ACADEMIC & RESEARCH
Since 2012 I have been taking business courses at UC Berkeley's HaaS School of Business toward a Certificate of Business Excellence to keep my business learnings fresh from days gone by of entrepreneurship and complementary business degree to my CS degree from Carleton University.
I graduated in the top 3 of my computer science (BCS) class in 2004 and received a medal for outstanding academic achievement. I went on to be sponsored for my MCS for which I focused on network security and algorithms. My MCS Thesis is available to download as a PDF. Here's also its accompanying download of the modified Snort source code or just view or clone it from my GitHub.
I have one "official" research paper published and presented at SIGCOMM 2009 PRESTO Workshop: Rapid Service Creation using the JUNOS SDK. These days I speak at too many conferences and events to count.
oenology
I am a trained sommelier since 2009 and have enjoyed visiting hundred of vineyards, wineries, breweries, etc. Some highlights other than this 1982 Chateau Mouton-Rothchild include visits to:
Bordeaux area: Mouton-Rothchild, Latour, Margaux, Haut-Brion, Palmer, Pape-Clément, Chateau La Gaffeliere, L'Evangile and Pomerol area, as well as many more.
Germany: Weingut Reichsrat von Buhl and of course Oktoberfest :)
Italy: Tuscan countryside and Enoteca di Fonterutoli
USA: Too many to count including Ridge Montebello, Vérité, Opus One, Joseph Phelps, Pride Mountain, Vine Cliff, Viader, Stag's Leap Cellars, Domaine Drouhin, Domaine Serene, Archery Summit, and of course the Pebble Beach Food and Wine Show.
Australia: Yarra Yering, Coldstream Estate, Oakridge, Stonier, and Paringa Estate.
Canada: Stratus, Megalomaniac, Tawse, Hidden Bench, 30 Bench, Southbrook, Fielding, Orofino, Le Vieux Pin, Tantalus, and many more.
Jersey/UK: If you're in Jersey (the island, not NJ), there is a picturesque little winery to visit with wine and other local specialties like black butter.
Beer: Check out your local Whole Food Market's bars for some good stuff! I like the Hitachino's ... Also I lived in Belgium for a year, so yeah ;)
Whiskey: I still need to visit some Japanese spots, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Jameson in Dublin, and would highly recommend it.
Cognac: The cognac houses transforming Ugni Blanc with years and love and alchemy north of Bordeaux are a treat, but my brother got us the hookup to privately tour Remy Martin's Louis XIII cellars, home to elite 100+ year old cognacs that start from $3000/bottle! I invented a new drink mixing it with Dom: The Louis Royale. I’m also the proud owner of a bottle of Louis XIII Black Pearl AHD.
Yoga
Yoga is a passion of mine. It keeps my head straight and helps me to deal with life's challenges off the mat. I've been practicing since 2005 and became a certified yoga teacher in 2014. More...
extracurricular skills...
I love to play the guitar and cook. While my guitar skills are decent, my chefing skills are superb because I have passion and practice since I was a just boy. For more, check out my resume.