About VB Explorer

Hi, I'm Ian Ippolito, the creator of Planet Source Code.com, and RentACoder.com.  Unlike those sites...this site is not my original brainchild, but was originally created by Burt Abreu and Soren Christsen.    Burt found himself in the financial hole that many sites find themselves in as I write this (mid 2002)...with monthly expenses exceeding advertising revenues.  So that his dream would live on, he asked me to take over the site.    I think Burt's story is rather inspiring, so rather than writing about myself, I am leaving his story here.  If you want to learn more about me, you can do so from my bio at Planet Source Code.

About Burt Abreu

November 1997

Hi. My name is Burt and while I swore I'd never do this, I do get the occasional question about myself and I figured it would be a chance to set some goals for the coming year; I don't imagine you come here to admire me so I'll keep it brief :-). Until April 1997 I was toiling away at my retail management job for a large chain of pet stores here in Florida. I'd often dreamed, and talked about how one day I'd become a programmer. Well, time went by and I just couldn't seem to get the time to follow up on it. One day my brother, who owns Cyberphilia-a cutting edge internet programming company, sent me a refurbished 386SX. Soon after I began studying some programming books and I completed a home study course on computer programming and finished about a year later.

While this helped I really didn't have the knowledge to program for a living, and it just seemed there wasn't enough time to study between jobs. I prayed for some guidance and asked the big guy for help. Well he answered my prayers, though if I'd known how he was going to do it I might not have asked so hard. In April I damaged three discs in my back and underwent some major surgery. I spent about four months in bed and another two in therapy. I don't know about you, but as an adult I don't often have free time, now I had almost 6 months of study time! Trapped in bed and bored to tears, my wife dragged the computer keyboard and mouse to the bed and purchased a copy of VB5. With the help of some books I taught myself the little I know; I also taught myself enough HTML to create this site. Not bad for a guy who before April had never even been on the internet.

Since I can't do any more heavy physical work I began looking for a desk job. The prayers kicked in and I landed an entry level programming job at the local university. I started October 1st and am recieving training in COBOL and some other legacy languages and tools. The big plus is that I get to study free at the university and hopefully, will finally learn enough Visual Basic and other languages, to create something besides the very simple lottery number generator type programs I've done so far. My advice to you? One beginner to another; study, work hard, write programs constantly, ask for help and help others as your skills allow and if it doesn't clash with your view of the universe, ask the big guy for help -He listens.

November 1998

I figured it was time to bring you up to date on the new developments in the life of this sites creator. I left the original "About Me" information above, since I have received so much positive mail from sharing my story. Many people have told me that my story gave them hope or shared stories of their own most more challenging than my own. Since hope is such a precious gift and often hard to find, I decided to leave the original information.

Several months after I wrote the story above I found myself struggling a bit at my job at the university. With no 'real' programming skills and almost 21 years out of high school I found myself in intensive training with several degree holding college graduates. While I managed to keep up for the most part I found it hard to absorb so much material, especially with my extremely limited exposure to programming.

I had the opportunity, as a result of this website, to do some technical reviewing of programming books for beginners and started to do this part-time. While I'm still a beginner at VB, some good writing skills and the little bit I did know have helped me to get additional books to review. I have slowly added web site promotion, some simple graphics and web site design, and additional publishers to the list. I became busy enough after 6 months working at both jobs to quit the university. This was a scary move but what has happened since has left me certain, that in my case at least, this was the right thing to do.

I expect to move to California in early 1999 and the fact that all my work is on the internet means I can take my job with me and begin working as soon as I get there -a big plus. We are also completing the adoption of our first child and expect to have him in our house by the end of November. Since I work from my home office this means that I will be able to help out and be involved in his care -another big plus.

Is there any message here? Well, for one you should definitely get a good education. In my case the injury was unexpected and essentially left me, 21 years after I graduated high-school, trying to learn new skills. While this has ended up being a blessing it has also been difficult on my wife and myself and a better education would have helped quite a bit. I also think that you shouldn't be afraid to dream; work hard at whatever you need to do to pay the bills but also be involved in things that expand your abilities and nurture your needs. Be sure to keep your focus on your family -no success in business can really make up for the heartache of a troubled home. Try to be aware of the needs of the people and community around you and help where you can.

If you are still reading, then I'll add what I consider an essential element of life -faith. I'm not talking fanaticism here, faith should be personal. It isn't something you beat people over the head with and it is not a philosophical discussion -it is something you live.