Tom on the web ...

Master Datasmith?

Well, I could style myself a data analyst/systems integrator/reporting analyst/DBA/business analyst/programmer but I'd end up all /'d out. I hope the term datasmith conveys the craft nature of my work with data, for it is a craft that I'm particularly good at (hence the master adjective) and also take great pride in. Read more ...

Gobán Saor

The (or more correctly An) Gobán Saor was a stone mason (or sometimes a black smith) who according to Irish mythology by virtue of his craft (building castles, moving mountains, that sort of thing) was able to live a free life moving from commission to commission and from royal court to royal court.

My father who came from a long line of stone masons and master builders, told me many of these stories and also used to take me to a magical island in our local bogland that he called the Gobán Saor’s island. (Now better known as the discovery place of the Derrynaflan Chalice ). Continuing in the tradition of freelance craftsman (data mason rather than stone mason) I’ve used gobansaor as my nom de plume in forums, online apps etc. over the years, partially to keep a tradition alive but to be honest usually because I’m sure nobody else will have taken the name already :-)

Update

posted 13 Oct 2010 02:52 by Tom Gleeson
News: 

xLite functionality to be merged into microETL, offering both 64bit & 32bit support plus a host of new features see http://blog.gobansaor.com/2010/10/12/manipulating-excel-tables-with-sql/