About Me

The founder of kingsnake.com, Jeff Barringer is a
former webmaster and international network engineer for Compaq Computers
(now H-P) Networking Products Division, where he helped design and develop
some of the computer giant's first websites. Jeff also provided network
training and consulting services to Fortune 500 companies and government
agencies, such as the NSC/NSA under the Clinton administration and U.S.Army
Special Operations Command out of Fort Bragg prior to their first deployment
to Bosnia.

In 1994, while still employed by Compaq, Jeff, an avid field herpetologist,
launched an internet technology demonstrator called The Alterna Page, which
is recognized today as one of the first pet-oriented websites on the
internet. Based on the popularity of this test site, in 1997 Jeff left
Compaq and with little more than his last paycheck launched what turned out
to be one of the most successful pet communities on the internet,
kingsnake.com. Now averaging over 250 million page views per year,
kingsnake.com provided the basis for incorporation and expansion and in 1999
OnlineHobbyist.com, Inc. was formed and launched the
PetHobbyist community system.

OnlineHobbyist.com, Inc., a C Corporation, has over 120 employees,
contractors, and volunteers that design, maintain, and moderate the hardware
and software systems used by the community sites, as well as sites hosted
for commercial clients. The privately owned company has received virtually
no investment capital, and has built itself based on the revenues generated
by its 5000+ clients. OnlineHobbyist owns its own server farm, consisting of
over a dozen rack mounted Dell servers, co-located at PrismNet's facility in
Austin, Texas and writes the majority of the software used by its sites
in-house.

Jeff is still a member of the hands-on team that operates the site and can
sometimes be found on the sites' chat rooms or messages boards, as well as
answering sales and marketing questions, and is often seen representing the
company at pet and internet trade shows, symposiums and meetings.

A frequent public speaker at expos and conferences, Jeff has been
interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Smart Partner Magazine, and the
Austin American Statesman, as well as many other trade oriented journals and
magazines. Jeff serves as an advisor on the online pet industry to the Pet
Industry Joint Advisory Council (PIJAC) and the International Herpetological
Symposium (IHS), as well as acting as a consultant to the USDA Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service.

Jeff works and writes from his small farm located outside Georgetown, Texas
where he lives with his two rescue dogs, Sasha and Gus, his parrot Bob, as
well as his reef and river aquariums, and sulcata tortoises Slow and Steady.

Jeff cooks a mean pepper steak and is currently experimenting with Indian
food.