About the Edge of the Wedge

I look after the Civil and Geospatial products for AEC Systems in Australia.

I moved from Ireland to Australia in 2000 and, like many before me, got to like the good lifestyle and have ended up staying. I worked with a Survey company (using Land Desktop) for a while before seeing an add by a major CAD company looking for someone who was into AutoCAD, specifically the Land Desktop version. I’d been a Cad Manager in a company in Ireland for 4 years beforehand and had often thought about this kind of opportunity so it suited me very well. AEC Systems had only just started getting into the Civil business - I got the job and over the years the Map/Mapguide/Civil 3D side of things has become my baby.

The business has now grown considerably - it was one of the newer staff members who finally convinced me to get into blogging. I was not too motivated at first but quickly got interested in PHP and mySQL. The fact that they can both be used with Mapguide is a great bonus…

Hobbies etc..

Aside from messing around with various software packages, I still do a bit of juggling. I got heavily into it when I was studying Civil Engineering in University, mainly because the founder of the juggling club was also studying Civil Engineering. He identified me as a potential clown and got me inducted to what he called the “Jester’s Guild".

It’s a strangely addictive thing and surprisingly mathematical in the pattern variations. I’ve been to many juggling festivals in different parts of the world and noticed that there are a lot of IT/Tech people into it - not as performers usually but as people enjoying a bit of mental bubble gum (a combination of Causal Diagrams and Braid Theory… google ’siteswap’ for more info).

The photo above is me juggling toilet plungers in my mother’s kitchen back in those Uni days. My sister was home visiting and when she saw the poster on the wall with ‘we are all god’s children’ in the background, she decided it was too poetic a moment to not capture on camera.

Aside from all this, Aussie has the whole world of outdoor activities available, including snorkeling/diving in the Barrier Reef. When you go there, make sure to pick the boat with the photographer aboard. They bring an underwater camera with the biggest flash you’ve ever seen so the photos come out amazing. The Dr Evil pose above is actually a real photo taken by one of these professionals. They shoot all the surreal reef and fish as well and will sell you a CD of the whole lot for not too many $
(this one was actually an AutoDesk Channel Summit a few years ago)