I reside in Cary, North Carolina with my wife and her two sons. My daughter spends school holiday breaks here with us as well.
I work in communications for a major equipment vendor helping define international standards for multimedia and IPTV. My current assignment is working on developing architecture and standards for IMS-based IPTV equipment, primarily through my involvement with ATIS IIF and the Open IPTV Forum. Previously, I was involved in architecture, design and standards development for media gateway controllers and was heavily involved in the development and standardization of the H.248/Megaco protocol in the ITU-T. I was editor of H.248.1 and the H.248 Sub-series Implementors' Guides for several years, and authored a substantial percentage of the packages in existence today. I was granted a US Patent on one of my inventions related to H.248 in 2010.
In my leisure time, I enjoy spending time with my family and I am involved in a number of activities. I enjoy baseball, both watching and coaching my step-sons, and I recently started playing again after a "short" 21-year hiatus. I also have significant umpiring experience from the youngest kid-pitch ball up through high school varsity. With my wife, daughter and step-sons, I enjoy learning karate, where I am currently a brown belt in the Okinawan Shōrin-ryū discipline. I play ice hockey several times a week, where I am a goalie. My wife and I are currently researching our family histories and the histories of the localities in which our relatives lived, and that research has resulted in several entries on Wikipedia. My wife and I also enjoy listening to live Irish pub tunes at one of our local pubs on Friday nights.
I enjoy studying meteorology and astronomy as a hobby, and I still cling to my childhood dreams of being an astronaut -- even though my asthma disqualifies me from service.