Hi, I'm CJ and I'm a DIY'er! My day job is the Town Engineer for a mid-sized municipality.

I've been an gadget-holic since a kid, starting with the 1st portable CD player that Sony put out in 1984 (just in time for Van Halen), the D-50. The CD player itself was pretty similar to the ones today, but the battery pack was huge! It was large enough that it actually encased the whole CD player and had a shoulder strap with which you lugged it around... I was 12 and thought I was cool.



I started in programming in Basic as a kid with my first computer on my TI99-4A. I later moved into programming my HP 48GX in RPL and System RPL (with a language similar to a combination of LISP and FORTH). I ended up finishing my engineering degree and was 2 hours short of a Computer Science minor and learned Pascal, C, Assembly, etc.

I first started on RC in 1999 when I purchased my first somewhat configurable universal remote control, the Sony RM-AV2000. I quickly found myself limited by the lack of flexibility in the GUI and moved to the Pronto TS1000 when it was introduced.

The lack of discrete codes and power sensing moved me to learning to program the Niles Intellicontrol and later combining the flexibility of the TS1000 with the intelligence (!) of the Intellicontrol processor.

I installed my first whole-house music system, the Elan HD, in my last house and was able to set up a fairly nice 8 source, 10 A/V-zone system. When I moved into my new house about a year and a half ago, I finally had enough know-how to determine what I really wanted.

I have since installed an RTI system for my family room entertainment system and a Crestron system for whole-house A/V. I currently have the RTI equipment up 100%. I have the audio and HVAC portion of the Crestron system working well, but need to start on the video distribution side. I am also in the middle of installing a home theater in my basement.

I have seriously considered going into control system programming for my full-time job, but haven't yet made the leap.

CJ