About

My name is Don Burks. I am a CTO/software developer for a thriving SaaS startup based in Vancouver, BC. In one incarnation or another, I have been developing software for the web for 16 years. I have spent several years as a professional developer in Perl and PHP (that’s several years each) as well as many (15+) years doing standard HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

I live in Vancouver, BC though I originally grew up in Atlanta, GA. I am in my late 30′s, and am finding that age and wisdom really are connected. Whether it’s directly or inversely is something I’m still trying to figure out.

I have a fantastic Latina wife, someone who inspires me far more than I ever thought possible. Growing old (and wise) doesn’t seem so bad if it’s with her.

There are other accomplishments of mine. I am an acclaimed musician, having performed throughout the Southeastern US both in and with orchestras. I have published a book, Thirteen – Book One of the Crusader’s Tale, as well. Currently, I am working on a book(and accompanying screenplay) entitled Seventeen Days.

I juggle for fun, enjoy movies, am a huge hockey fan(Go Canucks!), love video games (PC & console), and have an enduring hope that one day I will get the opportunity to voluntarily jump out of a perfectly-working airplane. Ideally, there would be a parachute on my back when I did this. (That might be a deal-breaker)

I prefer Chrome over Firefox, Linux over Windows, vim over…well, any other editor, and Android over iPhone. I want one of those new iPads with the retina display, but probably won’t get one for a year or so. I prefer Coke to Pepsi, pork to beef, and WASD to arrow-keys.

I remember when the internet was young and the coders were old. I’ve been online, actively, in one form or another since 1984. I remember dialing into an elite BBS using my friend’s blazing 9600 baud modem on a Commodore 64. Yes, really. I was telnet’ing from Emory University in Atlanta, GA to multi-user sites in February 1990, and got my first e-mail account in September of that same year. I ‘m a dino.