Michael Toppa

My personal web site - toppa.com - has blog posts about web development, especially WordPress and Agile techniques; my family's adventures and my various home improvement projects; and our travels, especially in Japan.

I’ve been developing web applications since the days of Mosaic and HTML 1.0, when web pages were painted on cave walls using bison blood. I’m a Rails engineer for ElectNext. I was previously Director of the Web Applications team at Penn’s School of Medicine, and have also worked at WebDevStudios, Stanford’s HighWire Press, Ask Jeeves, E-Trade, and Georgetown’s IS. For a year I ran my own business, Kai's Candy Company. I’ve also tried my hand at being a construction worker, DJ, political scientist (I was ABD for a political science PhD), community college teacher, surfer, and gearhead. So I’m sort of like all the Village People rolled into one… but not really.

toppa.com has been my personal site since 1998, and has over 800 blog posts. Go to the About page on my site for links to some of my best posts.