Benjamin Finkel has had his hands on a keyboard since his father brought home the original Compaq portable when he was just four years old. He began professional consulting in 1997 directly out of high school. Ben spent the next 17 years developing and supporting systems in a wide variety of industries, from health care to finance to medical research, before becoming a full-time trainer with CBT Nuggets. Today he lives near Niagara Falls, New York, with his wife and two children. When he’s not busy learning about the next big thing in IT, he enjoys snowboarding, reading, and dissuading his wife from adopting yet another cat.