Marinos J. Yannikos
<mjy@pobox.com>
Vienna, Austria
Education & Work
I studied Computer Science at the TU Wien from October 1990 to January 1995. After getting the M.Sc. (Dipl.-Ing.) degree, I was employed by the Dept. for Programming Languages and Compiler Construction under a 4-year contract as a teacher and researcher. During this time and the last year of my C.S. studies, I also began studying Mathematics, Biology and Psychology, although the lack of time and necessity for other occupations prevented me from making much progress.

After leaving university for the real world, and after a nasty experience with one of those Internet "marketing" companies keen on selling projects that don't even exist yet and being kind with words but reluctant with payments, I decided to become a self-employed web developer and consultant - quite a change for an experienced assembly language programmer. In late 1999 I reluctantly turned down an offer to work in the games industry (for a subsidiary of EA in Florida) and while I was still pondering that decision, several investors contacted me with offers to fund a company around my price comparison website "Geizhals". The rest is history...

Leisure
Boo! I read too much,
sometimes I write uncontrollably,
I play games that are not en vogue,
I like running in plain clothes,
I'm pressing my luck when I'm inline-skating,
I wouldn't admit to listening to some of the music I like,
apparently I also starve plants as a hobby,
I have no choice but to stroke my cat when it chooses to sit on me,
I like travelling far, but I'd still rather walk than fly if I had the time.
I still have a leather-bound pen&paper organizer
and the only tool I can never find quickly is my sophisticated swiss army knife.
After all these jobs in computing, I'd really like to become a professional unpublished comics artist,
but my lack of discipline needs more cultivation first.
Projects & Links
  • STonX is probably what most people come here for.
  • DOSVNC, another Freeware project, helps you use old computers as modern "thin clients".
  • Geizhals finds low prices for computer hardware in Austria. Probably a good example for a project that started as a hobby and evolved into a fairly successful company with a business model that makes sense (and profit).
° ° °
Everyone loves links. Links turn the Web into a huge interconnected mess, so that today it almost doesn't matter where you click, you always end up in places you weren't looking for, but you always find something moderately interesting to read. The following links, however, are carefully selected and point to less-known sites that may be entertaining, useful and original:
photo.net opens web developer's minds. Ross Williams writes about Compression, Patents, CRCs. deoxy.org for Alternate Realities. Landover Baptist is America's Favorite Church. Read Tomalak's Realm if you can spare a few minutes every day.