My name on passport is Stefano, yet most people know me as Steve. I was born in Trieste (Italy) and spent most of my life in Friuli, a beautiful Italian region outside the beaten path in Northern Italy.
I graduated in Computer Science from the University of Udine in 2004 and received my Master in Computer Science from the same institution in 2008. My main professional interests are Software Engineering as well as Service and User Experience Design. I’m one of the co-founders and managing partners of Italian company MV Labs.
My interest in IT started in 1986 with an Amiga 500. Before high school was over, I was taking care of a few FreeBSD, Red Hat and Solaris boxes. It didn’t take long before I started getting interested in coding, software engineering, non-relational databases and distributed systems. I’ve worked in scientific and enterprise environments for a few years, dealing in projects involving complanies such as Nestlé, Siemens and British Telecom. I finally switched my main attention towards User Experience design around 2008, as I stepped into the “Don’t Make Me Think” masterpiece by Steve Krug.
I live with my significant other Silvia, and our two kids in Codroipo, an Italian town not too far from beautiful Venice.
Random facts
- In my spare time I enjoy traveling, learning foreign languages, experimenting foreign cultures, cuisine and awkward activities. I’ve always been a poor basketball and baseball player. The court and the field have always been fun nevertheless.
- I love hawaiian shirts. I own way too many of them.
- I once swam along a manta ray and distant enough from a shark in Australia; and close to a bunch of peaceful sea turtles in Bardbados.
- At home we do use (Canadian) English as our everyday language. Hopefully kids will be fluent as they grow up. In my 20s I have spent a few months in English speaking areas such as Australia, Alberta (Canada), Scotland and the United States. I’m 100% Italian, though (a question I get asked quite often).
- My favourite pet is the pond slider (Trachemys scripta).
- I wrote my first software (a simple filesystem organizder) using the Pascal language in 1995, at 16. My first web snippet has been a PHP/FI script, a couple of years later.
- Most influential books in my career have been: Don’t Make me Think, Code Complete 2, Peopleware, The Mythical Man Month, the Pragmatic Programmer.
- In my life I’ve visited 34 countries: Australia, Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Bosnia Herzegovina, B.V.I., Canada, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Grenada, India, Ireland, Malta, Portugal, Puerto Rico, San Marino, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, The Nethderlands, The United Kingdom, The United States of America, Turkey, U.S.V.I.; looking forward to see this number growing.
- While in India, I’ve had a chance to met Ramalinga Raju. That was before the scandal
- Good luck figuring out whether I do use any of the information above to build up my passwords. Or not.
I am an avid reader who loves to share knowledge. If you wish to contribute on a virtuous cycle or simply feel like you want to make me a present, you might want to check out my Amazon Wish List(s).