Chris was a biology major and outdoorsman. He is now a computer scientist and gumstix enthusiast who spends his days writing J2EE-based desktop and web applications and customizations for Oracle Applications.

What is your background?

I've been an outdoors guy all my life, spending a lot of my free time hiking and backpacking. I was a Biology major in school and planned on working for the US Forest Service, so I never really focused on Computer Science back then.

After getting married I realized that it was really going to be tough to live off a USFS paycheck, so I knew I needed to make a change. My wife is a graphic designer and at the time she was working for a startup company that wanted a website. She was never real big on coding so she got me hired to do the backend of the site. The job made me realize how much I enjoy programming, and I've been doing it ever since.

I currently spend my days writing J2EE based desktop and web applications, and customizations for Oracle Applications.

What started your interest in gumstix technology?

Around five years ago I was working with a small group of developers on a point-of-sale system based on Symbol PDAs. I'd just started using Linux that year and it was my first time doing any embedded programming. The project was all windows based, but it sparked my interest in embedded devices and gave me more reasons to like Linux. I started looking for some embedded development platform to tinker with and learn more, but everything was either so overpriced that it was out of my reach or was so outdated that I didn't want to mess with it. Then I found gumstix -- right price, free/open development kit, and running a newer kernel than what my desktop was -- exactly what I was looking for.

What current projects are you working on?

My main project is a navigation program that reads shapefile data on roads, water, elevation, etc. and creates custom topographic maps. It talks with a GPS to get position data and draw a map of the area. Think TomTom but for trails instead of roads.

What gumstix products are you using in the project?

The first version was based on a connex and GPSStix with a custom daughtercard I had fabbed for my LCD, but now I've moved it to use verdex with the Samsung display.

Why is gumstix technology the best solution for the project?

Small size, lots of expandability, and access to schematics for custom work.

What projects do you have planned for the future?

Where I live there is no city water and well water is heavily mineralized, so we have a cistern and water is hauled in by truck. The next project is to replace my wooden dipstick for the cistern with a gumstix based monitoring station so I know my water level, how fast I'm using it, etc.

Will gumstix technology be part of your future plans?

Of course!

Why?

Gumstix is a great platform and has a great user community. And the options just keep getting better.