In this week’s Peeps of the Web we talk with Rashid Muhammad, Systems Analyst for the Research Systems support group at Georgia State University. Rashid is an ASP/ASP.net enthusiast with a great insight on programming. We talk to Rashid about his start in web programming, choice of ASP instead of PHP. Enjoy!

(8:39:18 PM) Black Web 2.0: Ok well let’s start with an introduction
(8:39:26 PM) Black Web 2.0: Tell our readers a little about who you are.
(8:39:55 PM) Rashid: My name is Rashid Muhammad and I am a 31 year-old techno-politico geek from Atlanta Georgia.
(8:41:26 PM) Rashid: I currently work as a Systems Analyst for the Research Systems support group at Georgia State University.
(8:42:37 PM) Rashid: There was a point in time where the job required me to analyze disparate systems and write code to integrate their functionality, but nowadays I just sit in meetings 30 hours a week and stare into my monitor drooling for the other 10.
(8:44:05 PM) Rashid: I’m into web development professionally and as a hobby, and when I’m not doing that I am a big film buff, a baseball fan, and I enjoy cutting a little rug every now and then.
(8:44:25 PM) Black Web 2.0: lol
(8:44:29 PM) Rashid: I’m also obsessed with matters of international politics and development.
(8:44:43 PM) Rashid: oh and I’m a PC Gamer
(8:44:51 PM) Rashid: and I like to write
(8:45:08 PM) Rashid: and ride my motorcycle (when it works)
(8:45:01 PM) Black Web 2.0: So how did you get your start in Web Development?
(8:45:12 PM) Rashid: well
(8:45:35 PM) Rashid: I got into the web back in 1995 during my freshman year as a Computer Engineering major at Morehouse College
(8:46:01 PM) Rashid: I was taking these programming classes and they honestly bored me stuff.
(8:46:26 PM) Rashid: One day I was in the UNIX lab to do an assignment and I stumbled across this program called Netscape Navigator.
(8:46:52 PM) Rashid: I was hooked, shortly thereafter one of the upperclassmen gave me an HTML tutorial.
(8:47:15 PM) Rashid: It took about 5 minutes, back then you could just view source on any given page and learn all you needed to know
(8:47:47 PM) Rashid: I remember thinking to myself: “wow, it would be really cool if I could apply all of this boring programming stuff that I’m learning in class with this web thing”
(8:48:12 PM) Rashid: that was the beginning
(8:49:07 PM) Black Web 2.0: So after learning HTML what was your first web programming language?
(8:49:38 PM) Rashid: The first real platform that I used was ASP 2.0
(8:49:46 PM) Rashid: before that I messed with a few Perl scripts
(8:49:50 PM) Rashid: but nothing serious
(8:50:04 PM) Rashid: ASP 2.0 back in 1999 was the real beginning
(8:50:17 PM) Rashid: I had to write an inventory management app for my job.
(8:51:27 PM) Black Web 2.0: So is ASP still your weapon of choice?
(8:51:34 PM) Black Web 2.0: and if so why?
(8:51:42 PM) Rashid: ASP.NET yes.
(8:52:52 PM) Rashid: Well ASP.NET is a far cry from ASP. When .NET dropped back in 2002 or so I was actually on the brink of dropping ASP for PHP. I gave .NET a try though and the Object-Oriented model - along a stack much simpler than the dreadfully complex Java one - had me hooked.
(8:53:19 PM) Rashid: that should be: along with a stack much simpler than the dreadfully complex Java one
(8:54:24 PM) Black Web 2.0: So why not PHP?
(8:54:40 PM) Rashid: A few reasons
(8:57:09 PM) Rashid: First off, I had desktop and web apps that I had to work with and the .NET platform covered everything from web applications too console apps so it was a comprehensive solution.
(8:58:08 PM) Rashid: Secondly the ability to write modular OO code was plainly superior. OO in PHP sucked back in ‘02.
(8:58:29 PM) Black Web 2.0: yeah it’s come a long way sense then
(8:58:52 PM) Rashid: Lastly - a pet peeve, I just couldn’t stand the way that the functions in PHP were arranged. the lack of namespaces really stuck out in comparison to Java and .NET.
(8:59:00 PM) Rashid: It has indeed.
