Matt Hovany
From MattHovany
Matthew Hovany (1981 - ) is an American-born computer programmer narrowly regarded as the greatest programmer of the 21st century.
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Biography
Early Years
Little is known about Matt Hovany's earlier years. Records reveal that he grew up in a North Suburb of Chicago, Illinois. The oldest of 3 children, his achievements appeared impressive if only because his younger siblings were yet to overshadow his accomplishments in the following years. At age 6, Matt was introduced to the Commodore 64 by his father, beginning a lifetime of anti-social technology related interests.
College Years
Matt Hovany matriculated at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the late 20th Century. Matt majored in Computer Engineering in the University's College of Engineering. Several years of college were devoted to enhancing his graphic design and video gaming skills. The majority of his travels during these years involved the 168 mile trip to his family's home every other week to have his laundry done. In the winter of his senior year he travelled to Los Angeles, California and discovered a land without snow, speed traps, or toll roads.
Post College
After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, Matt returned back to Chicago where he was hired full time by a leading web design company that had employed him for the previous 3 years while at college. This position had given him experience with web application programming, web server administration, network administration, and graphic design. In 2004 Matt had moved to Los Angeles along with a former highschool classmate and college roommate. Eventually Matt would be hired by one of the largest produce distributors in California as a server administrator for their Linux based ERP server. This position would allow Matt the freedom to learn new programming languages and take on projects of personal interest. During the following 2 years gasoline prices in Los Angeles would approach $3.40/gallon and Matt would pursue freelance programming work to compensate. In 2006, one of these freelance clients would offer Matt a full time position as a software developer in Santa Monica.
Untimely Death
(Article Pending Research)
Skills
Computers
Starting at age 6, Matt Hovany would acquire many computer skills during the days spent not playing baseball, not camping, and not attending extra curricular clubs. Matt would acquire skills in MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows (3.1 through Server 2008, Windows 7), Linux, and OS X. In his time as a web designer he would attain professional level Photoshop skills. During his time in college and subsequent employment Matt would go on to learn skills in programming languages and frameworks such as: x86/IA-32 Assembly, ASP, ASP.Net, C++, C#, CSS, HTML, Java, JavaScript, Lisp, MVC.Net, OCaml, OpenGL, PHP, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Sitecore CMS, SQL (MSSQL and MySQL), Visual Basic Script and XML.
Spoken Languages
From middle school through highschool Matt would take 6 years of Spanish, which still proved insufficient to get around certain areas of Los Angeles. Matt would later take 3 years of Japanese in college, overwriting parts of the brain previously devoted learning Spanish.
Interests & Influences
Literature
Matt Hovany's favorite book was George Orwell's 1984 because he enjoyed modern day Newspeak and Double Speak. Also, he was paranoid and has much to hide. Matt was fascinated by Aldus Huxley's Brave New World because it has some good ideas on what to do with all those Gammas and Deltas. The third book he ever managed to finish is the entire Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Collection, since he agreed with how ridiculous the universe is.
Music
Matt Hovany listened to Drum n' Bass, Trip-Hop, most classic rock before 1972, and selected Reggae and Ragga.
Moving Picture Stories
Matt Hovany's favorite movies included the Leave Your Job Trifecta: Fight Club, American Beauty, and Office Space. He also enjoyed British heist movies like Snatch and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, but definitely not Revolver. [ed. Come on Guy Ritchie, what were you thinking?] Matt also believed that A Clockwork Orange, The Fifth Element, Children of Men are three of the best movies ever.
Electric Picture Radio
Matt Hovany's television based influences included: Boondocks, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Ali G, Family Guy, Lost (i know), Penn & Teller's Bullshit, Sealab 2021, South Park, Jericho, Frisky Dingo, Tom Goes to the Mayor, Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Metalocalypse, Moral Orel, Squidbillies, The Venture Bros, 30 Rock, The Office (US Version of course), and anything ever broadcast on The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, or National Geographic Channel. (suck it The Learning Channel)
Physical Activities
Although repeatedly proven useless to team based sports such as basketball, baseball, football, and fútbol, he would sporadically show interest in other sports. Matt enjoyed track and field, skydiving, camping, target shooting, skiing, and responsible driving. He also went snowboarding one time, nearly getting killed, but hoped to go some more next season.
