If you haven't guessed from the domain name or the site title, my name is Henry Chong. I was born in the hot and humid city of Kuching, Malaysia, but moved to New Zealand when I was still a young impressionable child, and am proud to consider myself a New Zealander, now living in the metropolis that is Taipei, and soon moving to the United Kingdom. (As you would imagine, the question "where are you from" is a complicated one to answer).

I have two brothers - William, a professional writer, and Richard, a medical doctor, and a sister, Kimberley, who studied Asian Languages at Auckland University.

Having grown up around computers and being surrounded by music from an early age (again, this should be pretty obvious from the subtitle of the website), it only made sense that I would end up doing a conjoint degree from the University of Auckland in BSc/BMus, majoring in Computer Science and Composition. My education was likely a contributing factor in getting me my current job as a software developer for New Zealand's best tech company, Provoke Solutions.

A selection of technologies/concepts/languages that I have at least some knowledge of: Windows Phone, Orchard and Kentico CMS, Sharepoint, WCF, Silverlight, usability, human computer interaction, C#, Javascript, jQuery, CSS, HTML, T-SQL, XML, XSLT, Documentation, composition ...

I think the largest goal every programmer should have is keeping the user in mind - people are really the most important part of computers, and designing and programming with that in mind is what separates programs that work, and programs that get used. Most of it is common sense anyway, so there's no reason not to include a bit of HCI and UX in everything you do! I consider myself very fortunate to work in a company that shares this as one of its fundamental tenets.

In my spare time, I play video games (and have a soft spot for RPGs), and before I moved to Taipei, used to look after my cow mouse, ride my motorcycle, play the cello in a community string orchestra and the drums in a rock band called Dinosaur Club along with some friends I went to high school with. If you don't believe me, there is a picture below.