The author of our Microsoft Access test. Peter is also the author of Microsoft Access Fundamentals, Visual Basic 5 Programming Explorer, Teach Yourself C in 21 Days, and over 20 other books on computer programming and applications.

The Spotlight is on Peter Aitken The author of our Microsoft Access test. Click here to visit his Visual Basic web page.

RN: Please tell us a little about yourself.

Peter: I have been writing about computers and software for over 12 years, with over 100 magazine articles and 25 books to my credit. For the past 5 or 6 years I have specialized in Visual Basic technologies because I think that this is one of the most accessible and powerful tools available for Windows development. I regularly write the "Basically Visual" column for Visual Developer magazine.

RN: What interested you in writing ReviewNet tests?

Peter: I believe that objective evaluation of IT professions is becoming more and more important, and by writing a test I was able to help shape the way such evaluations are done.

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

Peter: When the IBM PC first came out I promised my boss that if he bought one I could program it to perform some data analysis tasks that we needed to automate. I was soon approached by a magazine editor to write an article on the topic of using the PC for data analysis, and from magazine writing I naturally branched out into books.

RN: Outside of working with ReviewNet, what do you feel is your biggest professional accomplishment?

Peter: To have over a million and a half copies of my books in print.

RN: Tell us about your latest book.

Peter: My most recent book is "Teach Yourself Internet Programming With Visual Basic 6 in 21 Days," published by Sams. While the Internet and Web development remain hot topics, many people do not realize what powerful Internet programming tools are provided by Visual Basic. In my book I explain these various tools and show readers how to use them.

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

Peter: Being a successful Visual Basic developer does not require the IQ of an Einstein, but it does require a lot of hard work and attention to detail. Most important, you need to know your tool (Visual Basic) inside and out.