an iMac, but I ended up giving it to a friend because I never found a use for it. For servers I prefer Linux, well Ubuntu to be exact, but I’m more than proficient with Windows Server and Solaris.

I love gaming. I built my home desktop for the particular purpose of gaming. I’m interested in all kinds of games, everything from EVE Online to Team Fortress 2. I am proud to say that I kicked the World of Warcraft addiction three years ago now.

As well as the computer stuff I am a true armchair scientist. I love science, particularly theoretical physics and astronomy, probably a little too much Star Trek as a child.

I’m also a huge car nut.

Cars are awesome

Did I mention that I’m a fairly passionate car enthusiast? I’m not the kind of guy who would take out a loan to buy a car, so I never have the latest and greatest. But I’ve had several great sports cars, everything from my ’83 Toyota Celica to my current car, a ’91 Corvette. I love to drive, and enjoy doing my own work, when I have the time to spare.