Software engineer with a strong background in ground segment and mission control systems for the European space industry. Highly experienced in backend web development, specifically in Drupal. Expert in Portuguese genealogy, even if I keep learning every day. Oh, and also a scuba instructor.
I am a father of two amazing young men (Leonardo and Rafael - named after the Renaissance artists, not the TMNT cartoons!), and husband to Alexandra.
Away from work, I enjoy exploring places unknown to me, especially if they are places full of culture. In the winter, I enjoy skiing in the Alps. When it is warmer, I spend a lot of time scuba diving.
At home, I enjoy sci-fi either as books or TV shows, and playing video games. I am a collector of retro computers, especially the ones I had in my teenage years: the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and the Atari ST. Also, I am an avid genealogist, enjoying my family history research and enhancing tombo.pt, a site I built to facilitate access to Portuguese parish records.
Back in November 1987 I participated and won a video-gaming competition that was held in my hometown of Faro, Portugal. The tournament was held in knockout format, using ZX Spectrum games, some of which were Bomb-Jack, Exolon and Ms. Pac-Man (which was used in the first leg and in the 2 finals). I won a Timex TC 2048 computer which I traded up for a brand-new ZX Spectrum 128K +2.
The following news clip was transmitted on SIC on 2008-03-07 at around 20:42 local time (UTC+0). SIC is one of the three national broadcasters in Portugal, and this news piece is about Portuguese working in Spain. This was the last of 5 similar clips transmitted that week in the run-up to the 2008 Spanish General elections.