A Little Bit About Myself I went to Texas State Technical College in Waco, Texas where I majored in CST (Computer Science Technology). I started learning COBOL on the Mainframe, but then I saw the IBM PC and I said to myself, “This is where it is going!” I don’t have to wait for an operator to compile my job and tell me when to come and get a printout and then have to work through the errors in the program and spend hours waiting. I saw the usefulness of seeing something immediately printed out while you were sitting at the keyboard.

Well, I was right! We are in 2007 and look at how many homes now have wireless networks! In some families everyone has a computer! Wow what a change in 20 years time!

After I finished school, I started teaching software at a school in Houston, I became very good and very bored at that. I realized that I had the gift for gab, so I ended up working as a Help Desk Analyst for about another 5 years. I became one of the best at that. I worked at major Oil and Gas companies in the Houston, Texas area and I even worked at The Dow Chemical Company helping over 6,000 users on 3 different computer systems!

I learned how to fix computer hardware. Usually on site at the client’s desk. Back when Windows 95 was popular I helped roll out over 1,000 PC’s at Temple Inland in Lufkin, Texas which is one of the biggest lumber producers now in the United States. I got to see how they used computers to run and keep the temperature at the desired level in the Boiler Room. Computers to me were cool! You could do almost anything with them if you had the right software to work with.

I then was asked to work on a Y2K project. Someone learned that I knew Lotus 123 very well, which I did. I pretty much had the command line memorized! I was asked to convert 8 years of Lotus 123 spreadsheets into Excel which I did in one year to avoid the supposed scare of the Y2K glitch! Believe me if we had not prepared it could have been much, much worse! From there I learned other languages including Visual Basic, Access VBA and even more Excel VBA.

I now work for a major mortgage company creating SQL Server Reporting Services reports using Microsoft Visual Studio. I fix reports when they break for over 2,000 users on the companies Intranet.

I soon realized that with my busy lifestyle and haven been single except for the last 3 years that I have been married to my wife Lisa that most parents don’t have time to be the Geek that I am, so I wanted to create a reference book (a starting point if you will) for parents and their kids to learn where to start surfing for specific things they are looking for.

My other concern was for the safety of the kids with so many predators lurking out there we must all make a concerted effort to know what our kids our doing on the computer.

My years of computer experience and desire for a safe haven reference type of book has led me to write for you “2007 Cool Things For Kids On The Internet”. Please enjoy. If you find some really, really kewl links that I don’t know about please email them to kdnichols@2007coolthings.com .

Who knows I may do another book next year, and maybe even put up some new pages for everyone! Happy Surfing and Enjoy!

 

Please note:
2007 Cool Things, Available as a printed book, Ideal for teachers, Tutors, And parents!
Available now as an ebook download. Printed version available soon."