(8:59:16 PM) Rashid: I think that if I had to make the choice all over again it would be much more difficult.
(8:59:47 PM) Rashid: MySQL really left a lot to be desired back then too.
(8:59:59 PM) Rashid: No Stored Procedures or Triggers killed it for me.
(9:00:38 PM) Rashid: And that’s not a dig on these platforms, they were both designed to be fast and simple and that’s what they were. I just felt like I needed more than they offered at the time.
(9:01:06 PM) Rashid: And it might be hard to believe but I was a real open source enthusiast at the time.
(9:01:16 PM) Black Web 2.0: lol
(9:01:33 PM) Rashid: Still I needed to get the job done and my enthusiasm was tempered by practical concerns.
(9:01:47 PM) Rashid: heck I’m an open source enthusiast now.
(9:02:12 PM) Rashid: I spent a lot of years a soldier in the browser wars fighting on behalf of Netscape/Mozilla.
(9:02:55 PM) Black Web 2.0: Now that you’re a higher up how much coding do you get to do?
(9:04:28 PM) Rashid: Less than before as I have assistants that do the mundane heavy lifting these days, but I’m still responsible for the overall designs and architecture of the system so I end up writing a lot of reference implementations and optimizations.
(9:04:51 PM) Black Web 2.0: How about personal projects?
(9:06:04 PM) Rashid: Well, the big personal project that I’ve been working on is my own website. For years I’ve had this vision about expanding it beyond a simple weblog and using it as a hub for my entire life.
(9:07:36 PM) Rashid: With the last iteration of the site I built the foundations of an object model that could serve that end and I ended up using an enhanced version of that code to power the primary application that I maintain at work. With this iteration I’m bringing an even more refined version of that same platform from my work project.
(9:08:16 PM) Rashid: This way I can leverage the fact that I’m a geek at home to enhance my work, and use my work to enhance my at home geekery.
(9:08:32 PM) Black Web 2.0: lol
(9:08:55 PM) Rashid: At the end of the day they are all web applications and there are certain things that all web apps are going to need to do.
(9:09:36 PM) Black Web 2.0: any thought about making the project open source, and inviting other contributors to improve upon it?
(9:09:44 PM) Rashid: Absolutely
(9:10:09 PM) Rashid: but I don’t know if what I’ve done is really that novel on the market.
(9:11:14 PM) Rashid: Ultimately what I’ve built is an application framework but there are tons of those around written by much better programmers than myself.
(9:12:22 PM) Rashid: Also, I’d have to really clean things up and document them before I put the project out there. I
(9:12:58 PM) Rashid: I’m all for playing around and figuring things out, but I think my project brings enough to the table for people to want to go through all of that.
(9:13:06 PM) Rashid: I DON’T think
(9:13:20 PM) Black Web 2.0: So do you do any consulting work?
(9:15:24 PM) Rashid: I have, but I’ve cut back lately. I was at a point where I was just working too much and using that as an excuse to neglect the other parts of my life. Being a stereotypical nerd, it’s easy to feel detached from the world around you and bury your heard in your work - that one thing that truly understands you - to the exclusion of everything else.
(9:16:00 PM) Rashid: But I’ve really been trying to fill in those gaps that growing up as a social misfit left in my persona. So I had to chill with all of the side work.
(9:16:36 PM) Rashid: I can see it in the future though.
(9:17:27 PM) Black Web 2.0: Alright enough of the tech questions. Now it’s time for our readers to know you personally!
(9:17:34 PM) Rashid: let’s do it
(9:17:42 PM) Black Web 2.0: So let’s start with something easy.
(9:17:51 PM) Black Web 2.0: Talk about some of your daily reads
(9:17:58 PM) Rashid: hmmm.
