about

What's going on here?

This is my site. I'm Simon Allardice, a software developer, trainer, and writer based in Phoenix, Arizona.

Your name looks familiar. Why would I know you?

You may have read one of my books or viewed a CD-ROM. Perhaps you attended one of my classes at Interface Technical Training in Phoenix, or in previous years for Lynda.com at the Ojai Digital Arts Center or Stanford University's New Media Academy. Or saw me speak at a conferences like Flashforward, Macromedia UCON or chairing a Web Graphics session at SIGGRAPH. Or you may have come across my name in relation to primecondition.com, a website for creating MP3 workouts.

No, that's not it.

If you're really observant, I guess you could have seen my name as a contributor and technical editor for books like the Flash MX Bible, Flash MX ActionScript Bible or Flash MX 2004 for Dummies. I've also been in publications like the Wall Street Journal, Wired and Computer Graphics World.

Nope, I wouldn't touch any of those things with a ten-foot pole.

Well, I'm out of ideas. If you figure it out, let me know.

Arizona? Hmm. I've heard you speak. You don't sound like you're from Arizona.

No, I'm a diluted Scot. I've lived and worked in Edinburgh, Glasgow, the Shetland Islands, London, Almeria (Spain), Missouri, Southern California and Arizona. Consequently, my accent is a convoluted mish-mash that even Professor Henry Higgins couldn't place.

I saw you speak at [some conference]. You look like a bouncer. I'd have come up and said hi, but was worried you might hit me.

So I've been told. The likelihood of iminent ultraviolence is typically overestimated. Come up and say hi. Good topics for that first conversation: code, music, design, general geekery. Wordsmithery, from bad puns to iambic pentameter. Bizarre scandinavian death metal I may not have heard yet.

Bad topics: any sports or television: those will be short, short conversations indeed. They will embarrass us both.  

Where do you teach?

I teach at the spectacular Interface Technical Training in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. It's awesome. You should go.

What do you look like?

A photo of me in action from the terrific Brandon Sullivan. OMG, the drama, etc.