Joe n bloe

I'm Joseph N. Hall.

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Education and Professional Qualifications BCS This user has a Bachelor of Computer Science degree. File:Programming-republic-of-perl.gif This user is a professional Perl instructor.

Computer Nerdity C-N This user has written C compilers, or tweaked C runtime libraries in Assembly language. Template:User perl-4 C++-4 This user is an expert C++ programmer. Java-4 This user is an expert Java programmer. [[Pascal]]-4 This user is an expert [[Pascal]] programmer. SQL-3 This user is an advanced SQL programmer. [[Smalltalk]]-2 This user is an intermediate [[Smalltalk]] programmer. [[FORTRAN]]-2 This user is an intermediate [[FORTRAN]] programmer.

Grammar Nits they he or she This user considers the singular they to be substandard English usage. by This user does not use the passive voice. which & that This user knows how to use which and that correctly. “,;:’ This user is a punctuation stickler. A, B, and C This user prefers the serial comma. its This user is a native speaker of Itsekiri. their there they're This user thinks that there are too many people who don’t know that they're worse than their own children at spelling! your you're This user thinks that if your grammar is incorrect, then you're in need of help. ’s Thi's user know's that not every word that end's with s need's an apostrophe and will remove misused apostrophe's from Wikipedia with extreme prejudice. US This user uses American English. AIM-Able This user understands AIM talk perfectly well, but does not seriously use it. Ever.

I'm the author of Effective Perl Programming.

I was also known in the mid 1970s as a child prodigy and a survivor of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

I currently live in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the past, I've lived in Fairbanks, Alaska, Chandler, Arizona (near Phoenix), locations near Philadelphia, Nashville, the Research Triangle area, and the Appalachian Mountains in northwestern North Carolina. I've experienced temperatures of 122 degrees Fahrenheit in Chandler and minus 55 Fahrenheit in Fairbanks - a 177 degree range!

Notes from the "Child Prodigy" Period

Warning: vanity in this section. I was known as "Joe Hall" in my childhood.

• Tomorrow with Tom Snyder, television interview, 1975
• ABC Evening News, news feature, November 21, 1975
• "Prodigy from Plumtree," Allen Rankin, Reader's Digest, August 1976 - this article was widely reprinted in international editions and I received thousands of letters, many addressed simply to "Joe Hall, Plumtree, North Carolina" (I haven't lived there for decades, so this address no longer works ...)
• Numerous other articles, including some that were nationally syndicated (I may have references later)
• 1977 visit to the White House - see page 4
• Met a few notable figures, including Benjamin Spock, John Stapp, NC Governor Jim Hunt, and astronaut Michael Collins
• Spoke before the North Carolina state legislature in favor of the creation of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics
• Entry in The Book of Lists #2 (see "Joe Hall" in index)

Education

• North Carolina School of the Arts, 1977-1978 at age 11-12, 7th grade, piano
• Avery County High School, 1978-1980, high school sophomore-senior
• North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics 1980-1982, high school junior and senior
• Warren Wilson College, Math/English, 1984
• Villanova University, Electrical Engineering, 1985
• Clarion Science Fiction Writing Workshop, Summer 1985
• North Carolina State University, 1988-1991, B.S., Computer Science

I was the youngest person ever to attend NCSA at the time, and the first person ever to attend both NCSA and NCSSM.

I had a great bunch of classmates at Clarion, including Geoffrey Landis, Mary Turzillo, Bill Shunn, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Bob Howe, Kim Fryer, and Resa Nelson. Kim was working at Addison-Wesley when I proposed Effective Perl Programming and was my first editor there.

Miscellaneous

My Sandbox