Hal Stern

Hal Stern dabbled in technical writing after discovering that Shakespeare, modern (but still dead) European writers and art history didn't stimulate any passion for a good nerd story. A breakfast meeting with Tim O'Reilly to discuss an idea for what became "Managing NFS & NIS" turned into nearly 20 years of books, articles, and tutorials. Every decade (give or take), Hal happens into some new technology area and becomes fascinated with its underpinnings: NFS in 1987, high availability in 1997, and WordPress in 2007. That's where the book ideas comes from. When not making his high school English teachers lament their wasted effort, Hal enjoys ice hockey, rollerblading, poker, yoga, photography, and heavy metal music.