Mike J. wired us from his home/office in Illinois, eager to divulge his life to Nerdly compadres near and far. Set apart from the general population by an intense interest in things "completely under whelming", following is some titillating information we uncovered about this upstart from the Midwest.

NW: What qualifies you as a Nerd of Distinction?
MJ: Hmm… perhaps my suave demeanor? More likely, it's my interest in things completely under whelming. I have a "take-apart-the -toaster mentality", which I apply to software. I think my biggest [nerdly] distinction is being able to maintain the syntax and continuity of my code for six to ten thousand lines, while [remaining] completely unable to spell properly!

NW: What kind of work do you do?
MJ: First, I'm a Daddy… I know that's campy (sorry). I do mostly Internet-related stuff. I write software, in everything from Delphi and C++ to VB and ASP. I also help companies sit down and figure out what the hell they are doing. You'd be surprised by how many companies see the possibilities of the Internet, use it daily, but actually have no idea how it works. It all just started as a hobby. I'm just waiting for the right opportunity to apply my degree.

NW: What kinds of equipment do you use at work?
MJ: I have several frankenmachines on a 10/100 Ethernet network in my home office. I still haven't broken down and bought a [commercial] machine: I have too many spare parts with which to build several [systems] when I need them. I believe we tend to run in the 166-range right now. Most of my software development is remotely based, so it doesn't have to run on my machine. I just have to make sure it works over the wire!

NW: Describe you worst programming disaster… How did you resolve it? What did you learn from it?
MJ: We were re-engineering a piece of software to use with Oracle. We bought a nice little set of components that would play nice with the DB on a low level, and found out too late that the components ONLY talked to the database, and didn't handle that little bit of talking to the data-aware controls on the screen. I spent I-don't-know-how-many-hours straight writing a series of components that would handle the data-aware bit - nasty, nasty, nasty! It worked enough to pass muster. Lesson learned? Try to evaluate and buy components when you are NOT on a project. That way you can learn how they work and how to use them.

NW: What do you do for just plain old fun?
MJ: Play with my kids. And we've started gardening. After the kids and wife go to sleep, I tend to code. I've been writing my own relational database as well as my Pascal Server Pages stuff.

NW: Who is your Nerd Role Model?
MJ: I have several people I consider to be mentors. My role model is the anonymous coder who creates some monstrous feat of code, then gives it away.

NW: Where do you want to be five years from now?
MJ: I'd like to be working from an office within walking distance from my house, insanely rich to the point where I can just write software from 8:00 to 12:30. Or I'd like to be living on the moon, hopefully in wired habitat.

NW: How do you want to be remembered?
MJ: I think [my obit] would read like this: Mike J., mean old coot, still pinching butts at 150, loved by wife and children. A bit of a nerd who actually thought his job was play… how he would rave on for hours about PC's and E-Commerce…

Does Mike J. sound like someone you know? Maybe yourself, hidden away in a tiny cubicle, glued to your keyboard, dying to be discovered? Crawl out of that rut and submit nominations to Nerd of the Week… you or someone you know (love, envy, abhor, stalk) could become our next featured star!