About Me
About Me
My name is Bill Woodward. I live in Austin, TX with my lovely wife, Kelly, and our four children, Matt, Aubrey, Carlisle, and Delaney.
Professionally, I’m working as a software developer at Hewlett-Packard, primarily doing development work in Java/Java EE, but I’m also interested in dynamic languages, particularly Python and Ruby, and the proliferation of web frameworks developed in and around them. For the last year, I’ve been using the Scrum development methodology for planning, as well as working with XP development practices (TDD, FitNesse for recording testable requirements, simple architectures, etc.) . Recently, I’ve been doing some personal development in Ruby and Rails. I’m particularly interested in dynamic languages (JRuby and Jython) running on the Java JVM. In particular, JRuby is very impressive. Unfortunately, the JRuby on Rails JEE deployment options don’t seem to be enterprise ready yet, but they seems to be maturing quickly.
Personally, in addition to being generally busy as a father and husband, I study Okinawan Goju-Ryu karate at Austin Okinawan Karate (although the class I attend is actually in Round Rock). I also bought a digital SLR camera at the end of 2006 and have been trying to become a better photographer, and not just a point-and-shooter. I enjoy movies and have taken great pleasure in the last few years, as my kids have gotten older, in introducing them to some of my older favorites — Alien, Blade Runner, Soylent Green, The Matrix, Die Hard, Terminator, etc., etc. I also enjoy cooking, but am not that crazy about cleaning, which is a constant source of annoyance to my wife.