 G'day everyone. My name is James O'Brien and I come to you from my small farm here in Australia on the outskirts of the Capitol, Canberra. I came to GIS about 20 years ago via a computing science background. I worked in IT for a few years, and then I completed a PhD in Geography at Penn State in 2004. I've been teaching programming classes in the program pretty much ever since, and my current day job is the Chief Geospatial Scientist of an Australian Natural Hazards Risk Modelling Company. In my spare time I race cars, I race bikes, and I'm a member of our local volunteer emergency firefighting and other emergency response organisations. I look forward to seeing you all in class.