Ben Balbo was born in Germany, grew up in the UK, lives in Melbourne and likes Guinness.
While he isn’t drinking Guinness (which is most of the time in Melbourne, as it just doesn’t taste the same), he earns a living as a PHP trainer, security consultant and Open Source developer. He also drinks a fair amount of coffee.
He has been known to talk in public about web development related topics, which comes as part of the package of being on the committee of both the Melbourne PHP User Group and Open Source Developers’ Club. Although he wouldn’t admit this, his participation at this level is secretly only in order to go to restaurants or pubs after the meetings.
When he doesn’t work, Ben enjoys riding his motorbike and spending weekends in the bush. The latter is made even more enjoyable through the liberal lighting of camp fires, and the prerequisite chopping of wood with his shiny new chainsaw.