Michael Mahemoff is a hands-on software consultant and the founder of AjaxPatterns.org, an Ajax design reference soon to be published as "Ajax Design Patterns" (O'Reilly) and the creator of the corresponding Ajax Demos. Java/J2EE has been the dominant programming platform in his career and many roles have involved straight-out coding with user-centered design and agile mentoring. Michael's most recent consulting work has been in London's financial sector, developing front-end trading systems on a web platform. Personal projects have used Ruby, PHP, and plain-old Bash. His blog and podcast covers a mix of Ajax, agile, programming, and the occasional usability rant. Building on psychology and software engineering degrees, he completed a PhD on design patterns for usability in 2001.