(9:18:04 PM) Black Web 2.0: books, mags, blogs etc
(9:18:13 PM) Rashid: Well I read a lot of stuff
(9:18:40 PM) Rashid: As Magazines go, I’m a big fan of Wired, The Economist, and The American Conservative
(9:19:04 PM) Rashid: as far as books go, I’m big on Economics and Public Policy books
(9:19:15 PM) Rashid: I’m a huge fan of Thomas Sowell
(9:20:23 PM) Rashid: Right now I’m reading Medical Apartheid by Harriet Washington, Women Race and Class by Angela Davis, and The History of the World by J.M. Roberts
(9:20:45 PM) Rashid: also A Matter for Men by David Gerrold
(9:20:52 PM) Rashid: that’s a softer Sci Fi book
(9:21:01 PM) Rashid: blogs
(9:21:09 PM) Rashid: lately I’ve kind of been slacking
(9:21:37 PM) Rashid: Malik Nash’s The Unbound Movement was one of my faves but it seems to be on Hiatus
(9:21:57 PM) Rashid: so I have a list of maybe 30 or so that I ping every now and then to see what’s up
(9:22:18 PM) Rashid: but lately I haven’t been reading much outside of politico and the like.
(9:22:39 PM) Black Web 2.0: So how about music. Who are your top 5 artist?
(9:23:10 PM) Rashid: jeez man… you could ask me this question five days in a row and get five different answer
(9:23:22 PM) Rashid: answers too
(9:23:32 PM) Rashid: ok let’s see here
(9:23:34 PM) Black Web 2.0: lol
(9:23:35 PM) Rashid: Black Sabbath
(9:23:42 PM) Black Web 2.0: wow Black Sabbath
(9:23:47 PM) Black Web 2.0: I didn’t see that coming
(9:23:52 PM) Rashid: oh man
(9:24:03 PM) Rashid: Paranoid might just be my favorite album ever
(9:23:49 PM) Rashid: De La Soul
(9:25:09 PM) Rashid: I’m really into Massive Attack - at least the version of the group starting with the Mezzanine album
(9:25:26 PM) Rashid: I’m a huge fan of Del the Funkee Homosapien
(9:25:44 PM) Rashid: and Prince
(9:25:53 PM) Rashid: gotta throw some Prince up in there
(9:25:59 PM) Black Web 2.0: lol
(9:26:07 PM) Black Web 2.0: who doesn’t like Prince
(9:26:07 PM) Black Web 2.0: lol
(9:26:14 PM) Rashid: is that too easy?
(9:26:17 PM) Rashid: ok
(9:26:28 PM) Rashid: how about John Williams
(9:26:35 PM) Black Web 2.0: Who?
(9:26:37 PM) Black Web 2.0: lol
(9:26:37 PM) Rashid: that’s easy too, but he’s the man
(9:26:40 PM) Rashid: John Williams
(9:26:44 PM) Rashid: the movie score guy
(9:27:10 PM) Black Web 2.0: not really a movie score kinda guy
(9:27:16 PM) Rashid: mannnn
(9:27:21 PM) Rashid: Star Wars???
(9:27:28 PM) Black Web 2.0: oh ok Star Wars
(9:27:30 PM) Black Web 2.0: say no more
(9:27:31 PM) Black Web 2.0: lol
(9:27:32 PM) Rashid: Jaws???
(9:27:46 PM) Rashid: Superman???
(9:27:49 PM) Rashid: ok
(9:27:56 PM) Black Web 2.0: I don’t think I ever knew his  name
(9:27:56 PM) Black Web 2.0: lol
(9:27:58 PM) Rashid: yeah
(9:28:06 PM) Rashid: he puts it down brother.
(9:28:38 PM) Black Web 2.0: Ok Final Question..
(9:29:43 PM) Black Web 2.0: This year’s World Series Champion?
(9:29:52 PM) Rashid: man
(9:29:55 PM) Black Web 2.0: had to make it tough
(9:29:55 PM) Black Web 2.0: lol
(9:30:04 PM) Rashid: It won’t be the Braves so I’m a little indifferent
(9:30:07 PM) Rashid: but I gotta tell you
(9:30:19 PM) Rashid: I was at Wrigleyville in Chicago earlier this year
(9:30:31 PM) Rashid: Where I saw the Cubs whip up on the Braves
(9:30:48 PM) Rashid: I’ve never had so much fun at a baseball park and afterwards in my life
(9:30:58 PM) Rashid: it’s been 100 years since the Cubs took it home
(9:31:02 PM) Rashid: Go Cubbies!
(9:32:15 PM) Black Web 2.0: that’s a big prediction and once its posted its written in stone. We will check back later to see if you’re right.
(9:32:21 PM) Black Web 2.0: Thanks for talking to us.
(9:32:25 PM) Rashid: my pleasure