Q. Who aren't you?

A. Good question. Read my disclaimer to find out.

Q. Who are you?

A. My name is Tod Hilton. First and foremost, I'm a father...the most important thing in my life. Moving on [and probably the reason you even made it here], I am a software developer in test [yes, a tester] at Microsoft in Office. I cut my teeth on software development with .NET for a few years [2005 & 2006] working on internal web applications with SQL backends for the Windows Live Security team in Operations. I really enjoyed it, but wanted to work on a product we ship...hence the move to Office in 2007. Before that I was a systems engineer [since 1999] and worked with NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows 2003, SQL Server 7.0, SQL Server 2000, IIS 5.0, IIS 6.0, DNS, WINS, Batch scripting (.cmd), VBScript and a few other technologies I'm certainly forgetting at the moment. I was basically a jack-of-all-trades that just got the shit fixed when it was busted.

In my spare time [what there is of it] I enjoy goofing off with my silly daughter, working out at Gold's Gym, my Xbox 360, playing with my [dirty & stinky] dogs, snowboarding, golfing, motorcycles, football (go Seahawks!), hiking, trap-shooting, movies, reading, vacations to warm sunny beaches, home projects and playing around with new technologies.

The last one is why I created this site and blog...not only is it my day job to develop software, but it's also my hobby. I spend quite a bit of time outside of work reading and learning about developing software because I find it so interesting. I'm a lucky person that I get paid for doing my hobby all day long.

Q. Why have this site?

A. I started off with a blog over at Live Spaces simply because I wanted to try out the service when it was first released in 2004. I've always enjoyed writing and found that I was a natural 'blogger.' After awhile I found out that a lot of searchers were stumbling across my Space when looking for answers to VBScript, T-SQL, C# and other questions I had posted answers to. Not that I'm all that smart, but I'm pretty good at finding answers [right or wrong is a different topic] and I like to share those answers when I find them [or figure them out]. Live Spaces is a great service, but I found that I wanted more freedom and customizability then an out-of-the-box service so I purchased the domain dirtyDogStink.com, loaded up dasBlog and the rest is history [recorded right here for your convenience].

Q. What is dirtyDogStink?

A. Does it really matter? Actually, there is a story to the name. Back in November of 2001 when Xbox Live first came out I needed a gamertag and of course I wanted something unique. Well, I like to keep my crew of canines clean, especially since they're part of the family and are frequently inside with me. Well, when I don't bathe them for awhile they always end up with the 'dirty dog stink.' Hence a gamertag [and site name] were born. Interestingly enough, it has been quite a topic for conversation in the many hours I've spent on Xbox Live.