Background
Some background information about myself. I come from Kerala the South-Western most state in India. I grew up in the capital city of Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram. I received my Baclelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from College of Engineering, Trivandrum.
I came to the US in 1994 for graduate studies. I did one quarter at Drexel University in Philadelphia. After the first quarter, I transferred to the Mechanical Engineering program at Iowa State University located in Ames. I worked as a Graduate Assistant (research and teaching) for Dr. G. I. Maldonado and graduated in December 1997.
After graduating, like a lot of other graduate students, I found employment as a Computer Consultant. My first employer was IMI Systems Inc. (now part of Ajilon), and worked on projects for them at Convergys in Cincinnati, and for IBM at BlueCross BlueShield in Chicago. I left IMI Systems in September 1999, and joined a startup web-solutions provider company NetQuotient. NetQuotient did not last very long in Chicago, and after spending a great time with NetQuotient working in Manhattan (and attending quite a few concerts at Metropolitan Opera) for New York Life, I joined Tribune Media Services as a Senior Applications Specialist/Core Tools in June 2000. I worked for TMS till the end of 2005.
Since 2006 I have been working for my own software development and consulting company Sans Pareil Technologies, Inc. (SPT). I have been concentrating mostly on open-source products and frameworks for SPT (see products for listing). I have also been heavily involved with the Chicago Java User Group for which I am serving as President.