Brandon Konkle

About Me

Ever since my first taste of the internet in 1996, I've wanted to be a part of creating the Web. I'd always been fascinated by technology and programming, and I'd already gotten my feet wet creating a simple adventure game engine in BASIC. The immediacy of the Web grabbed me - fresh information could be distributed quickly and easily and new forms of communication were now possible. The possibilities of the Web are continually expanding, and I strive to be on the forefront of this exciting technology that has changed our lives forever.

Experience

I started out with the Django web framework in early 2008 on the 0.96.1 release. I was drawn to it because I love its emphasis on concepts like DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) and modularity, the clean and organized project structure it encourages, and its focus on transparency and avoiding hidden "magic".

I currently work full-time with Lincoln Loop, a full-service web development studio that specializes in building sites and applications using Django. In the past, I've enjoyed taking on consulting projects in my free time. My development effort is now fully focused on Lincoln Loop projects, however.

I previously worked with Panlocal Media, LLC, where I handled backend development and system administration. I transitioned the Django site I primarily worked with (PegasusNews.com) from Ubuntu 8.04, lighttpd, perlbal, and Apache to Nginx and uWSGI for greater performance and better resource management. In addition, I occasionally worked with Seize the Deal, a Ruby on Rails site that offers daily group purchasing deals. Prior to that I worked at Fidelity Investments as an Associate Software Engineer, handling production support and minor enhancement development for Java, Cold Fusion, and shell-script applications hosted on Solaris and AIX Unix servers.

Open Source

I've used Linux actively since 2005, and I use other open source software every day both in my work and my personal life. The power of the development community is amazing, and I try to give back to that community as much as possible. Below are some of the open source projects I've started or contributed to.

Personal Life

I've been married to my wonderful wife Barbara since December of 2003, and on February 16th, 2010, we were blessed by the birth of our first child - a son we named Elliot David. We live north of Dallas, and enjoy attending Denton Bible Church nearby.

In my free time I love spending time with my family; programming (yes, I'm probably addicted); reading science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels; playing video games; enjoying television shows - especially ones with extensive character development and complex storylines that unfold in arcs; watching a variety of different movies; and listening to various subgenres of metal.