The Spotlight is on Robert Mykland Leading author of our C++ technology questions.

RN: Please tell us a little about yourself.

MYKLAND: I am a high-technology entrepreneur these days. I sold a company I co-founded to Computer Associates a few years back, and currently I'm gathering seed money for my next venture by doing all kinds of fun things, including writing ReviewNet questions.

RN: What interested you in writing ReviewNet tests?

MYKLAND: I had never written questions professionally before, and I like trying new things. It was both harder and more rewarding than I thought it would be. I certainly learned some new things about C++ by writing the questions and in the ensuing spirited debates with ReviewNet's excellent reviewers. I didn't expect that.

RN:What did you enjoy most about writing your C++ test?

MYKLAND: After doing the research, there was the matter of turning this fairly dry material into real-world scenarios so that a candidate's judgement would really come into play. I enjoyed that the most.

RN: How did you first get involved in writing technical books?

MYKLAND: I hired and became friends with Art Dumas, who wrote the definitive book on WinSock some years ago, and I thought to myself, real people DO write books, don't they? After selling my company to Computer Associates, I was interested in writing a book about the application I contributed to, which is now called Jasmine ii. I found a literary agent, and although there were no takers for that book, I ended up writing a book for Osborne McGraw-Hill about another passion of mine, Palm OS programming.

RN: What do you feel is your biggest professional accomplishment?

MYKLAND: To date, as a businessman I would have to say selling a company to Computer Associates was a peak. I learned a lot doing that.

RN: Tell us about your latest book.

MYKLAND: Published by Osborne McGraw-Hill, it's called Palm OS Programming from the Ground Up. At 500 pages, it is written for people who know a little about C and want to start writing Palm OS applications quickly. It complements the documentation you can get for free from Palm Computing. So many technical books these days just rehash what you can get from the manuals, and no more understandably. My book goes step by step until you are able to go to the free manuals, documentation, and other free resources to proceed further.

RN: How do you keep up with changing technologies and the latest trends in the IT industry?

MYKLAND: I used to read over 20 periodicals a month. Now I get my information from web sites and mailing lists. The C++ newsgroups are great. Bjarne himself hangs out in there a lot.

RN: What advice would you give to someone learning your discipline? Are there significant barriers to learning about this subject?

MYKLAND: When I was a kid, it was easier to learn how to program. The first PCs all booted with BASIC. Nowadays, it is very hard to write a simple program for anything. In fact, I've found that writing little Palm OS applications is a good way to learn about programming. Also, Mindstorms Robotics Invention System (Lego robots) is a good way to get children interested. My daughter played with Mindstorms for a while, and currently she's writing simple Palm OS applications.

RN: What role does ReviewNet evaluations play in hiring IT professionals?

MYKLAND: As a manager, I have always found that administering tests to programmers is the only reliable way to measure their technical abilities. Hiring a programmer without administering such a test is like hiring a juggler without asking him to juggle. I've always written these tests myself, but now that I know about ReviewNet, it is better just to outsource with them and concentrate on what I do best.