This is the central website of Matthew Walton, a software engineer based in Nottingham.
As my job implies, I like (and detest) computers. I'm a free software enthusiast and like to program, although never get as much of that done as I hope to. When you write (proprietary) software all day, it's difficult to consistently summon up the energy or enthusiasm to then work on open source software in the evening, especially with so many other things to do.
I read a lot, and like to write, including the annual insanity known as NaNoWriMo, where people from around the world attempt to complete a 50,000 word novel (each) during November. My own writing for the rest of the year is rather more sedate, and of significantly higher quality. NaNoWriMo serves me for coming up with plots, situations and learning how to just sit down and write. The rest of the year I work on quality and readability, and between the two I hope eventually to produce something publishable.
My other activities include computer games (I've been playing City of Heroes since it launched), playing the recorder (no it's not just for school children) and viola de gamba, singing, cooking and the odd bit of gardening. I also engage in a spot of roleplaying, usually either playing or GMing Paranoia over the Internet or in a local RPG group where the usual game is the Serenity RPG.
I make my living as a software engineer, so my primary skills lie in programming. I'm currently working mostly in C++ and Java with a bit of Perl, targetting Microsoft Windows and Sun Solaris 8 and 10 systems. The software I work on is generally heavily multithreaded and my understanding of concurrent programming has vastly improved since I started my current job in July 2007.
My education has led me into contact and some experience with Haskell, Epigram and Prolog, and I've also done some C# (with Mono for the slowly-gestating Paranoia Open Game System project), PHP and Pascal. I'm familiar with the GTK+ user interface toolkit's C, C++, Haskell and .NET bindings and have a working knowledge of SQL.
I have a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science from the University of Nottingham, and I'm a Sun Certified Java Programmer for Java 6.
My blog is hosted on my other domain. I might move it here eventually. It has much more content, and has had some actual effort put into its design. I still don't update it very much.
My LinkedIn profile is a more professional-life-oriented view of my experience.
I'm also on Facebook, but I don't add people as friends just for the sake of having a large network.