About Me

I am Robert Lerner. I only said my name there for SEO reasons. Now let me tell you what Robert Lerner does... First off, he's a PHP developer and web security specialist living in, around, or about Chicago's South Suburbs (like I'd use Google Maps API to show you my house!), for the past 19 years, I've been writing applications that occured to me as a good time to write*, or ones that my employer has decided will make them money, and thus, make me money*. You may wonder how somebody who is 27 years old can have that many years of experience? Well, in order for me to follow the corporate "Past, Present, Future" paradigm, I'll elaborate on that more below...

Past

At the age of seven, my dad helped me set up an old 8088 computer with QBasic, and a few old Apogee games that it could handle. I created many small programs with just IF, INPUT, PRINT, and LPRINT. I was extremely pleased that I could develop my own applications, and went on to work on various programs in QBasic. I developed a game very similar to Scott Miller's Kroz, but enhanced it with a map editor, and multiplayer using a null modem cable across multiple computers. I also recreated Sim City, however that application was only ASCII based. It also allowed you to sell cities to other "Mayors" via a null modem cable. I developed subroutienes that handled custom fonts, allowed you to use a joystick as a mouse, and applied these to the beginning of a DOS-based GUI application.

Present

Fast-forward to the present, and have taken on a whole new respect for programming. I still use Microsoft's Visual Basic to develop applications for Windows, however I also expanded my skills to include xHTML, CSS, PHP, and SQL. I believe that following the W3C's standards for a reliable web page is critical to success, and have an utmost respect for internet security. I am in the process of building all the sites in my portfolio, and I attempt to spread security awareness through my security articles (1, 2, 3, and 4), as well as through this site.

I currently hold certifications from ExpertRating.com in XHTML 1.0, CSS, and PHP5, with expert-level distinction in XHTML. I am also attending night classes at Joliet Junior College for Web Design and Administration, and hold a GPA of 4.0.

Future

Continuing my education, I'd like to eventually earn a Masters in Computer Science, and become a day-time developer, night time instructor focused on helping others create and deploy secure, efficient, and well designed software.

Oh yea, and be a billioniare too.