Ben Dechrai

Introduced to computing at a relatively early age, Ben was hacking at on Amstrad CPC6128 and no-name 286 computers by the age of 9, and his passion for bending a computer's will to his own has stayed with him ever since. After graduating from University in 1999, he followed a career in software engineering, with a focus on web technologies.

While Ben only has one major publication to his name at present, his desire to share and teach started a few years after entering the industry when he became heavily involved in the open source community. He has held the positions of president of his local PHP Users Group, vice president of the Linux Users of Victoria, and treasurer of the Open Source Developers' Club. Ben has also organised a number of conferences focussing on open source, and as a traveled presenter, he also enjoys talking to audiences around the world on a diverse range of topics.

Note: Ben has changed his name a few times, which is why it doesn't match the name on the book.