winJade found its start in 2004 under the name “AeroXperience” as a home to modders, tweakers, and coders who were all interested in unlocking the full potential of Windows Code Name Longhorn. Since then, we’ve ballooned to something much more than a small community, though we still carry that tightly-knit feel from our roots despite having a readership well over 150,000 per month. winJade launched as a re-envisioning of AeroXperience on November 17, 2009.
Now, winJade is a Windows enthusiast blog and community devoted to bringing you tips, tricks, news and opinions relevant to you, Microsoft, and the way you use Microsoft’s technologies in your daily life. In addition, the community (still in development) will be home to a number of user-led Windows projects. On occasion, we will feature projects with high potential on the winJade front page for everyone to see.
We have a fantastic crowd of dedicated experts, enthusiasts, and members here for you guys to get help from, collaborate with, or just to talk to. The blog is open to our experts’ vagrant thoughts on Microsoft’s current and upcoming technologies, which means you’ll likely find anything on the front page so long as it relates to Microsoft. Meanwhile, you can find a wide variety of topics covered on our forums, from mods and skinning (both XP and Vista) to tips and tricks to developer secrets and even troubleshooting advice.
Below, you’ll find quick bios of our expert front page bloggers.
Devin
I’m a 16 year old student from Pittsburgh, PA who loves technology. I’m undoubtably the youngest blogger at winJade, so it is a great honor to be able to be a blogger on this great site! My age is also the reason I don’t have a last name, if you were wondering.
I’ve been involved with technology since playing around with Windows 95 way back over 10 years ago. Today, I can be found browsing sites like winJade, contributing and sharing my knowledge and insight with others, as well as learning new things. I partnered with a friend last year to take on a whole new project – opening a software company. I hope to see more success with that project in the future, as well as continuing my education with a degree in meteorology from Penn State.
Maurice Wahba
Now that you know my name, a couple of tidbits about myself follow. Since I was young I always had in interest in computers and other technology. I have been a member of the winJade community since 2005, around a year after starting to follow the development process of Longhorn, which originally got me in-depth into Microsoft products. I am also a graphic designer (but don’t call me an artist) and, along similar lines, I also develop websites.
I find that an opinion is a powerful piece of work that should not be taken for granted, which is why I’m glad to have the chance to write for AeroXP.
winJade also has a very dedicated group of staff members who strive to maintain and improve the site for the community. The staff bios are below:
Tony Marcelli
My life can be summed up in Denny Crane quotes: Big star. I blow solar flares out of my ass. My poop doesn’t smell. Comes out in pretty colors, pastels. I’ve often found that it’s the chubby girls who offend most easily. I’m an ex-marine. I was a trained sniper, or was it a pilot? Do you think it’s a sign of Alzheimer’s if you can’t remember how many people you’ve shot? Lock and load!
Sam Haghgoo
As you can see from the maroon text right above this, my name is Sam Haghgoo and I live in Phoenix, Arizona. I joined the winJade community in December of 2005 and later became a member of the staff in July 2006. Since I was three years old I’ve always had an interest in computers and technology because of my father. With the introduction of Windows Longhorn my facination of Microsoft Betas has evolved to put me where I am today: a Microsoft beta tester. I’m proud to be a member of the winJade community and enjoy dedicating a portion of my time to it.
Sam Johnson
I am a photographer, graphic artist, web designer, and skinner (”skinning” is changing the look of the user interface of your computer) from Maine. Yes, we have running water.
I have received over 200,000 downloads of my work and am also skilled in coding W3C-compliant web pages. I did all of the AXPv5 HTML and CSS styling work (I am fluent in XHTML, CSS and PHP.)
My favorite foods are pizza, quesadillas, barbecue anything, and just about any variety of chocolate as long as it doesn’t have nuts. (Snickers are great though, and no, I didn’t get paid to say that.)
Finally, this site couldn’t be possible without the help from the administrative staff as well as the chief editor for winJade. These are the people who started it all and who spent the time and effort encouraging the growth of the community. These are the people who led the site to where it is today:
Victor Mach
Founder of AeroXperience since 2004 and Administrator of winJade since 2009, Victor Mach is a first-year student at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL, and is a Finance major. He graduted from Forest Hill Community High School in West Palm Beach, FL, and lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for four years. His interests range widely from information technology and everything from hardware, software, to networking, as well as topics in politics and economics, his true professional passion. Some of the books you’ll see him reading are Bill Kibbet’s “Deep Economy” and Patricia Beard’s “Blue Blood & Mutiny”.
Stanimir Stoyanov
My name is Stanimir Stoyanov and I co-founded winJade with Bryant Zadegan. Based in Bulgaria, I am a software developer with years’ worth of experience which helped shape AeroXperience when we first started releasing programs for Windows “Longhorn” and subsequently, Vista.
My interests? Besides technology, I am an avid music listener – I like house and rock music in particular, and prefer to spend time with my friends. Last but not least, I am proud to take a leading part in the ever-growing community of AeroXperience.
Bryant Zadegan
My name is Bryant Zadegan. I founded winJade in November 2009 after having been with AeroXperience as a staff member since August of 2005. As part of my efforts to bring quality content into immediate view, I attended a number of events on behalf of AeroXperience and winJade for the sole purpose of bringing valuable content to the esteemed membership of the community. I’m currently MCSA certified, and I bring with me many years of experience with Microsoft’s Windows client and server technologies to the table.
As the founder and chief editor for one of the best Microsoft Enthusiast sites around, I proudly welcome you to winJade. Thank you for taking the time to find out more about the people who devote their time to bring you what you want to know.
We grow based on your suggestions. If you have any questions, comments, constructive complaints, or suggestions which could help us better serve the Microsoft community, please feel free to send them to us via the contact form below. Depending on the nature of what you send, one of us will get back to you as soon as we can.
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