This is the personal website of Shane McDonald, from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
About the website
I’ve created this website for two reasons.
The first reason is to have a place to record the solutions to computing problems that I have, so that I have a record of them, and so that other people can access them as well. I used to save this stuff in Google Docs, but by putting it on a website, everyone can access it.
The second reason is to give myself practice in different web technologies. This website runs on WordPress, so I’m getting some experience with using WordPress and various plugins.
About me
My name is Shane McDonald. I’m a retired computer programmer. I attended the University of Saskatchewan, being awarded a B.Sc. in Computational Science in 1984, and an M.Sc. in 1988. While in school, I was a member of the U of S Huskies wrestling team. That worked out pretty well for me, and I still consider myself a wrestler, despite not having been on the mat for years and years! I also did some coaching, 5 years at the elementary school level and 2 years at the high school level. I also coached youth soccer while my son played. I’m still a runner, having completed 9 marathons, and I’ve done a number of triathlons, but none recently.
Professionally, I worked for a number of companies in the high tech field. I worked for Develcon Electronics, a data communications company, developing embedded software. I then worked at the University of Saskatchewan Computational Science Department, where I was a Unix system administrator. I left there to work at SED Systems, a satellite communications technology company, where I mostly worked on in-orbit satellite testing systems. After that, I worked at PMC-Sierra, a fabless semiconductor company, where I built test systems to verify chip designs, and I also worked on porting Linux to run on their MIPS-based processors (I’ve got code accepted in the Linux kernel!). Finally, I took a teaching job at Saskatchewan Polytechnic, where I taught a wide range of subjects: introductory Java programming, HTML and CSS coding, Javascript programming, PHP programming, C programming, systems analysis and design, Linux system administration, and Microsoft Office use. I’m retired now.
I am married to a fantastic woman, and we have three awesome kids. We like to travel, and when we’re not doing that, I still like to do computer stuff. And, I’m a big New York Mets fan! The picture above is of me pitching at the Mets Fantasy Camp. Not that I’m a pitcher; I usually play 2nd base, but I have pitched a couple of innings. My fastball topped out at 42 mph!
If you need to contact me, please use the form on the Contact Us page.
