Patrick McNeill

I'm a software developer, photography enthusiast, home automation experimenter, and whippet owner. I spend my days working at Berklee Online, where I build software for teaching music online. When not at work, I also make software, such as Patternism, a knitting pattern app for iPads that I wrote for my wife.

I'm an amateur photographer that mainly does dog sports, such as lure coursing (that's Rhaegar up above). I occasionally branch out into portraits, though. I don't have anything online at the moment, aside from at Facebook, but it's coming eventually.

I'm a gadget lover, which is a curse for a photographer. My shelf is packed with lenses, flashes, and other bits and bobs. My latest gadget is my house. I've added Z-wave control to a bunch of lights and hard-wired several sensors to a Raspberry Pi. That's running a Node.js program of mine, Home Brain (I'm not a good namer of things!) to control everything. The next step is thermostat and sprinkler control.

I'm a planner. I have a list of projects I want to do, any one of which is doable, but most will never see the light of day. The exigencies of being an adult, I guess. A photo gallery is one such item, as is a scoring system for dog races. I also intend to set up a blog and write up my tinkerings, if only to improve my writing.

I'm a telecommuter. I've worked out of my house since 2002 and think I've mastered that art. The biggest key to sanity, I've found, is to have a quick distraction. For me, it was pool for a while, then my dogs. Whippets are the perfect work-from-home creature: they sleep all day, often right next to me, but then wake right up when I need a break. If you have questions about video conference lighting, I'm your man.