About the Reviewers
Christopher Bartling has been in the IT industry since 1995. He has served in the roles of application developer, mentor, and agile coach. He also has experience in biometrics, genomics and computational biology, healthcare, insurance, and legal/regulatory domains. He also helps develop and deliver training for DevJam (http://www.devjam.com). Prior to his career in IT, he was involved in electrophysiology and biomedical research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota. You can find his blog at http://bartling.blogspot.com and tweets at @cbartling.
Efraim Kyriakidis is a skilled software engineer with over seven years of experience in developing and delivering software solutions for diverse customers. He's well versed in all stages of the software development lifecycle. His first acquaintance with computers and programming was a state-of-the-art Commodore 64, back in the '80s as a kid. Since then he has grown and received his Diploma in Electrotechnic Engineering from Aristotle University, Thessaloniki. Through his career, he mainly worked with Microsoft Technologies and has an interest in technologies such as Silverlight and Windows Phone. He currently works for Siemens AG in Germany as a Software Developer.
Kosmas Mackrogamvrakis was born in 1971 on the island of Crete in Greece. He moved at an early age to the capital of Greece, Athens. There he attended public school and graduated as an engineer in Automatic Electronics. Later, he continued his studies at the Technical School of Computers in Athens, but he was forced to interrupt, as he was obliged to join the army.
In the army he served as a Sergeant in the artillery section and trained in computer-guided canon targeting, based on his previous knowledge of computer technology.
Even before high school, he was highly interested in computer science, and he managed to learn Basic, Pascal, and Assembly language.
After his army obligations, he was employed by Athens News Agency, where he worked as a technician and desktop-publishing employee. There he was trained by Unibrain, in Ventura Publishing software, Photoshop, and Corel Draw. In parallel, he installed a Fax distribution network with Canada, for redistribution of a FAX newspaper.
After three years he moved to Hellenic Scientific S.A., as a technician. There he managed to get trained and show his natural talent in computer engineering. He was trained on the job and successfully undertook all the responsibilities of a Senior Systems Engineer after six years, and learned and used the following operating systems and software and services: Microsoft Windows 98/2000/XP/Vista, Microsoft Windows Server NT/2000/2003, Novel, Unix/Xenix, Mac OS/X, Linux, AIX, AS/400; Networks including WAN/LAN Protocols, TCP/IP, DNS, FTP, HTTP, IMAP/POP3, SMTP, VPN; E-mail systems Sendmail, Microsoft Exchange, Postfix, and clients such as Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, Kmail, and Evolution. He specialized in the hardware of IBM, HP, Dell, Fujitsu Servers, Desktops, and Notebooks.
He got certifications on Exchange Server from Microsoft, AIX from IBM, Tivoli IT Director from IBM, and AS/400 from IBM.
After seven years, and due to market needs and degradation of the company's share in the market, he moved to freelancing.
As a freelancer, he supported a large number of small-to medium-sized companies, as systems engineer, consultant, and technician.
Some of the companies that he was supporting included Rothmans, Adidas, Kraft Hellas, Vivechrom (Akzo), Public Sector (ministries and prefectures), Pan Systems.
After seven years of freelancing, he was asked by Siemens to undertake the position of Systems Engineer for the public sector and later Project Manager.
After three years in Siemens, the public sector IT support stopped in Greece, and he left the company.
Lately, and right after Siemens, he undertook the position of IT Services Manager for southeast Europe in Adidas.
Lefteris Ntouanoglou is a co-founder and the CEO of Schoox Inc, a Delaware company based in Austin, Texas, which developed schooX—a Social Academy for Self-learners (www.schoox.com). He has extensive administrative and management experience in the software sector. Prior to Schoox Inc, he joined a European startup company, OTS SA, which developed administrative and financial software for the Public Sector. He served the company from a various number of managerial positions and as the COO of the company he built one of the largest software companies in Greece.
During his PhD, he developed computer algorithms for fast computation of holographic patterns and graduated with Honor. In 1998, he was praised with the Award of Innovation from the Association of Holographic Techniques in Germany for inventing and implementing an innovative anticounterfeiting system based on a coded Holographic Label and a Web Application.
He is a highly skilled engineer and a visionary entrepreneur. Creativity and innovative thinking is part of his personality. Implementing new ideas and turning them into successful business by building and motivating strong and result-oriented teams is one of his strengths.
He was born and grew up in Germany and speaks fluent Greek, German, and English.
