About Me

My name is Byron Martin and I've been running this website since 1999, though for the first couple of years the domain was bfmartin.com. It's a hobby site to fill some niches.

Website

The Dilbert Strip Finder started back in 1999. I'm such a fan of the comic. I keep track of the words people search for and my biggest surprise is the lack of naughty words.

The restaurant review section was added in 2005 by a couple of mates and me. We've been going to Vietnamese restaurants for longer than I can remember and we decided one day to keep track of which ones we like best. After installing a blog package, Pho Ottawa was born. It has had many more readers than we thought a local review site would get.

Please notice that still there is no advertising or tip jar on the site. With all the sites out there wanting to make a buck, sometimes it's refreshing to see one that's different. As I said, it's a hobby site and my only costs are hosting and the domain name. And I've met many interesting people through it to make it all worthwhile.

Professional

I've been in the computer field for 25 years and have not "settled down" and specialised. Sys admin, developer, architect, security, support, and website admin are a few of my pursuits.

By day, I'm a consultant and have worked in the high-tech, finance and government sectors.

Personal

By night, I like to cook, read, hang with my cats, and occasionally drive for fun. And, of course, I'm totally dedicated to my significant other.

A few years ago, I took a leave of absence for a summer and was head chef at a fishing resort. That was fun! Some long days, though. People like to eat every day!

Tech

I'm a fan of Unix and Unix-like systems and usually have many desktops and servers networked in my home. Most of them are pre-owned and free. I first installed Slackware in 1993 and it became my primary OS in 1994. I had to purchase a computer specifically configured for it because hardware wasn't widely supported back then. These days, Ubuntu and its derivatives and OpenBSD do it for me.

Scripting languages have always been my favourite. I got into Perl before the camel book came out. Later, Ruby took over, and recently I've been dipping my toes into Erlang.

Contact me.