Tech Whimsy

Welcome to Tech Whimsy

My name is Scott MacHaffie. I live in Tigard which is just outside Portland, Oregon, with my wife and our twin boys.

I learned to program 25 years ago. I’ve been getting paid to program for the past 18 years. I have a B.S. in Computer Science from University of Washington and an M.S. in Computer Science from Portland State. I have studied human-computer interactions and user interface design for 15 years.

I have specialized in working on graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for scientific, engineering, and technical applications. I currently work on Maestro, the GUI for chemistry applications at Schrodinger, Inc. My first internship was working on a chemistry GUI for Tektronix, in the Computer-Aided Chemistry (CAChe) group. It’s a small world.

I am also the author of the forthcoming O’Reilly book Palm and Treo Hacks. Hopefully, I will get to do some talks or demos around town when it comes out. Currently, it looks like the book will be out at the end of October or early November. But what do I know–I’m only the author.

I will be writing about programming, GUI design, Python, Palm OS, Gaelic, Irish history, and anything else I can fit in here.

Welcome!